Palo Verde National Park (in Spanish, Parque Nacional Palo Verde) is a national park in Costa Rica. It is part of the Arenal Tempisque Conservation Area and includes much of the area around the Tempisque River. The park covers 18,400 hectares (45,000 acres) in Guanacaste Province. It is located approximately 30 kilometers west of Canas.

Environment

The park helps protect one of the most endangered ecosystems on Earth. It is one of the last remaining tropical dry rainforests, which once covered much of Central America. These rainforests now cover less than 0.1% of their original area and are among the most threatened ecosystems in tropical regions. The area around the park is mostly tropical dry forest, and the park focuses on protecting important habitats such as floodplains, marshes, limestone ridges, and seasonal pools from the spread of human development, which was harming the local environment.

A key feature of the park is the large number and variety of bird species. This diversity played a major role in establishing the reserve, partly because the area has many different types of land areas, including evergreen forests and mangrove swamps. The park has been named an Important Bird Area (IBA) by BirdLife International. Birds often seen in the park include great curassows, scarlet macaws, white ibis, roseate spoonbills, anhingas, jabirus, and wood storks.

During the dry season, water is limited in other parts of the country. Because of this, many birds travel to the park and its river basin. Parajos Island, located in the middle of the Tempisque River, is a popular spot for birdwatching. This island is the largest nesting area for black-crowned night-herons in Costa Rica.

History

Palo Verde National Park became a wildlife refuge in the 1970s because more than 60 bird species used the laguna, or wetland, as a place to rest during their migration. In the dry season, there were about 35,000 black bellied whistling ducks, 25,000 blue winged teal, and hundreds of other migrating ducks. Later, the park became a national park and was managed by the government agency MINAE (Ministry of Environment, Energy and Telecommunications). In the 1990s, the park was added to the Ramsar list of important wetlands and also to the Montreux Record.

Access

The park has a ranger station that is open to visitors from 8 a.m. until sunset. Drinking water and restrooms are available there. The Palo Verde Biological Station is located on the park's grounds and is managed by the Organization for Tropical Studies.