Why Costa Rica Real Estate?
Nature
Diversity
Weighing in at about 0.9 West Virginias, Costa Rica features greater biodiversity than Europe or North America combined! Pound for pound the most biodiverse region in the world! How can this be? Costa Rica is located between North and South America, enabling plants and animals from both continents and the Caribbean Islands to establish a home. Costa Rica's tropical environment and ecological makeup, that consist of a variety of unique habitats: lowland rainforests and mountainous cloud forests, to mountain lakes and tropical rivers. Costa Rica is home to numerous national parks and wildlife preserves that host a extensive array of birds, mammals, reptiles and rain-forest flora and fauna. The biodiversity among birds alone is astronomical. There are over one thousand species of birds in this small country. Almost 30% of Costa Rican land has been reserved as protected environments, earning Costa Rica a reputation as a leader in ecotourism and environmental conservation in the region.
Costa Rica hosts over 9000 recognized species of vascular plants, including over 900 unique species of trees, and more are registered each and every day. Unique groups include sub-alpine dwarf vegetation, rainforest flora from sea level to could forest to mangrove swamps and seasonal dry forest with its deciduous trees. Within the cloud forests like Monteverde, plants proliferate and have adapted to derive moisture directly from the cloudy mist. These forests are the major source for fresh water in Costa Rica
Epiphytes, plants that live on trees in order to see sunlight, also flourish in these forests, and compliment the water retaining potential of the trees. The epiphytes are not parasites, but rather a symbiotic partner for they feed on water, minerals and nutrients which amass around their roots.
Costa Rica has over 1,500 species of orchids. Costa Rica provides much of the world's supply of orchids. Costa Rica is also home to over 200 types of bromeliads. The epiphytes, tree tops and vines create a canopy that conserve the wetness and mist within the jungle, and provide a home for an ecosystem of small animals and insects that live their whole lives in the canopy, never touching the ground. The cloud and rainforests of Costa Rica encompass some of the planet's most intricate ecosystems.
Guanacaste hosts seasonal dry forests with their own unique blend of flora. The hallmarks of these habitats are huge, deciduous trees that bloom magnificently at the commencement of the dry season. The forests are painted with white, pink, orange, scarlet, yellow and purple blooms. Other plants flower during the rainy season, supporting a different mix of pollinating birds and insects.
The diversity within the Pacific swampland is extensive as well. Here are six different species of mangroves, four species of monkeys and thousands of other recognized species. In combination with marine flora and fauna, they form their own diverse ecosystem.
Other unique features of Costa Rica include the whales and dolphins of the Pacific Ocean, the river mouth crocodiles, the jungle cats, toucans and monkeys in the mountainous rainforests, the turtle breeding beaches and hundreds of herbal flora and fauna, used for medicinal and sustenance purposes, growing throughout the country.