Cocos Marine Conservation Area (Costa Rica)

Cocos Marine Conservation Area

In December 2021, Costa Rica President Carlos Alvarado fulfilled his government’s promise to protect thirty percent of its ocean territory by dramatically expanding the Cocos Marine Conservation Area in the Pacific Ocean. Through a Presidential decree, the Cocos Island National Park grew from 2,034 square kilometers to 54,844 square kilometers, while the Bicentennial Seamounts Marine Management Area was expanded from 9,640 square kilometers to 106,285 square kilometers. Together, 149,455 square kilometers of Costa Rica’s marine territory received new protections, bringing Costa Rica from three percent of its ocean territory under permanent protection to thirty-one percent at the time of the area’s expansion.

Cocos Island and the marine seamounts that surround it are a lynchpin in the Eastern Tropical Pacific Seascape, extending from Costa Rica to Ecuador. This region has the highest rates of unique species in the world thanks to the convergence of multiple marine currents and diverse geological history. The extraordinary biodiversity has long been recognized: four islands have UNESCO World Heritage site status, there are more than eighty established coastal and marine conservation areas in the region, and scientific research shows that the area contains more than ninety percent of all coral reefs in the Eastern Pacific. The region’s celebrated biodiversity also includes seabird and marine mammal species, which depend upon the highly productive and functional marine and terrestrial ecosystems.

This remarkable conservation success was the result of years of work by the Government of Costa Rica, in partnership with Friends of Cocos Island and other conservation partners including National Geographic Pristine Seas, Blue Nature Alliance, Mission Blue, Waitt Foundation, and the Pew Bertarelli Ocean Legacy. The Wyss Foundation provided a $250,000 grant to Friends of Cocos Island to support the scientific, technical, and public consultation steps required to support the expansion of the Cocos Marine Conservation Area. Friends of Cocos Island and its partners work to ensure the effective implementation of these marine protected areas, and to support transboundary coordination with Costa Rica’s neighbors.

As Costa Rica joins its neighbor Panama in protecting thirty percent of its ocean, it also provides a model for the planet as nations work together to safeguard biodiversity and meet the global goal to protect thirty percent of the planet's surface by 2030. By protecting one of the most biologically important ocean areas on Earth, Costa Rica and Panama are delivering on their promises to connect the dots with their neighbors to conserve this ecologically and economically significant marine corridor that supports robust marine biodiversity and thriving human communities.