Landscape planning for protected areas in the Savegre River watershed, Costa Rica

Protected areas often are designed in an opportunistic fashion in isolation from surrounding environments and human activities and without proper scientific study that create boundaries without ecological consideration. A holistic ecosystems approach that regards humans as part of the larger ecosystem is widely recognized in conservation planning as a necessity for the long-term survival of protected areas. A conservation suitability analysis adapted from WWF-Canada was applied to examine the feasibility of establishing new protected areas in the Savegre River watershed in Costa Rica through the analyses of available biophysical and socio-economic data, applied conservation planning principles and reserve design criteria. Three themes were applied—heterogeneity of landforms, ecological integrity and conservation values—and analysed in ArcView 3.2, Spatial Analyst to determine areas of high conservation value. Socio-economic constraints were layered to determine constraints for protection and proposed new protected areas were finally identified using reserve design criteria.