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PROJECT
SUMMARY
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Central
American Project for Geographic Information
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COSTA
RICA
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A GIS
Analysis of Population and Agricultural Pressures
on the Protected Areas
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and
Conservation Areas System
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1. Participating
Institutions
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| The
following government institutions are the participating
groups in the Central American Project for Geographic
Information (known as PROCIG for its abbreviation
in Spanish) for Costa Rica: the Ministry of Environment
and Energy (MINAE, in Spanish), the Ministry of Agriculture
and Livestock Farming (MAG, in Spanish), the National
Institute of Census and Statistics (INEC, in Spanish),
and the National Geographic Institute (IGN, in Spanish).
A GIS Assistant was hired for the project by the International
Center for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT, in Spanish)
to assist in the analysis and work between the four
participating institutions. Below is the contact information
for the participants: |
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| Ministry
of Agriculture and Livestock Farming |
| Ministerio
de Agricultura y Ganadería (MAG) |
| Participant:
Rodolfo Méndez Chinchilla |
| Address:
Ministerio de Agricultura y Ganadería |
| Dirección
de Investigaciones |
| Departamento
de Suelos y Evaluación de Tierras |
| Apdo.
10094-1000 San José, Costa Rica |
| Email:
rmendez@ns.mag.go.cr |
| Tel:
(506) 231-2344 ext.325 , 296-2586 |
| Fax:
(506) 232-7166 |
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| Ministry
of Environment and Energy |
| Ministerio
del Ambiente y Energía (MINAE) |
| National
System of Conservation Areas |
| Sistema
Nacional de Áreas de Conservación (SINAC) |
| Participant:
Francisco Javier González Salas |
| Address:
Sistema Nacional de Áreas de Conservación |
| 250
metros Sur de la Casa Italia |
| Apdo.
10104-1000 San José, Costa Rica |
| Email:
fgsalas@ns.minae.go.cr |
| Tel:
(506) 283-8004 ext.130 |
| Fax:
(506) 283-7343 |
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| National
Institute of Census and Statistics |
| Instituto
Nacional de Estadísticas y Censos (INEC) |
| Participant:
Roger Gutiérrez Moraga |
| Address:
Área de Censos y Encuestas |
| Unidad
de Cartografía |
| Edificio
Rex, Avenida 4 Calle 0 |
| Apdo.
10163-1000 San José, Costa Rica |
| Email:
rogergm@costarricense.com
, inecutsi@racsa.co.cr |
| Tel:
(506) 258-0033 ext.336 |
| Fax:
(506) 223-0813 |
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| National
Geographic Institute |
| Instituto
Geográfico Nacional (IGN) |
| Participant
(s): Carlos Elizondo , Marta E. Aguilar |
| Address:
Departamento Cartográfico |
| Ministerio
de Obras Públicas y Transporte |
| Apdo.
2272-1000 San José, Costa Rica |
| Email:
celizondo@racsa.co.cr,
maragui@racsa.co.cr |
| Tel:
(506) 257-7798 ext.2632 |
| Fax:
(506) 257-5246 |
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| International
Center for Tropical Agriculture |
| Centro
Internacional de Agricultura Tropical (CIAT) |
| Participant:
Margaret Vivian Buck |
| GIS
Assistant |
| Email:
maggie_buck@yahoo.com |
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| 2.
Project Objective |
| The
principal objective of the Central American Project
for Geographic Information (PROCIG) is to promote
the development of GIS as well as the exchange of
geographical information and technical GIS skills
between the participating institutions. MINAE, MAG
and INEC all participated in the first reunion of
PROCIG in 1999 and there they decided to develop a
project where they could integrate their geographic
information and work together to develop an analysis
that would be valuable to decision-makers from each
institution. The objective of the analysis would be
to identify the pressures of human population growth
and agriculture on the national protected areas system,
according to each of the 11 Conservation Areas. Using
GIS technology (ArcView from ESRI), the final analysis
overlays and compares statistical data on demography
and agriculture (using census data from 1984 and projections
to 2000) with information on land cover, land use
and protected areas to develop a model of existing
and future pressures on the protected areas. During
the first reunion, the participants also decided to
hire a GIS assistant (through CIAT) who could work
in each of the three institutions between the months
of July and October of 2000. The final products of
the study are a CD with the final analysis document
as well as digital maps and an informational poster
on the project to be distributed to the other ministries
of the government as well as various NGO’s (the
final document analysis and the digital maps are available
on the PROCIG website – http://www.procig.org). |
| The
National Geographic Institute (IGN) became actively
involved in the PROCIG effort in November of 2000.
For the months of November and December of 2000, the
IGN participants, along with the GIS project assistant,
developed a characterization survey for the development
of a National Geo-Spatial Data Infrastructure and
interviewed 21 institutions in Costa Rica that develop
and manage geographic information. These 21 institutions
were chosen to take part in the survey because they
are known at a national level for their work in GIS
(even though the scale of their geographic analyses
could be smaller). In the majority of the institutions,
the interview and survey were performed within the
GIS labs or departments, or in the areas of information
systems. Once the surveys were all gathered, the participants
wrote an analysis of the results, which are available
as well on the PROCIG website. This survey is seen
as the first phase in an assessment of GIS in Costa
Rica and IGN plans to continue with a more extensive
survey that will aid in the development of NSDI. |
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| 3.
Summary of Results from Population and Agriculture
Analysis |
| Human
Population Growth and Environment |
| Approximately
25 % of the total land area of Costa Rica (51,100
km²) is under management protection and classified
as protected area land (Management classes include:
National Parks, Biological Reserves, and Wildlife
Refuges, among others). |
| Politically,
Costa Rica is divided into 7 provinces, 81 cantons,
and 463 districts. |
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total population of the country is close to 4 million
inhabitants (Census 2000), which implies a general
population of 74.4 inhabitants per square kilometer,
of which approximately 26% live in the Greater Metropolitan
Area of San José, which consists of the capital city
of San José and the capitals of the three principal
provinces (San José, Heredia, and Alajuela) and which
are located in the Conservation Areas of the Central
Volcanic Range (Área de Conservación Cordillera Volcánica
Central) and of the Central Pacific (Área de Conservación
Pacifico Central). The population projection for 2010,
calculated as part of the analysis reveals a significant
growth in the Conservation Areas of Tortuguero, La
Amistad Caribe and Tempisque which could bring additional
pressure to the protected areas in those regions.
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| The
demographic growth between 1984 and 2000 is estimated
at 63% (3.95% annually). |
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part of the population analysis, the project also
examined statistics on male and female population
distribution, as well as the youth population distribution
(for youth under 20 years of age). Once analyzed using
GIS, for example, a concentration of the youth population
could be observed in the border areas of Costa Rica
(especially the northern border which is perhaps an
example of the migrating Nicaraguan population). |
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1984, the average illiteracy rate was estimated at
around 7%, with highest illiteracy rates in the border
region with Nicaragua (22-34%) and the lowest being
in the Greater Metropolitan Area of San José. |
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| Agricultural
Pressures and Land Use/Land Cover Changes |
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largest concentration of cultivated land in Costa
Rica in 1984 was located in the Conservation Areas
of Arenal Huetar Norte, Guanacaste and Tempisque.
The border region with Panama had the lowest percentage
of cultivated land at that time, mostly due to the
presence of the mountain range which includes Cerro
Chirripo, the highest peak in Costa Rica at 3,800
meters. It is interesting to compare the human population
concentration and the % of cultivated land per district
and see where there is evidence in 1984 of the agricultural
activities surrounding the large banana and palm oil
plantations in the country. |
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Costa Rica, there are approximately 700 small, often
communal, government-owned farms, known as asentamientos
campesinos, administered by the Institute for Agrarian
Development (Instituto de Desarrollo Agrario –
IDA), the majority of which are located in the Conservation
Areas of Arenal Huetar Norte and La Amistad Pacífico.
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terms of land cover study, the analysis notes a high
concentration of primary forest cover still remaining
within the boundaries of the protected areas, but
also reveals a high level of forest fragmentation
throughout the country during the course of the 1990’s.
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| Tourism
and the Protected Areas |
| Approximately
every 6 out of 10 visitors to Costa Rica come for
its natural beauty and high level of biodiversity.
Of the over 140 existing protected areas, only a portion
receive visitors or have the infrastructure for visitation.
The most popular among tourists are the National Parks
of the Poás Volcano, the Irazú Volcano and Manuel
Antonio, the first two perhaps related to their close
proximity to the Greater Metropolitan Area of San
José. Another example of the growing tourism pressure
associated with protected areas is in the case of
the Monteverde Biological Reserve, an area which in
the 1990’s had approximately 10 hotels for tourism
and today there are over 40, and growing. |
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| Deforestation
and Protected Areas |
| Analyzing
the changes in land use between 1979 and 1992 in relation
to the protected areas system, it is clear that the
majority of loss of forest cover occurred outside
of the limits of the protected areas and that the
principal forest blocks that remained were located
within the boundaries of these areas, an additional
indicator of the importance of these areas in forest
conservation. The two conservation areas with the
most forest cover in 1992 were the areas of La Amistad
Caribe and Tempisque. In the conservation area Osa,
more than 80% of the existing forest cover in 1992
was located within the limits of the protected areas. |
Land Use and
Soil Capacity
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Even though the soil
capacity class 9 is classified as having a soil
capacity suitable only for protection, only 75%
of the total area of class 9 is located within
the protected areas system. The Ministry of the
Environment, through a program called Environmental
Service Projects (PSA- Proyecto Servicios Ambientales),
to aid in protecting the soils that were in danger
of overuse, established tools and incentives to
regulate economic activities within forest reserves,
protected zones and wildlife reserves.
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Accessibility
to the Protected Areas
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In an effort to determine
the population distribution at a resolution finer
than the district level, and using information
from satellite images, road networks, population
centers and digital elevation models, the project
was able to determine that approximately 22 of
the protected areas have a high value of accessibility
and that at least half of these are located in
the conservation area Cordillera Volcánica Central.
Low levels of accessibility were encountered in
the conservation areas of Osa, La Amistad Caribe,
Tortuguero and Arenal Huetar Norte.
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| 4.
Future Plans for the Project |
| For
the analysis done by the Ministry of the Environment,
the Ministry of Agriculture, and the National Statistics
and Census Institute, a primary objective for the
future is the development of metadata for the coverages
and maps generated for the project, including the
original coverages existing in each institution as
well as those which were obtained from other sources.
For the months June-August of 2001, these three institutions,
along with the PROCIG participant Margaret Buck, have
developed a metadata pilot project, with the objective
of developing geographic data inventories and metadata
for each institution, as well as publishing that information
on the institutional websites and registering the
metadata with a Clearinghouse Node of the FGDC Gateway.
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of the maps and digital coverages from the project
will remain in each institution and the three representatives
will be in charge of maintaining and distributing
the information. From the positive experience of working
together in this analysis, the group can see how several
possibilities exist for further work in the future
and would like to continue with projects that encourage
the interchange of information and collaborative efforts
between the institutions. Also, in terms of the analysis
done on population and agricultural pressures on the
protected areas, the group would like to integrate
the data from the just completed Population and Dwelling
Census of 2000 as well as the next Agricultural Census
(scheduled for 2002). From the success of this inter-institutional
study and the presentation at the 2nd PROCIG
reunion in Cartagena in May of 2001, the entire PROCIG
group discussed doing a similar study at a regional
level (including all of Central America). |
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National Geographic Institute is planning to proceed
to the second phase of their study and do a survey
of more institutions at the national level. Along
with the other three institutions, and with collaborative
efforts with the pilot metadata project, the IGN is
planning a national symposium for the end of July
2001 to discuss a National Spatial Data Infrastructure
and to form a national committee for NSDI. |
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PROCIG
- COSTA RICA - General Information
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| The
following institutions are involved in PROCIG Costa
Rica: |
| Ministry
of Agriculture and Livestock Farming (MAG) |
| National
Statistics and Census Institute (INEC) |
| Ministry
of Environment and Energy (MINAE-SINAC) |
| National
Geographic Institute (IGN) |
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goal of the project is to analyze population and agricultural
pressures on the protected areas system throughout
the country. |
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from this project, IGN and PROCIG began the primary
phases of a national characterization of geo-spatial
data. |
| Map
of Population Density and The Protectecd Areas
System |
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data from the population census from 1984 as
well as population projections for the year
2000, analyses were performed at the district
level. This group of analyses includes maps
of population density, % youth within the total
population, Rural vs. Urban populations, % population
designated as illiterate, among others. |
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| Map
of Accesibility |
| Although
one can see the general population distribution
with data plotted at the district level, within
this project an accessibility model was also
used in order to determine the distribution
of population in relation to major market centers
and road networks. With this model, (developed
by the GIS lab at CIAT), it is possible to estimate
the relative accessibility to protected areas
throughout Costa Rica as well as perform an
analysis at the level of Conservation Areas. |
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| Map
of Conservation Area Central Volcanic Range |
| Map
analyses were developed of each Conservation
Area with analyses of population centers, indigenous
reserves, farming settlements, protected areas,
and forest cover. |
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| Map
of Overuse of Land 1996 - 1997 |
| For
the analyses of agricultural pressures, information
was obtained from the farming and livestock
census from 1984 as well as the land cover /
land use coverages from 1979, 1992, and 1996-1997.
For example, in the map shown here, the coverage
of capacity of the use of the soil overlaid
on the map of land cover from 1996-1997 enabled
an analysis of the overuse of the land from
1996-1997. |
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| Map
of Visitation to the Protected Areas |
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data of visitation numbers to the Protected
Areas System, it was possible to identify the
most visited areas, (both by nationals and foreigners).
This type of information also adds a broader
scope to the analyses of accessibility and population
pressure from the viewpoint of tourism. |
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Contacts:
Rodolfo Méndez Chinchilla – rmendez@ns.mag.go.cr
Róger Gutiérrez Moraga – romoraga@hotmail.com
Francisco González Salas – fgsalas@ns.minae.go.cr
Margaret Vivian Buck – maggie_buck@yahoo.com |
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