Abstract
Over the last decades, Costa Rica became established as a world-leading ecotourism destination due to its environmental policies and environmental awareness. The country is located in a dynamic region where the combination of tectonics and volcanism, and tropical climate and vegetation have molded its landscapes. Our aim is to carry out a review of the geodiversity, geoconservation, and geotourism status in Costa Rica. We analyzed different geomorphic environments (volcanic, coastal, karstic, glacial, and fluvial), prospecting the importance of environmental policies and the Conservation Areas National System for the promotion of national geoheritage through geotourism. Our results are critical for the promotion of geosciences to the wider public throughout geotourism and conservation decision-makers. In dynamic, geomorphic, tropical, and developing countries with strong anthropic pressures over their geo- and biodiversity, geoheritage studies might be a priority for increasing their revenues through geotourism and reducing the pressure on their natural resources.
Highlights
Geodiversity, geoheritage, geoconservation, and geotourism concepts are closely related.These research lines have increased significantly since the 1990s [1]
We showed how Costa Rican environmental policies coupled with a strong green consciousness could develop an extensive national protected areas system that can be the base to promote their geoheritage through geoconservation and geotourism
A dynamic combination of tectonics and volcanism coupled with a tropical climate and vegetation have molded a geodiverse country, which comprises volcanic, fluvial, coastal, karstic, and glacial geomorphic environments
Summary
Geodiversity, geoheritage, geoconservation, and geotourism concepts are closely related. These research lines have increased significantly since the 1990s [1]. Geodiversity is the natural range (diversity) of geological (rocks, minerals, and fossils), geomorphological (landforms, landscapes, topography, and physical processes) and soil features, assemblages, systems, and processes [2]. Bedrock, landforms, and soils are evaluated by their uniqueness and representativeness. The concept of geodiversity is analogous to the biodiversity concept, but with a strong timescale contrast. Geodiversity, emphasizes the links between geosciences, wildlife, and people in one environment or system [3]. The importance of geodiversity escalates depending on the intensity of the relationships between the different Earth system processes and their interrelations [4,5,6,7]
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