49,000 sq. kilometres (18,000 sq. miles) (96%) of Costa Rica. Of this about 2,000 sq. km (770 sq. miles) (4%) was mangroves, swamp forest and subalpine grass/shrubland known as páramo. The extent of clearing by indigenous tribes, which as said above were not significant in number, is unknown. Up to 1940 about 15,000 sq. km (some 5,800 sq. miles) (31%) had been altered, largely in northwest and central Costa Rica. Nearly 40 years later 18,000 sq. km (6,900 sq. miles) (31%), mainly in the Atlantic and south Pacific region, has been deforested. Despite this Costa Rica was highlighted by the United Nations


Team members visit the schools regularly to explain the importance of vigilance to the children, which they pass on to the adults in their families.


Development Programme (UNDP) in 2011 as a good performer on environmental sustainability. It was the only country to meet all five criteria established to measure environmental sustainability. The country is ranked fifth in the world, and first among the Americas, in terms of the 2012 Environmental Performance Index. In 2007, the Costa Rican government announced plans for Costa Rica to become the first carbon- neutral country by 2021 and according to the New Economics Foundation, Costa Rica ranks first in the Happy Planet Index and is the “greenest” country in the world.


30 BIRD SCENE


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