Communities and Conservation Areas: Impacts of Employment in a Regional Conservation Area on the Quality of Life of Local Residents A Case Study of the Town of Quebrada Grande and the Guanacaste Conservation Area, Northwest Costa Rica

Abstract

The Guanacaste Conservation Area (Area de Conservación Guanacaste or ACG).in northwest Costa Rica is the setting for an importt change in tropical conservation. In the late-1980s, the fall of the catte raching empires in Guanacaste opened the door to an expanded Conservation Area. Acting to preserve biodiversity, the ACG bought and began reforesting large trcts of land adjacent to the already protected wildlands. To faciltate ths process, it also restrctued its organization to more effectively manage its staf, activities, and resources. Separting itself from Costa Rica's trditional national park management structure-in which a centrlized base in the countr's capital administers the park-it beame a largely independently-managed national Conservation Area whose administration is contaned within the Guanacaste region.