PLAYA DELFÍN

RAINFOREST RESERVE and RESEARCH STATION

    Playa Delfín, a Rainforest Reserve and Research Station, is located on the southern Pacific coast of Costa Rica on the south side of the Golfo Dulce.  The heart of the reserve is a 290 acre/115 hectare tropical lowland moist forest which Patrick and Anne Weston have owned and lived on since 1988.  Three-fourths of the acreage is primary forest.  Trails are maintained throughout the reserve.  Small rivers with waterfalls and natural swimming pools form the east and west borders of the property.

    The Central American squirrel monkey is abundant.  Other wildlife includes ocelots, margays, jaguarundis, king vultures, mealy parrots, river otters, silky anteaters, tamanduas, two- and three-toed sloths, pacas, etc.  Scarlet macaws from a restoration project in the area use this forest.  One of the last sightings of a giant anteater in Costa Rica occurred here in 1989.

    This primary forest is part of Costa Rica's Private Forest Reserve System.

    The protected area includes much more than just this forest, however.  Because adjoining lands are also protected by law, an unbroken corridor now stretches from the Pacific Ocean to the Panamanian border.  Bordering the Weston's rainforest to the south is a 150 acre/60 hectare reforestation project with extensive corridors of native species that connect forested areas in the entire zone.  This area was deforested in the 1970s and used for cattle until 1995, when it was purchased by the Westons and others and reforested with a dual purpose:  the majority is managed for eventual harvest, but significant sections were left to revert to secondary forest with native species.  To the south of the reforestation project is the Guaymí Indigenous Reserve, which extends to Panama.

    To the north of the Weston's reserve, between the primary forest and the ocean, is a 30 acre/12 hectare parcel of land for which the Westons spent twelve years developing a unique zoning plan.  This zoning plan includes a field research station, botanical garden, plant nursery, restoration of a small wetland, and reforestation of coastal and gallery forest.  In 2002 this land was granted in concession to Playa Delfin and extends for almost a kilometer along the Golfo Dulce, a rare and beautiful gulf.  Very little research has been done on the Golfo Dulce, a tropical fjord, the sole anoxic basin on the entire Pacific coast of the Americas.

    These linked conservation zones form a corridor that enables wildlife to travel freely from Costa Rica's border with Panama all the way to the Pacific Ocean.

    Playa Delfín is an hour and fifteen minutes via a year-round road from the Golfito airport.  It's also an hour and fifteen minutes from the Pan-American Highway, for people coming by road from San Jose.  Depending on road conditions, it's two to three hours' drive from Las Cruces/Wilson Garden near San Vito.  Electricity and cell phone service are available at the reserve.

    This reserve is available for the use of qualified researchers and students.

    Anne Weston has also written a book called My Brother Needs a Boa.

Map provided by www.worldatlas.com

Home [En Español ]Grant Information ]Golfo Dulce ]About Playa Delfín ]Research ]Photogallery ]Anne's Book ]Location ]Contact Us