Forest succession drives concomitant changes in associated faunal communities. Thus, maintaining landscapes with high successional diversity can be an important consideration in habitat management. We sought to describe avian community characteristics across a successional gradient created by reforestation efforts in a tropical premontane wet forest in Costa Rica. Specifically, we examined the effects of successional stage on overall abundance, species richness, diet niche, migratory status, and community composition. We hypothesised that these metrics of bird abundance, diversity and community composition would differ across successional stages. Using data from transects conducted in 2018, we found that several metrics of avian abundance, diversity and community composition varied as a function of successional stage. Surprisingly, the earliest successional stage exhibited the greatest abundance, species richness and proportion of migrant species. We suggest that an ephemeral vegetation structure present for only a short period (early in succession) creates a unique habitat that results in a distinct avian community. This highlights the potential importance of early successional forests for avian communities, especially neotropical migrants.

The energy needs of the human population inevitably affect natural environments, but the effects on wildlife of human modifications of habitat specifically for geothermal projects are scarcely known. Through acoustic monitoring, we quantified at Proyecto Geotérmico Las Pailas II, Guanacaste, Costa Rica, the impact of forest openings on the diversity and community composition of aerial insectivorous bats. Our data revealed that artificial clearing causes a border effect, an environment where the diversity of species and activity levels of insectivorous bats increase with respect to other habitats analysed. We discuss that, due to the combination of environmental properties and resource availability variables of the border habitats, in addition to the acoustic abilities of the bat species detected, borders represent transitional spaces where species adapted to uncluttered and background-cluttered spaces can easily commute and forage. The artificial clearings created by the geothermal project had a positive effect on aerial insectivorous bat species; however, this pattern cannot be assumed for other organisms within the area. Therefore, we highlight the importance of quantifying the influence of energy-extracting projects on biodiversity metrics and the use of this information to make informed decisions regarding managing and conserving natural resources.

This article contributes to migration and livelihood scholarship by reflecting on global and political dimensions of livelihoods and experiences of illegalisation in Central America. Based on multi-sited ethnographic research with Nicaraguan families and their migrant family members in Costa Rica, the article adopts a translocal livelihood perspective and uses the notion of everyday politics to explore migrants’ mobility practices and nuance the role and reach of illegalisation in relatively accessible South–South migration. In conclusion, the article reinvigorates the notion of ‘everyday politics of mobility’ to incorporate the multi-sitedness, multi-dimensionality and multi-directionality of translocalising livelihoods, offering a lens for future comparison of illegalisation within and beyond the so-called Global South.

This study investigates the determinants of coffee prices received by growers in Costa Rica, paying attention to the impact of environmental, regional, quality, and international aspects in a panel data set for the period 2008–2016. We identify three groups of variables that affect domestic coffee prices. Some of them are external to the control of the coffee growers, such as the international price of green coffee or the power of multinationals; others, such as the altitude where the coffee is harvested or the berries' yield, are related to coffee quality but difficult to modify by coffee growers. The focus of our study is on the third group, which refers to differentiation strategies related to environmental certifications. More specifically, we consider two particularly relevant certifications, which are Fairtrade mills and organic coffee. We find that organic coffee berries received higher prices, but Fairtrade mills report lower average prices than other, non-certified, buyers.

Costa Rica suspended payments on its London debt in 1901, at the beginning of a democratisation process and during a crisis in the world coffee market. Meanwhile, autocratic Nicaragua, also a coffee exporter, continued paying its foreign creditors. This article assesses the causes of these distinct outcomes, which are at odds with the influential hypothesis that democracy makes for better borrowers. Strongly represented in Congress, Costa Rica's coffee elite pushed for the end of a tax on coffee as the legislative became more powerful. The executive had used that revenue to service the debt, which went on default as a consequence. Politics were radically different in Nicaragua: coffee growers were weaker and President Zelaya ruled without legislative tutelage. Hence, his government could raise a similar tax to honour the sovereign debt. With a clean record, the dictator borrowed abroad to build a modern army, the backbone of his autocratic regime.

Chacmools are a distinctive sculptural form associated with the Mesoamerican cities of Chichen Itza and Tula. A recently excavated sculpture found at Las Mercedes in Costa Rica, over 2000km to the south, closely resembles the Mesoamerican chacmools. Comparing this new chacmool-like sculpture with similar examples at the American Museum of Natural History and the National Museum of Costa Rica, the authors demonstrate that these sculptures were common in lower Central America, and propose a connection between Central America and Mesoamerica dating back to AD 1000. They interpret the Costa Rican chacmools as ritual furniture employed by local chiefs to enhance their power and prestige through the enactment of Mesoamerican-inspired rituals.

We analyzed the δ2H composition of n-alkanes isolated from Laguna Zoncho, a small lake in southern Pacific Costa Rica, to reconstruct paleohydrology. Using a core that spans the past 3600 years, we found evidence of dry periods, most notably during the Terminal Classic Drought (TCD; ~1200 cal yr BP) and the Little Ice Age (~400 cal yr BP). Previous work at Laguna Zoncho, using bulk sedimentary δ13C and geochemical analysis, found that agriculture began to decline during the TCD. Our δ2H records confirm the occurrence of arid conditions coincident with the TCD at Laguna Zoncho and show that, despite receiving more than 3000 mm of precipitation per year, this region is susceptible to multidecadal droughts.

The Área de Conservación Osa (ACOSA) contains the largest population of Scarlet Macaws Ara macao in Costa Rica. Despite their influence on ecosystem dynamics and status as a flagship species, empirical data on the foraging patterns of this population is lacking. This information is crucial in implementing effective conservation strategies, particularly reintroduction attempts. Observations of feeding behaviour were made systematically over a 12-month period to provide the first direct examination of Scarlet Macaw diet within the ACOSA region. Scarlet Macaws feed on various items including seeds, flowers, bark, and leaf-gall larvae. Key findings included a demonstration of a smaller dietary niche breadth than that recorded for other Central American populations, use of button mangrove Conocarpus erectus, a species not previously recognised as a food source for Scarlet Macaws, and a heavy reliance on an exotic non-native species, Terminalia catappa. We argue that whilst human-modified coastal locations may present viable habitat for Scarlet Macaws, anthropogenic influences including the removal of native food sources and proliferation of exotic and cultivated species have left the Scarlet Macaws of the ACOSA particularly dependent on a small number of species.

Costa Rica and Colombia, two of the earliest Latin American countries to protect many LGBT rights, attempted to amplify those rights and litigate same-sex marriage (SSM) in mid-2000s; however, these attempts sparked a major anti-LGBT backlash by religious and conservative organizations. Yet a decade later, Colombia legalized SSM while Costa Rica still lacks the right to SSM. Using a most-similar systems comparative case study, this study engages the judicial politics literature to explain this divergent outcome. It details how courts, while staying receptive to many individual LGBT rights claims, deferred SSM legalization to popularly elected branches. In spite of the lack of legislative success in both countries, in Colombia a new litigation strategy harnessed that deference to craft a litigated route to legalized SSM. In Costa Rica, the courts’ lack of conditions or deadlines has left SSM foundering in the congress.