Caño Palma Overview
The Caño Palma Biological Station is located within the Barra Del Colorado Wildlife Refuge adjacent to Caño Palma, a 20 metre palm-filled canal which separates the Biological Station from the Caribbean by 200-300 metres.
The globally endangered green, leatherback, hawksbill and loggerhead sea turtles come ashore to nest on beaches accessible from the station. There are no roads in the area, and visitors to Caño Palma arrive by boat via a network of rivers and canals.
The station has a large covered boat dock with a lookout designed for viewing wildlife. The compound consists of a lush lawn and gardens with many varieties of tropical plants and shrubs. There is a small pond near the dock which is used by the local wildlife. The station is surrounded by secondary Atlantic wet rainforest.
The globally endangered green, leatherback, hawksbill and loggerhead sea turtles come ashore to nest on beaches accessible from the station. There are no roads in the area, and visitors to Caño Palma arrive by boat via a network of rivers and canals.
The station has a large covered boat dock with a lookout designed for viewing wildlife. The compound consists of a lush lawn and gardens with many varieties of tropical plants and shrubs. There is a small pond near the dock which is used by the local wildlife. The station is surrounded by secondary Atlantic wet rainforest.
Location
Caño Palma Biological Station is situated approximately 8 kilometres (5 miles) north of the village of Tortuguero on Costa Rica’s north-eastern coast. The Tortuguero area is an ancient flood plain covered by lowland Atlantic tropical wet forest and is biologically the richest ecosystem in Costa Rica. Average daily temperature is about 26 degrees Celsius and rainfall may exceed 6,000 mm per annum.
Cano Palma is in the Atlantic Lowland Region of Costa Rica
Much of the surrounding area is protected under Costa Rica’s parks and reserves system, with Tortuguero National Park (18,900 square hectares) and the Barra Colorado Refuge (92,000 square hectares), forming a vast corridor, which connects with conserved forest in Nicaragua to the north. Our goal is to extend our efforts in neo tropical conservation to extend beyond the station’s 40 square hectares.
Cano Palma is in the Atlantic Lowland Region of Costa Rica
Much of the surrounding area is protected under Costa Rica’s parks and reserves system, with Tortuguero National Park (18,900 square hectares) and the Barra Colorado Refuge (92,000 square hectares), forming a vast corridor, which connects with conserved forest in Nicaragua to the north. Our goal is to extend our efforts in neo tropical conservation to extend beyond the station’s 40 square hectares.
Facilities
Living facilities are clean and comfortable but basic. Volunteers, researchers and students share a dormitory which can accommodate 40 people.
The rooms are equipped with bunks and the station provides mattresses and bedding. A large airy dining room which connects to the kitchen and office is the central meeting area on the station’s one acre compound.
