Green travel guide

Private Land Conservation in Costa Rica: Reserves, Easements and Landowners

Much of Costa Rica's forest sits on private land, and owners protect it through a few main tools: FONAFIFO's payments for environmental services, ecological easements recorded in the National Registry, and membership in the Costa Rican Network of Private Nature Reserves. Some private reserves, like the Karen Mogensen Reserve on the Nicoya Peninsula, welcome guided visitors, while many others protect land without public access.

By Pura-Verde.com Editors · Published October 30, 2026 · Last checked October 30, 2026

Best for

Landowners thinking about protecting forest, and travelers who want to support or visit private reserves.

Main tools

FONAFIFO payments for environmental services (Forestry Law 7575), ecological easements registered in perpetuity, and private reserve networks.

Network

The Costa Rican Network of Private Nature Reserves lists about 200 member properties, from research reserves to lodges.

Visit example

The 1,005-hectare Karen Mogensen Reserve in Jicaral, run by ASEPALECO, hosts guided hikes and stays at its Cerro Escondido Ecolodge.

Good to know

Green on a map isn't the same as legally protected, and private reserves aren't open to wander into.

Ask before you go

Whether visits are allowed, which entrance to use, and whether a guide must accompany you.

Not every Costa Rican forest is a national park. A lot of it belongs to farmers, families, associations, lodges and research groups who decided to keep the trees standing. Their choices, made one property at a time, connect the parks into something wildlife can actually move through.

Private land is a big part of how Costa Rica protects its forests. Some properties are formal private reserves. Others are working farms where the owner keeps a forested hillside, a spring or a riverbank. Some open to hikers and birders, and many never do. This guide explains the main tools landowners use, what each one does and doesn't mean legally, the people and networks behind them, and how travelers can visit or help without overstepping.

For the big picture on reserves and wildlife corridors you can tour, including Monteverde and Cabo Blanco, see our guide to nature reserves and wildlife corridors. This page focuses on the private side: how the land stays protected.

Why private forests matter in Costa Rica

National parks and other public protected areas are anchors, but animals don't read boundary signs. Monkeys need continuous canopy, macaws need nesting and feeding trees, and big cats and tapirs cross ranches, rivers and roads. Many of the forest patches between parks are privately owned.

That's why so much Costa Rican conservation happens through agreements with owners rather than by the state buying land. It also explains why the same green patch on a satellite map can mean very different things. It might be a registered private reserve, land under a payment contract, a strip along a river protected by law, or simply a forest that nobody has cleared yet. Clearing on private land is a live issue, from the debate over forests on private farms in Gandoca-Manzanillo to the investigation into hillside clearing above Montezuma's waterfall.

Payments for environmental services: Costa Rica's best-known tool

Costa Rica pays landowners to keep and restore forest. The Payment for Environmental Services program, run by FONAFIFO (the National Forestry Financing Fund) under Forestry Law 7575, frames the payments as recognition, not a subsidy, for four services forests provide: storing carbon, protecting biodiversity, protecting water, and natural beauty for tourism and science.

FONAFIFO lists two families of activities. One keeps existing forest: forest protection, water resource protection, forest management and mixed systems. The other recovers forest cover: reforestation (including with threatened species), natural regeneration and agroforestry, including shade trees in coffee.

The paperwork is real. FONAFIFO's enrollment requirements include a property registered in the National Registry (or documented possession), a cadastral survey map certified by SINAC, sworn statements, and a separate application for each activity at a FONAFIFO regional office. Owners usually work with a forestry professional and a lawyer.

Two things to know. Payments run under contracts for set periods, so they aren't the same as permanent protection. And they don't cover everything: Wetlands International notes that mangroves are left out because they're state natural heritage, not private land.

Ecological easements: protection that stays with the land

An ecological easement (servidumbre ecológica) is a voluntary legal agreement in which an owner permanently sets aside part of a property for conservation. It's recorded in the National Registry, so it binds future owners too. The owner keeps the title and can still use or develop the rest of the land.

Nosara, on Guanacaste's Pacific coast, is the clearest recent example. In March 2026, Delfino and the Tico Times reported that the Nosara Civic Association, working with SINAC, is building a biological corridor from the hills to the Ostional refuge based entirely on voluntary easements. The first covers 14 hectares of secondary forest along the Montaña River, in the buffer zone of the Ostional wetland. The association itself protects 264 hectares of forest. Its executive director, Marco Villegas, told the Tico Times that "real estate expansion can be guided to coexist with nature." Read our news story on the Nosara voluntary corridor.

Easements are a legal tool, so the details matter: what's allowed, who monitors it, and what happens if a future owner breaks the terms. CEDARENA, a San José environmental law nonprofit founded in 1989, is one of the groups active in this field, and its staff sit on the private reserve network's board. Anyone considering an easement should get advice from a qualified Costa Rican lawyer.

The Costa Rican Network of Private Nature Reserves

Owners don't have to do this alone. The Costa Rican Network of Private Nature Reserves (Red Costarricense de Reservas Naturales) connects reserve owners and allied institutions, with a board elected by members every two years. Its published board is led by president Pedro González Chaverri of the Tirimbina reserve in Sarapiquí, with Marco Villegas of the Nosara Civic Association as vice president, Sara Cascante Elizondo of CEDARENA as secretary, and members from places like Cloudbridge, EARTH University, the Organization for Tropical Studies and Reserva Bijagual. Pablo Carazo Fernández is executive director.

The network's list of reserves runs to about 200 names, from research forests like Reserva Ecológica Bijagual in Sarapiquí to Monteverde lodges, Rara Avis and the Curú wildlife refuge. It's a good place to start looking for legitimate reserves. Membership alone doesn't tell you whether a property takes visitors, what its legal status is, or whether its conservation claims hold up, so check each one directly.

A community-built reserve: Karen Mogensen and ASEPALECO

The Karen Mogensen Reserve, in the hills of the southern Nicoya Peninsula, shows what private conservation looks like when neighbors build it. According to the reserve's history, a small group led by biologist Luis Ángel Mena Aguilar set out in 1991 to buy cattle land and let the forest come back. Their association, ASEPALECO (for Paquera, Lepanto and Cóbano), made its first purchase of 364 hectares in 1996, with help from a Danish partner. The reserve now covers about 1,005 hectares. It's named for Karen Mogensen, who with her husband Nicolás Wessberg campaigned for Cabo Blanco, the country's first protected reserve.

What stands out on the board page is the mix of people. Board president Patricia Slump-Mulder, a Montezuma resident for more than 46 years, co-founded two local hotels. Vice president Miguel Escalante Arias, an agricultural engineer and ASEPALECO founder, spent 25 years directing the agriculture ministry's office in Nandayure. Mena, a former SINAC biologist, serves as the board's fiscal. Others include Rebeca Quesada Güell, a tourism entrepreneur and founding member; Víctor Barboza Jiménez, a retired educator from Paquera; and Italian biologist Dario Sonetti, who set up a research station inside the reserve.

One detail is worth copying. Guests at Ylang Ylang Beach Resort can add a voluntary donation for each night of their stay, and the reserve says that program paid for 30 more hectares of forest in 2015. It's a direct, traceable link between a hotel stay and land protected for good.

Can you visit private reserves in Costa Rica?

Sometimes. It depends entirely on the owner.

• Reserves with lodges and trails. At the Karen Mogensen Reserve, ASEPALECO runs the Cerro Escondido Ecolodge, six solar-powered cabins reached by a guided hike of about an hour, mostly uphill. There are about 22 km of trails and a waterfall. Guests must go with an ASEPALECO guide, and you book through the association in advance. In the rainy season, May to November, expect river crossings. For lodges that run their own reserves, see our guide to sustainable hotels and eco-lodges.
• Research reserves. Places like Bijagual focus on courses, researchers and volunteers. Our guide to biological research stations covers which ones host visitors.
• Closed reserves. Many properties protect sensitive habitat or water sources and don't take visitors. Respect that. Sometimes the best help is a donation, not a visit.

Before you go anywhere, confirm that visits are allowed, use the official entrance, and don't wander onto neighboring land. Corridors in particular are mostly private farms and homes, not places to tour. Use the Pura-Verde map to find reserves with public visitor access.

If you own land in Costa Rica: how to start protecting it

If you own forest or degraded land and want to protect it, a sensible order is:

1. Get your paperwork straight. Registered title and a certified survey map are the base for every option.
2. Talk to your local SINAC conservation area office and FONAFIFO. Ask whether your land is in a biological corridor or near a protected area, and which payment activities fit.
3. Consider an easement if you want protection to outlast you, and get a Costa Rican lawyer experienced in environmental law.
4. Join or contact the private reserve network to learn from other owners.
5. Plan for the long run. Boundaries, fire breaks, patrols and neighbor relations all need time and money. Dry-season fires are a real risk in Guanacaste, as the 2026 fire season showed.
6. Restore with local species. Dry forest, cloud forest and lowland rainforest need different trees. Our reforestation guide covers native nurseries and natural regeneration.

Protecting a forest is a long commitment

A reserve boundary on a map can't show the years of work behind it: raising money, negotiating with neighbors, paying guides and rangers, rebuilding trails after storms, and building an organization that outlasts its founders. ASEPALECO has been at it for more than three decades. The Nosara corridor is just starting. Both depend on ordinary people choosing to keep land wild and then sticking with it. Land-use rules can also shift, as the reversal of a Papagayo building-rights rule shows, which is one more reason permanent protections matter.

Frequently asked questions

Can private land be a nature reserve in Costa Rica?

Yes. Owners can protect forest through FONAFIFO payment contracts, ecological easements recorded in the National Registry, or by running a private reserve, and about 200 properties belong to the Costa Rican Network of Private Nature Reserves.

Does Costa Rica pay landowners to protect forest?

Yes. FONAFIFO's Payment for Environmental Services program, under Forestry Law 7575, pays eligible owners to protect forest, protect water sources, reforest, allow natural regeneration or plant agroforestry systems, under time-limited contracts.

What is a servidumbre ecológica?

It's an ecological easement: a voluntary agreement in which an owner permanently sets aside part of a property for conservation. It's recorded in the National Registry, so it applies to future owners too, while the owner keeps the title.

Can foreigners protect land in Costa Rica?

Foreign residents have long been part of private conservation here: Karen Mogensen was Danish, and the Karen Mogensen Reserve's board includes a Dutch-born president and an Italian biologist. Rules on land ownership and program eligibility have specifics, so check with FONAFIFO and a Costa Rican lawyer before you commit.

Can I visit the Karen Mogensen Reserve?

Yes, with arrangements made in advance through ASEPALECO. Visitors hike in with an ASEPALECO guide, about an hour mostly uphill, and can stay at the Cerro Escondido Ecolodge inside the reserve.

How can I support private forest conservation as a traveler?

Stay at lodges that protect their own forest, book guided visits through the reserve itself, donate to land-protection groups like ASEPALECO, and choose hotels with transparent donation programs.

Sources

1. Karen Mogensen Reserve: About Us
2. Karen Mogensen Reserve: Our Story
3. ASEPALECO: Cerro Escondido Ecolodge
4. Red Costarricense de Reservas Naturales: Estructura administrativa
5. Red Costarricense de Reservas Naturales: Lista de reservas
6. FONAFIFO: Payment for Environmental Services
7. FONAFIFO: Actividades y subactividades
8. FONAFIFO: Requisitos para inscribirse en PSA
9. Wetlands International: Strong foundations to accelerate mangrove conservation in Costa Rica (October 26, 2026)
10. Tico Times: Nosara landowners build Costa Rica's first voluntary biological corridor (March 4, 2026)
11. Delfino: Nosara impulsa corredor biológico basado en acuerdos voluntarios (March 3, 2026)
12. CEDARENA: official site
13. Reserva Ecológica Bijagual: official site

We checked these pages when we last updated this guide. We didn't interview the people named; their roles and words come from the sources above.