Manual de Plantas de Costa Rica | The physical environment| 53 
vided into districts (distritos). For maps and other information on these political 
subdivisions, see especially Chinchilla V. (1987) and Salguero (1985). Geo- 
graphic coordinates, elevation, and other important data on towns and toponyms, with 
an emphasis on localities of botanical significance, can be found in the Manual ga- 
zetteer at: 
‘kK provinces are subdivided into counties (cantones), and these are further di- 
http://www.mobot.org/MOBOT/Research/costaricagaz.shtml 
Costa Rica boasts a dazzling array of national parks and other national and non- 
governmental reserves occupying about 824,500 ha, or 16.2% of its total area (Boza & 
Cevo, 2001). While these figures are impressive, there is a downside: outside of these 
protected areas, most of the original forests have now been clear-cut or greatly per- 
turbed. The location and extent of Costa Rica’s protected areas is thus of critical im- 
portance to biological and conservation interests. These sites are mapped in Boza & 
Cevo (2001), which also provides descriptions and color photographs of the national 
parks and other protected areas. More recently, the country has been divided into 11 
“conservation areas”; see, for example, the map by CSI-SINAC (2002). This map, 
showing just over 24% of the country under some sort of protection, details all the hy- 
pothetically protected areas, including forest reserves and “protected zones” (for many 
years now, the main sources of timber). Within the purely administrative conservation 
areas, the main players in forest conservation (notwithstanding numerous zealously 
protected areas of private lands) are the national parks, the wildlife refuges, and the bio- 
logical reserves (see back endpapers). 
Physical geography 
Considering its size, Costa Rica is remarkably diverse topographically (see front end- 
papers). The landscape is dominated by a northwest-to-southeast aligned chain of four 
major cordilleras, forming the Continental Divide, and flanked on either side by coastal 
lowlands studded with outlying peaks and ridges. The Caribbean coast is relatively uni- 
form, unbroken by significant inlets or peninsulas. The Pacific coast is more varied in 
this regard, with three major peninsulas, each sheltering an important gulf; these are, 
from north to south: the Santa Elena Peninsula (Gulf of Papagayo); the Nicoya Penin- 
sula (Gulf of Nicoya); and the Osa Peninsula (Golfo Dulce). All of these peninsulas are 
rather hilly, with maximum elevations of 711 m, 983 m, and 745 m, respectively. A 
fourth Pacific peninsula, the Burica (maximum elevation 689 m), is shared with Pan- 
ama. Inshore islands, rare on the Caribbean side, are larger and more numerous in Pa- 
cific waters, especially in the Gulf of Nicoya and about the Santa Elena Peninsula. Isla 
de Chira (maximum elevation 251 m), in the Gulf of Nicoya, is the largest Costa Rican 
island. Further offshore are Isla del Cafio (maximum elevation ca. 120 m), northwest of 
