Gandoca-Manzanillo — Caribbean Marine Protected Areas Management

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Identification

Name	Refugio Nacional de Vida Silvestre Gandoca-Manzanillo
Short Name	Gandoca-Manzanillo
General Description	The Gandoca-Mazanillo Wildlife refuge's coast consist of several emerged coral reef points with gently sloping white sand beaches and few waves due to the shallowness on the coast which is bordered by countless coconut palms and coral reefs extending as much as 200mts into the sea. This Wildlife Refuge contains a few of Costa Rica's last living coral reefs and the last orey swamp in the country. It also contains the only intact mangrove swamp on the Atlantic coast, an important turtle nesting beach
Country or territory	Costa Rica
Geographic location	Limon Province
Ecoregion location	South Western Caribbean
Boundaries	9° 37' 18" N, 82° 39' 25" W
Map
Map URL	http://www.wdpa.org/siteSheet.aspx?sitecode=19402#/areapreselected/145524
no map
Total surface area (km²)	94.49
Land surface area (km²)	50.13
Sea surface area (km²)	44.36
Shoreline length (km)	11.0
Site national category	Refugio Nacional de Vida Silvestre
Site international designation	Biosphere Reserve
IUCN category	IV: Managed nature reserve

Legal

Designation	Legally designated or approved
Date established	October 29, 1985
Legal citation	Executive Decree 16614
Citation reference URL
Other legal designations
Other legal designations reference URLs
Primary responsible institution	Area de Conservacion Amistad-Caribe
Primary contact	Edwin Cyrus Cyrus
Address Address of primary contact or management office	Area de Conservacion Amistad Caribe Apdo. 1077-7300 Limon, Costa Rica
Phone number(s)	56 2795-1446
Fax number(s)	56 2735-3170
Email	edwin.cyrus@sinac.go.cr
Web site(s)

Physical description

Climate	Rain around 2500-3100 mm/year. Yearly average temperature is of 25-27 °C.
Geological features selected from: cliffs, terraces, beaches, rocky shores, volcanic formations, islands, keys, atolls, blue holes, sink holes, caves, swamp, marsh, active volcano, dormant volcano, caldera, submarine canyon, mogotes or cockpit, lava field, outstanding speleothems, karstic	terraces, beaches
Hydrological features selected from: sheet flow, river(s) drainage, stream(s) drainage, springs(s), underground water drainage, ocean gyre, ocean loop/meandering current, upwelling	river(s) drainage, stream(s) drainage
Other hydrological features	hypersaline lagoon
Terrestrial habitats	Tropical lowland wet forest (rain forest),swamp
Terrestrial flora and fauna species	Crocodile (Crocodylus acutus), tapir (Tapirus bairdii), cayman (Caiman crocodylus) and the paca (Agouti paca), Prioria copaifera. Flora: Heliconia spp., Raphia taedigera, Campnosperma panamensis, Cocos nucifera, Coccoloba uvifera,Rhizophora mangle among others
Marine habitats	Coral Reefs, rocky and sandy beach
Marine flora	Siringodium filiforme, Thalassia testudinum; Most common algae: Sargassum sp., Dictyota sp., Galaxaura sp.
Marine invertebrates and fishes	Common Corals: Siderastrea siderea, S. radians, Diploria clivosa, D. strigosa, Isophyllastresw rigida, Mycetophyllia Iamarckiana, Agaricities, A. fragilis, Acropora cerviconis and Porites astreoides, Briareum asbestinum, Muriceopsis flavida and M. sulphurca: Common Fishes: Megalops, atlanticus, Holacanthus ciliaris, Pomacanthus paru, Scarus coeruleus, Chaetodon ocellatus. Others: Lobster (Panulirus argus) sponges, red urchins (Tripneustes ventricosus), and long-spined black urchins (Diadema antillarum), Venus sea fans (gorgonia ventalina), sea cucumbers (Holothuria sp.), white shrimp (Penaeus sp.), green anemones (Stoichactis heliantus), hydroids (stylaster roseus and Solandaria gracilis), (Holothuria sp.) and Oysters
Marine mammals, birds and sea turtles	Chelonia mydas, Trichechus manatus, Birds: red-capped manakin (Pipra mentalis), sulphur-winged parakeet (Pyrrhura hoffmanni), broadbilled motmot (Electron platyrhynchum), collared aracari (Pteroglossus torquatus) and lineted woodpecker (Dryocopus lineatus); keel-billed toucan (Ramphastos sulfuratus), ornate hawk-eagle (Spizaetus ornatus)
Endangered species	Trichechus manatus, leatherback turtle (Dermochelys coriacea)
Special aggregation sites	Turtle nesting site

Management

Primary management institution Institution responsible for day to day management	Area de Conservacion Amistad-Caribe
Other institutions that participate in management	Municipalidad de Talamanca, Asociación de Desarrollo de Gandoca, Asociación de Desarrollo de Manzanillo, Asociación ANAI, ADECOMAGA, Asociación del Corredor Biológico Talamanca
Personnel	manager; rangers
Management objectives selected from: species protection, ecosystem protection, fisheries management, user conflict resolution, recreational/tourism use, navigation restrictions	species protection, ecosystem protection, fisheries management
Other management objectives
Management framework Management regime, framework, or plan	Yes
Date of establishment of management framework	January 01, 1996
Last update of management framework	January 01, 1996
Management programmes selected from: advisory committee, co-managment with private sector, construction regulations, education/outreach program, emergency operations program, enforcement program, financial or business plan, entrance/user fees, fisheries regulations, fishers exclusive rights, fundraising program, habitat restoration program, institutional arrangements for management, monitoring program, mooring bouys, natural resources damage assessment authority, navigational restrictions, on-site staff, permiting program, research facilities, research program, signalization, solid waste management, sustainable and environmentally sound production, tourism regulations, visitors center, volunteer program, water quality management program, zoning scheme	advisory committee, co-managment with private sector, construction regulations, education/outreach program, emergency operations program, enforcement program, financial or business plan, entrance/user fees, fisheries regulations, habitat restoration program, institutional arrangements for management, monitoring program, mooring bouys, navigational restrictions, on-site staff, research facilities, research program, signalization, solid waste management, tourism regulations, volunteer program, zoning scheme
Zoning selected from: anchoring, buffer zone, commercial fisheries, cultural resources, diving, no-take, no permanent constructions, public use, recreational fisheries, subsistence fisheries, other	cultural resources, diving, no-take, public use, recreational fisheries, subsistence fisheries
Other zone types
Funding sources	government
Cultural resources Submerged and land features, resources or landmarks
Fisheries resources	snappers and groupers; other reef fishes; pelagic fishes; estuarine fishes; lobsters; shrimps; conchs; oysters, sea turtles
Fisheries regulations Main fisheries regulations of the site	Comercial fisheries not allow
Coastal development Construction regulations	prohibited within the site
Beach management selected from: beach nourishment, vegetation restoration, beach sand cleaning regulations, groins, wave breakers, construction restrictions	vegetation restoration, beach sand cleaning regulations, construction restrictions
Monitoring programmes selected from: coral reef health, coral reef resilience, fish surveys, ReefCheck, sea turtles, SocMon, other socioeconomic monitoring program, user patterns, water quality monitoring	coral reef health, sea turtles
Other monitoring programmes
Issues or threats for accomplishing management objectives	Lack of personnel and equipment. REgulations infringement are common.
Role of site in network
Areas of special expertise for knowledge transfer	comanagement with local organizations

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