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HIGHLAND HERITAGE NEOTROPICAL CLOUDFOREST RESERVE
Costa
Rica is one of the most biodiverse places on earth. It has:
more
species of birds than in the whole of Canada and the US combined
more
species of butterfly than in the whole of Africa
as
many plant species as the whole of Europe
alongside
1,300 species of orchid.
If
the world is made a safer place for wildlife, it becomes a better place for
people as well.
HIGHLAND HERITAGE FOREST RESERVE
  Highland Heritage is a private
forest and nature reserve affiliated with the Costa Rican Network of Private Nature Reserves.
While
relatively small in size at 2,000 acres, it is an extraordinary reserve in terms
of biological richness and diversity, with an enviable and unique location in the Talamanca
Mountains adjacent and contiguous to La Amistad InterFrontier Park -
a World Heritage Site.
A
pristine primary cloudforest, it is refreshingly cool, misty and filled with
brilliantly coloured, heart achingly beautiful orchids, bromeliads and numerous
species of wildlife including all six neotropical cats.
 A
number of streams start their life in the hills at Highland Heritage, joining
the three rivers which rise in the high mountains, to cascade through the cloudforest in a magical mix of cataracts, pools and waterfalls.
Due to the rugged terrain at Highland Heritage, the rivers and streams tumble in
a continuous chain of cataracts and waterfalls - perhaps 100 or more; some are
all but impossible to reach. The highest single-drop falls are 85-metres
(280-feet). The miles of rivers open the forest canopy to brightly coloured
plants while on their way to converge and form the Rio Cabagra.
The Cordillera de Talamanca
is the highest and wildest non-volcanic mountain range in Central America,
formed by the orogenic activity which created the land dividing the Pacific
Ocean from the Caribbean Sea, and contains the largest tracts of virgin forest
remaining in Costa Rica.
 The higher areas lie within montane
rainforest; a dense, low and heavily covered forest with bryophytes, ferns,
bromeliads, orchids and other epiphytes. Species diversity is perhaps unequalled
in any other reserve of equivalent size in the world, due to the convergence of
the flora of North and South America and varied climatic and edaphic factors. It
includes some 10,000 flowering plant, more than 4,000 non-vascular plant, 80% of
the country's moss, about 900 lichen (almost all the known species in Costa
Rica) and approximately 1,000 fern species.
 The
flora is extremely diverse, with intermigrations from both North and South
America - Costa Rica being a land bridge between the two continents and a mixing
bowl of species from both. With 115 species of fish, 250 species of reptile and
amphibian, 215 species of mammal, and 560 species of bird it is a nature lovers
paradise. All six species of neotropical cat are found - jaguar, puma (mountain
lion), ocelot, margay, oncilla (tiger cat) and jaguarundi - and also Central
American tapir, capuchin monkey and spider monkey.
 Avian life is prolific with species
including the nation's largest population of the legendary resplendent quetzal,
bare-necked umbrella bird (both altitudinal migratory birds who migrate between
different altitudes on the same mountain), three-wattled bellbird, harpy eagle
(with a wing span of up to 8-feet), crested eagle, solitary eagle, the rare
orange-breasted falcon, sulphur winged parakeet and hummingbird.
Some 75 percent of all migrating
birds in the Western Hemisphere converge twice yearly on La Amistad Reserve. If
you are interested in insects there is no point in even trying to provide a
number to represent their diversity because new species are being discovered at
an amazing rate.
According
to UNEP (United Nations Environment Programme), no
other park in the world possesses as many
species and such a wealth of fauna as La Amistad in Costa Rica.
La
Amistad National Park
La Amistad
Biosphere Reserve is a 2-million acre cloud forest, considered one of the
western hemisphere's most biodiverse regions.
 La
Amistad is the largest most remote National Park in Costa Rica and protects
widely diverse habitats, from tropical lowland rainforest, to cloud forests and
the northernmost occurrence of the tundra-like paramo ecosystem in the world.
Much of the park has never been explored.
La Amistad extends
past the international frontier into Panama and is the largest protected region
in Costa Rica, with more virgin forest than ALL of the other parks put together.
It has been estimated that about two-thirds of the total species found in Costa
Rica live here.
 At the crossroads of continents, the park displays many of the Mesoamerica
hotspot's 24,000 species of plants - 5,000 of which are found nowhere else. As
one of the largest protected areas in Mesoamerica, this international park also
anchors the Mesoamerican Biological Corridor - an eight-country effort to create
a seamless forest throughout the Mesoamerica hotspot. The corridor is being
developed from protected, indigenous, community and private lands extending from
southern Mexico through Guatemala, Belize, El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua,
Costa Rica and Panama.
Its
span of soil types and altitudes, combined with its location, gives La Amistad
an unusual concentration of ecosystems. From sea level to the highest peaks, the
park's ten distinct life zones encompass coastal mangroves and lowland
rainforest, rising to subalpine ecosystems.
In addition to its
fauna and flora, the park protects the largest and most important watersheds of
the major rivers in both Panama and Costa Rica.
La Amistad is of
central cultural importance in the region too. The majority of two countries'
indigenous populations live in or around this protected area. It is home to 80%
of Costa Rica's indigenous residents.
Archaeological
sites have been found along major water courses and nearby pre-ceramic sites
have been discovered dating back more than 12,000 years - such sites are
extremely rare in Central America. Skilfully created elaborate zoomorphic and
anthropomorphic gold ornaments and jewellery point to the cultural development
of pre-Columbian man in the area over the last 3,000 years.
Transcontinental
Talamanca Trek
From Highland Heritage
you can continue over the Talamanca Mountains at
2,900m (9,500ft) alongside the peak of Cerro Utyum 3,070m (10,080ft). The vistas
here are, as you would anticipate, truly spectacular. This trail provides access
to La Amistad Park before dropping down through the Valle de Talamanca,
eventually connecting to the Caribbean Sea via the indigenous villages of
Kichugueccha, Bribri and Coroma. Highland Heritage provides access to La Amistad
and nearby peaks.
 It
takes about 8-10 days to complete the amazing 60-km trek across the continental
divide, which is both a physical and mental challenge, but also an unforgettable
experience.
The
nature of the terrain can be extremely difficult in places, with slopes between
25 and 50 degrees, some of them reaching 70 degrees. In this case, the energy
required by the trekkers is demanding. Rivers and streams are relatively common
and one of them, the Rio Cohen, can present difficulty in crossing during
periods of continuous rainfall.
There
are no real trails such as we know, the paths being along riverbeds and those of
large mammals such as the tapir and jaguar, making progress sometimes slow and
difficult. The path is
often obstructed by fallen trees, branches, lianas and spiny plants, making the
hike difficult with a heavy backpack (it is possible to have Indian packers).
Usually, groups hike every day from 7.00 am to 4.00 pm with a light meal at
noon, but the schedule can vary according to the group's needs or capacity: it
can be extended to more days but rarely reduced and the longer it lasts, the
more food that has to be carried.
The
amazing 'strangler' trees at Highland Heritage
(Pictures
above and right): The forest floor of a rainforest is a difficult place for
seedlings to grow. There is little light and a lot of competition for water and
nutrients. This is where the fig tree scores over many other species in that
they grow in reverse - downwards rather than upwards: their seeds being
deposited by birds and animals high in the canopy branches, where the plants can
enjoy sunlight and intercept aerial-borne nutrients contained in rain, mist and
dust.
They
send out roots that slowly snake their way down the host tree or dangle
as aerial roots from its branches, eventually reaching the ground - sometimes
taking several years - where they put on a growth spurt. Finally able to draw
nutrients from the soil (and competing with the host tree), they continue to
grow, both upwards and in width using the host tree as support, until eventually
they engulf the tree in a web of roots and branches, reaching their goal to
become a tall and freestanding tree with branches, leaves, fruits and flower.
The
host tree then dies, both from being shaded out, root competition, and from the
strangler's constrictive pressure, eventually decaying completely and leaving a
huge, hollow strangler fig in its place. Wildlife thrives on the sweet fruit of
the fig tree and figs are considered a 'keystone' species because they are so
important to the animals of the rainforest in bearing fruit several times a
year. Different species fruit at different times so that there is always a
supply of food for animals that depend on such fruit as a major part of their
diet. During lean times many primates and birds feed almost exclusively on fig
fruit.
Although
strangler figs are still abundant - and the many giant strangler fig trees at
Highland Heritage are impressive indeed - old forests with mature fig trees are
being lost every year through logging. New growth trees which replace the fig
are usually of a single species and fruit at the same time. Animals that relied
on the plentiful, year-round fruit of the fig trees either starve or move away.
Most will not return to the area.
ORCHIDS
 It's
appropriate that the orchid is the national flower of Costa Rica - the March
blooming purple cattleya skinneri (guaria moradoa in Spanish). The
country has more than 1200 identified species, the richest orchid flora in Central America. Countless others await discovery. Two new species of orchid were recently discovered here by German botanists. At any time of the year you will find dozens of
species in bloom, from sea level to the subfreezing highest peaks. There is no best time for viewing orchids although the beginning of both the dry season (especially the wettest
rainforest regions) and wet season can be particularly favourable times.
 Not
only are orchids the largest family of flowering plants, they're also the most
diverse. Some are almost microscopic with flowers less than one millimetre
across, others have pendulant petals that can reach more than half a metre. Some
flower for just a day, others will last several weeks, and one flowers only at
night. For the best orchid 'experience' visit cloud forests, for the greatest
diversity exists in humid - not wet - mid-elevations where they are abundant as
tropical epiphytes. One biologist found 47 different species growing on the
same tree.
 Orchids
have evolved a remarkable array of ingenious pollination techniques. Some
species self-pollinate. Others attract insects by impersonation. One, for
example, produces flowers that closely resemble the form of a female wasp
complete with eyes, antennae, and wings - it even gives off the odor of a female
wasp in mating condition. Another species drugs its visitors. Bees clamber into
its throat and sip a nectar so intoxicating that after the merest taste they
become so inebriated they lose their footing and slip into a bucket of liquid.
Escape is offered up a spout and as the drunken insect totters up, it has to
wriggle beneath an overhanging rod which showers its back with pollen.
 
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