‘Birds symbolise beauty, joy and a sense of identity to people in Costa Rica’

Daniel Karp is associate professor of conservation biology at the University of California, Davis. He tells Times Evoke about how Costa Rica accommodates both birds and farms:Much of my work studies the impacts of agriculture on wildlife and the other way around. This seeks to understand which opportunities can help us conserve biodiversity alongside people in working landscapes. My research includes locations in both California and Costa Rica where my colleagues and I have found a remarkable number of species in agricultural landscapes. You find a greater abundance of these in diversified farms which have mixed crops, small patches of forests or hedgerows.



Importantly, birds found here are very different to the ones which live in forests. In northwest Costa Rica, we studied a beautiful bird called the long-tailed manakin, coloured blue and black. It sings an amazing song and has a mesmerising ‘lekking’ courtship display where the male birds coordinate and sing and dance to impress their partners. This iconic bird basically exists only in forests.

A NEW HARVEST: Costa Rica’s iconic coffee farms increasingly seek sustainability. Photo: iStock

We are now studying how climate change and habitat conversion to agricultural systems interactively affect such wildlife. One of the biggest findings we’ve had in Costa Rica is that species which persist in agricultural landscapes are able to cope with drier climates — species which are forest associated need damper conditions. This is very important because climate change will impact rainfall and precipitation globally, with Costa Rica expected to get drier in the future. This means agriculture-associated species will be able to navigate such conditions better than forest-dwelling birds. That’ll cause more homogenous communities, with losses in many small-range species, like the emblematic manakin I mentioned.

ITS BEAUTY PAST COMPARE: The flame-coloured tanager is art come to life. Photo: iStock

This is important also from a cultural perspective. In northwest Costa Rica, where I’ve been working recently, we studied the cultural connections people form with birds. Alejandra Echeverri Ochoa, a scholar at Stanford, interviewed people using pictures and songs of birds to ask them what they represented. Multiple people described why these birds were special and meaningful to them and how they helped foster a sense of place and local identity. Forest-associated birds were considered very culturally important for these reasons, beautiful, with charming songs and great value for future generations. It is extremely worrying that they face enhanced risks due to many anthropogenic factors now.

STRIKING A POSE: The slaty-tailed trogon (above) & the speckled tanager (below) are famous






Agriculture-associated birds were seen somewhat less favourably. But, during my dissertation research some years ago, I worked at a coffee plantation in the southern part of Costa Rica. There, we saw birds actually helping farmers — they fed on the coffee berry borer, a primary pest which is most economically damaging. Without the birds, farmers actually faced an infestation — having them meant a big economic benefit with the birds naturally controlling pests. It is also important to note that when farmers maintain natural patches on their lands, conduct multi-cropping and grow trees, they attract more birds which are beneficial to them than ones which could simply eat their crops.



Costa Rica’s farmers have played a very significant role in protecting and nurturing such biodiversity. This is probably one of the most environmentally progressive countries on Earth, with an incredibly large protected area and an amazing pace of transitioning away from fossil fuels. They draw considerable revenue from ecotourism and conservation actions. All these reasons engender a very strong environmental ethic in Costa Rica which, even in the Anthropocene, has abundant tropical forests, enjoying lots of support for these from public quarters. Many countries can learn a lot from their story.