Hikers exploring Palo Verde National Park in northwestern Costa
Rica are often surprised to see cattle on the other end of their
binoculars. What they're looking at is a controversy among
scientists over the best way to manage the reserve's wetland
ecosystem.
Before it was officially protected, part of the 23,381-acre
[9,466-hectare] park was a cattle pasture planted with African
bluestem grass, which grows up to six feet high. During the dry
season, fires -- usually set by poachers -- can easily ignite the
grass, and the flames also consume the natural vegetation.
In addition to dry tropical forests, the park protects a mosaic
of rivers, savannas, mangrove swamps, salt-water marshes and
shallow wetlands. The wetlands are a refuge for thousands of
resident and migrant egrets, grebes, ducks, and other waterfowl,
including the endangered jabiru, the world's largest stork.
Grasses are threatening to choke the ecosystem, but since most
swamps in the region have been destroyed by agriculture, Palo
Verde remains Central America's largest and most important
wetland.
Michael McCoy, a biologist with the wildlife management graduate
program at Costa Rica's National University, is working on a
project to restore Palo Verde's wetlands. He claims that grazing
cattle can prevent aquatic grasses from overtaking the wetlands.
The herds are owned by local ranchers, who pay a grazing fee.
While machinery could control the fast-growing grass, McCoy
points out that this method would be expensive for the park
system, since the marshes extend over some 7,400 acres [3,000
hectares].
McCoy contends that since the cattle were introduced in the park
in 1991, incidents of fires have been few, since "the cattle keep
the grass low." He points out that the forest has recovered in
areas that were pasture six years ago, which confirms the role of
cattle as seed dispersers. "If we really want sustainable
development," he concludes, "we must allow the communities
outside the parks to obtain some benefit from them."
On the other side of the fence is Gordon Frankie, a professor of
conservation biology at the University of California at Berkeley
who has studied the region's dry forests for 28 years. He argues
that the cattle eat not only the grass but also tree seedlings.
He also maintains that cattle do not keep the grass so closely
trimmed that fires are avoided; their manure contaminates the
water; and they compact the soil, which eliminates plants
especially tasty to bees and butterflies. "The damage that the
cattle cause outweighs the supposed benefits they give," Frankie
insists. "National parks were not created for grazing cattle.
Now when you enter Palo Verde park, all you see are barbed wire
fences and cattle everywhere."
But park director Gerardo Barboza, plans to increase the number
of marsh-grazing cows, which now number 2,500, and further, to
import water buffalo to graze in the deeper areas of the
wetlands. He points out that the records kept the past five
years show that "the bird population in the park has tripled and
although the cattle have an impact on tree seedlings, the
ecological cost of fires is much greater."
Contacts: Michael McCoy, Universidad Nacional, Apdo. 1350-3000,
Heredia, Costa Rica, tel 506/237-7039, fax 506/237-7036; Gerardo
Barboza, tel-fax 506/671-1062; Gordon Frankie, Bagaces,
Guanacaste, Costa Rica, tel-fax 506/671-1203, USA: tel 510/642-
0973, fax 510/642-7428
This article is provided from the Rainforest Alliance's Tropical Conservation Newsbureau,
based in San Jose,Costa Rica. For more information, contact Diane Jukofsky or Chris Wille,
Rainforest Alliance, Apdo. 138-2150, Moravia, San Jose, Costa Rica; Phone: 506-240-9383;
Fax: 506-240-2543; Email: infotrop@sol.racsa.co.cr
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