Espadarana prosoblepon Chrysothemis pulchella

Chrysothemis pulchella
Espadarana prosoblepon
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Studying, saving, using biodiversity
The pillars of INBio’s endeavors
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Biodiversity in Costa Rica
Diaethria marchalii
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Biodiversity
The term “biodiversity” refers to all forms of life found
on the planet. Biodiversity is a resource with enormous
potential as a tool for the sustainable development of
a nation.
categories, representing 26.2% of the national
territory. Ten percent of the land area is in systems
for the payment of environmental services to aid
their conservation.
• Although it has only 51,100 km2 of land surface
(0.03% of the world’s land area) and 589,000 km2
of territorial seas, Costa Rica is categorized as one
of the 20 most biodiverse countries in the world.
• The main drivers of change in national biodiversity for
species as well as ecosystems are climate change,
loss of habitat or changes in land use, and the
unsustainable extraction or overexploitation of
natural resources.
• Costa Rica stands out in terms of its density of
organisms (number of individuals per unit area); to
date, no other country is known to have more or
even as many species in an area of similar size.
Source: Vilma Obando, INBio, 2011, with the assistance of Jesús Ugalde, INBio
• Amphibians are the group with the most endangered
or threatened species at 45 percent.
• The country is “extremely” diverse in forest
ecosystem organisms (one of the nine richest
countries).
• The nation’s conservation effort includes 169
protected wildlands in various management
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Around 20% of the species expected for Costa Rica are known.
Orthoptera Tettigoniidae
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Pitcairnia heterophylla
Costa Rica has a highly diverse array of terrestrial, marine and freshwater ecosystems thanks to
its geographic position, enormous climatic and topographical variability, large mountain chains,
and the influence of the Pacific Ocean and Caribbean Sea.
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In Costa Rica, forest cover is expanding and it is still the prevailing land use today.
Passiflora apetala
Background
The National Biodiversity Institute (INBio) was founded in 1989. This private organization was established in the
public interest because it makes scientific knowledge about the country’s biological diversity available to civil society
in order to promote the sustainable use of biodiversity and improve the quality of life of the people.
INBio carries out its tasks in close collaboration with governmental entities and the private sector, as well as with
universities and scientific institutions, both national and international.
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Mission, Vision, Values
Mission
Values
To promote greater awareness of the value of
biodiversity as a means of ensuring its conservation
and improving the quality of life of human beings.
Vision
INBio will make nature the central axis of the nation’s
culture, educational processes and competitive
strengths. It will become a hub of scientific
development in order to guide the use of Costa
Rica’s natural capital, becoming the most prestigious
institution in Latin America in its field
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Commitment
Service
Transparency
Integrity
Respect
Equity and justice
Responsibility
Innovation and leadership
INBio discovers
a new species
every 2.5 days
on average
and these are
represented in
its taxonomic
collections that
contain more
than 28,000
species for the
country, mainly
insects (47%) and
plants (37%).
Approximately
29.9% of all
Costa Rican
species (ca.
95,000) have
been described.
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Work Areas
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Gerronema strombodes
INBio’s inventory
of Costa Rican
biodiversity includes
mainly arthropods,
plants and fungi, with
3,627,022 specimens
catalogued as of
December 2010, most
of which are insects
(83%). A total of 3321
species new to science
have been discovered.
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Work Areas
Science and Technology
In the area of science and technology, INBio generates
information on Costa Rican biodiversity at the level
of species, genes or other components. INBio also
studies the genes and molecules of plants, insects,
marine organisms and microorganisms, searching
for sustainable uses of this biodiversity that might be
useful in the pharmaceutical, medical, biotechnological,
cosmetic, nutritional or agricultural industries. The work
units for arthropods, botany and fungi conduct inventory
and monitoring programs and study the natural history
of organisms. The collection today contains about four
million specimens of 28,000 species found in Costa
Rica, many of them new to science.
SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY VIDEO
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Information and Communication Technologies
The Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) area creates digital technology and promotes its efficient
and innovative use in the generation, integration and dissemination of knowledge about Costa Rica’s biodiversity
that is relevant to scientific research, decision making, policy formulation and environmental education.
Outstanding applications have been created for inventory and biological monitoring information management and
for the development of natural products. Examples include the Atta System for managing information on Costa
Rica’s biodiversity, web portals for the integration of information on biodiversity of a country or region, virtual learning
communities on biodiversity topics, and ecological and biogeographical analysis systems.
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Education and Communication
The efforts of the Education and Communication area support the varied fields of INBio’s research in order to
disseminate the scientific information and knowledge generated in a language that is comprehensible to the general
public. It also serves the needs of journalists, academics and opinion shapers seeking information on INBio or
biodiversity in Costa Rica.
This area also oversees the fulfillment and strengthening of the objectives in INBio’s Educational Strategy through
the coordination of educational projects in environmental, scientific and technological subjects aimed at different
target publics, including primary and secondary education centers. The unit also offers training on scientific topics
about biodiversity, its uses, interpretation and environmental education. This training is tailored to meet the needs of
the target public, including natural science professionals, families, schools, high schools, universities, businesses
and other private and state institutions.
EDUCATION AND COMMUNICATION VIDEO
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Conservation
The conservation area incorporates
the information that INBio generates
into decision-making processes for
the protection and sustainable use of
biodiversity, in the public as well as the
private sector. INBio works closely with
the National Conservation Area System
(SINAC) and is considered a strategic
partner for the conservation of the nation’s
biodiversity. The geographic information
system and remote sensing unit generates
information on Costa Rica’s ecosystems
for the production of land cover, soil
use, ecosystem and other maps. This
information has positioned INBio as a
contributor of vital information for territorial
planning and management with a view
toward conserving natural capital.
CONSERVATION VIDEO
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Enterprise Management
The enterprise management area is in charge of satisfying the needs of institutions, businesses, the pharmaceutical
industry and people (national and international) for the sustainable management of biodiversity in their activities
or projects. It has its own platform of investigators and partners as well as proven protocols and methodologies for
conducting varied studies on biodiversity and its sustainable use.
Through its advisory and training services, bioprospecting endeavors, publishing business and the INBioparque
venture, this area of the institution has gained experience in generating knowledge on biodiversity, conservation,
protected area management, environmental education, sustainable tourism, bioprospecting, biological inventories,
sustainable landscaping, courses and workshops, digital information management for biodiversity, and more.
Enterprise Management VIDEO
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Credits
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Texts: Unidad de Comunicación y Educación
Design and layout: Leila Calderón
Photos: Ángel Solís, Fabio Hidalgo, Milagro Mata
Videos: Fabio Hidalgo
www.inbio.ac.cr Contact us: info@inbio.ac.cr
Phone: (506) 2507-8100 • Fax: (506) 2507-8274
PO Box: 22-3100 Santo Domingo de Heredia, Costa Rica
Taeniopoda
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