Guanacaste Dry Forest Conservation Fund

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Supporting dry forest, cloud forest and rain forest conservation, education and research in the Area de Conservacion Guanacaste, Costa Rica.

09/29/2026

09/16/2026

Our latest newsletter is out! 🌿

From 1.6 million insects helping scientists rethink the number of insect species on Earth, to community science in Bahía Santa Elena, new climate research from Volcán Cacao, and a wonderful profile of Dan Janzen and Winnie Hallwachs—there has been a lot happening in ACG.

Plus, meet a few newly named species (including Rex and Jenny!).

You can read it here: https://mailchi.mp/847ec6fd5bde/greetings-from-the-rainy-season

Photo: Freddy Quesada

08/24/2026

What an incredible story to see in Mongabay today. 💚🌳

Mongabay founder Rhett Ayers Butler has written a beautiful feature about Dan Janzen, Winnie Hallwachs, and the decades-long work of restoring and protecting what is now Área de Conservación Guanacaste (ACG).

It is a story about bringing back a forest—but also about what it actually takes to keep that forest alive.

Removing cattle was only the beginning. Fires had to be stopped. Land had to be protected. Children had to grow up knowing the forest. Local people became parataxonomists, educators, firefighters, researchers, and conservation professionals. Scientists, communities, government, and donors had to keep showing up, year after year and decade after decade.

And they did.

Today, forest grows where cattle once grazed. ACG protects an extraordinary sweep of ecosystems from the Pacific Ocean through tropical dry forest and up into cloud and rain forest. And the biodiversity research begun decades ago continues to produce discoveries that are changing our understanding of life on Earth.

We are especially grateful that this article recognizes the enormous contributions of Winnie and the generations of Costa Ricans whose knowledge, commitment, and daily work have made ACG what it is today.

Thank you, Rhett, for capturing this extraordinary—and still unfolding—story.

Read it here:

In northwestern Costa Rica, the forest did not return all at once. First the cattle were removed. Then the fires had to be stopped. Introduced grasses made the old ranchlands burn too easily. Fence lines had to be watched. Seeds had to arrive by wind, birds, bats, and the stomachs of passing animals...

08/24/2026

Give a listen to this radio podcast featuring GDFCF Board Member Dr. Alex Smith speaking about the recent PNAS paper on tropical insects and climate change - all based on research done here in Área de Conservación Guanacaste! Alex's segment starts 15 minutes into the podcast.

Jonathan responds to your texts and tweets, is joined in studio for all the latest science stories for Newsround and speaks to one of our two guests featured on the show. CONVERSATION THAT COUNTS | Ireland’s national independent talk station for news, sport, analysis and entertainment Listen to Ne...

08/19/2026

En un sector como Murciélago, donde el bosque terrestre se conecta directamente con ecosistemas marino-costeros, este riesgo debe tomarse con seriedad. Lo que ocurre en la ladera puede llegar al manglar, a la playa o al mar.

08/14/2026

A skipper butterfly 🦋 in the genus Epargyreus and family Hesperiidae laying her eggs in Área de Conservación Guanacaste - Photo by Roster Moraga.

08/10/2026

🐞 What happens when you DNA barcode nearly 4 million insects?

A new publication presents the largest DNA barcode-based inventory of insects across Costa Rica: 3.78 million DNA barcodes representing more than 152,000 species proxies from 28 locations nationwide. Remarkably, only 3.6% of these have been formally described and given scientific names, showing just how much of Costa Rica's insect diversity remains to be discovered.

The study also revealed that Costa Rica's insect communities are highly distinct. Many species occur in just one region or even one locality, reinforcing why protecting a diversity of ecosystems—from tropical dry forest to rainforest to cloud forest—is so important.

Área de Conservación Guanacaste has played a central role in this work through decades of biodiversity inventory, DNA barcoding, and the dedication of the parataxonomists and scientific collaborators.

Congratulations to all of the authors and everyone whose work made this landmark study possible.

https://cdnsciencepub.com/doi/10.1139/gen-2025-0128

07/29/2026

Read the paper in PNAS: https://www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.2533455123

Área de Conservación Guanacaste

07/01/2026

Más de tres décadas de investigación en el ACG transforman la estimación mundial de especies de insectos Este trabajo demuestra que la conservación y la investigación científica de largo plazo generan conocimiento capaz de responder algunas de las preguntas más fundamentales sobre la vida en...

06/30/2026

After 30+ years of continuous research in Costa Rica’s Área de Conservación Guanacaste, we have demonstrated that the planet holds a minimum of 14 to 30 million insect species, shattering the old estimate of 6 million.

This means up to 97% of the world's insects remain a complete mystery.

By analyzing 1.6 million DNA barcodes alongside our local parataxonomists, Drs. Dan Janzen and Winnie Hallwachs, we’ve
built a new baseline for global biology.

For us, conservation is a race to safeguard the secrets of a universe we are just beginning to name.

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Hinesburg, VT & Liberia, Costa Rica
Hinesburg, VT
05461

Website

http://www.gdfcf.org/ways

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