The Fundación Salvemos al Manatí de Costa Rica was originally created in 1996 by a group of Costa Ricans interested in research and conservation of this aquatic mammal. The Foundation’s origins come from the community of Tortuguero, which gives name to one of Costa Rica’s best-known national parks. Tortuguero serves as an excellent example of a remote community whose standard of living has improved dramatically with the establishment of a neighboring protected area. Nowadays, ecotourism has become the main source of income for local people. Such tourism has been traditionally focused towards green turtle nesting on the Tortuguero National park’s beaches. Due to the attractiveness of such turtle nesting, the attention of most tourists and park managers has been centered on local beaches, forgetting those biologically rich freshwater wetlands and lowland rainforest that define local landscape. Fernando and Lily Figuls, as owners of a small hotel within the community and main promoters of the Foundation, identified this lack of attention towards local wetlands and rainforests, and especially towards one of their most charismatic species : the West Indian manatee.

Tortugero National Park, Costa Rica

In 1996 two research teams — one coming from Berkeley and another from Costa Rica’s Universidad Nacional — started two simultaneous studies aimed to assess the conservation status of the West Indian manatee in Northeastern Costa Rica. Until then, there were only popular rumors about the species’ existence, while manatees where considered as extinct in Costa Rican scientific circles. Those two studies were the first research activities supported by our Foundation. Through them, we discovered that there is still a viable manatee population in Costa Rica, with Tortuguero National Park and its environs serving as its main stronghold.
In 2000 the field biologists related to the Universidad Nacional who had been previously doing manatee research in Costa Rica and neighboring Nicaragua joined the Foundation. Nowadays, the Fundación Salvemos al Manatí de Costa Rica is made up of local leaders, business people and scientists.