Veragua Rainforest is a top Costa Rica tourist attraction
Veragua Rainforest Eco-Adventure Park is a top nature and adventure tourism attraction, and also an important scientific research center, in Costa Rica’s Caribbean region.
Veragua Rainforest is the largest tourism investment in the history of the Costa Rican province of Limon.
Veragua is a top shore excursion for cruise line passengers docking in the Port of Limon. It is a member of the Florida-Caribbean Cruise Association and founding member of the Costa Rican Cruise Industry Association.
Veragua Rainforest Eco-Adventure Park has been rated No. 1 of Things to Do in the Port of Limon on TripAdvisor for several years.
TripAdvisor has awarded Veragua Rainforest its Certificate of Excellence for six years and counting – 2011, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016 and 2017.
The Original Canopy Tour at Veragua Rainforest has been named the Princess Cruises Tour of the Year on six occasions.
Since 2016, Veragua Rainforest has held the Certificate for Sustainable Tourism from the Costa Rica Tourism Board (ICT). The very stringent CST process honors the Costa Rica adventure park for its sustainable tourism practices.
Since 2016, Veragua Rainforest Park has operated almost solely using clean energy, thanks to a state-of-the-art solar energy power system it installed.
Nearly all of the facilities at Veragua Rainforest Park are wheelchair accessible and are designed to be safe and simple for all ages to get around.
Veragua has won three architectural awards for ecologically sustainable construction.
Veragua Rainforest Eco-Adventure Park was inaugurated on July 4, 2008 by Nobel-laureate and former Costa Rican President Oscar Arias.
Original investors of Veragua Rainforest included The Nature Conservancy and Conservation International.
The Veragua Foundation for Rainforest Research is an acclaimed international scientific research center
Veragua’s team of biologists partners with the University of Costa Rica (UCR) and international scientists to preserve the area’s abundant population of amphibians, reptiles, mammals, insects and birds.
More than 11 new animal species have been discovered at Veragua’s private rainforest reserve, and 15 endangered species have been recorded living in the area.
In April 2018, the Foundation for Rainforest Research and Preservation (“Veragua Foundation”) joined with the Tropical Science Center (TSC) in an important and strategic alliance for research, tourism and sustainability in Costa Rica.
Since 2017, biologists at Veragua Rainforest are partnering with the University of Costa Rica to document climate change effects to help Costa Rica meet its commitments under the Paris Agreement on Climate Change and the country’s goal to achieve carbon neutrality.
Biologists at the Veragua Foundation for Rainforest Research reported five new species of butterflies in Costa Rica in 2018, and are working to document more new species. Almost 23 percent of the known 379 species of butterflies in Costa Rica have been found at Veragua.
Since 2013, Harvard University professor Jonathan Losos – Professor of Organismic and Evolutionary Biology, and the Curator in Herpetology at the Museum of Comparative Zoology – has led student educational trips to Costa Rica. He calls Veragua Rainforest “an anole Mecca” for the wealth of anole lizards found there.
Veragua is the most frog-plentiful place in Costa Rica, with 54 distinct frog species recorded there.
During the 2012 Christmas Bird Count in Costa Rica, on Dec. 5 at Veragua Rainforest, a record-breaking 417 different bird species were sighted in a 24-hour period – the highest number registered in Central America.
Veragua Rainforest leads the way in environmental education and community outreach
Student groups come to Veragua Rainforest from around Costa Rica and the world to study and learn about the Neotropical ecosystem.
In 2017, Veragua Rainforest began offering environmental education programs that focus on conservation of rainforest animals and plants, climate change research, and STEM education.
Veragua Rainforest is the largest employer in their community.
Veragua Rainforest helps support two elementary schools in the local communities of Brisas de Veragua de Limon and Union of the Peje River. Over the past 10 years, Veragua Rainforest has assisted with infrastructure building and maintenance, school supplies for the children, and environmental education classes.
In 2017 and 2018, the Veragua Foundation partnered with Ecoteach Foundation and Ecoteach Travel of the USA to give school supplies to more than 50 children at these two rural schools.
Since 2010, Veritas University in Costa Rica has partnered with Veragua Rainforest on a groundbreaking series of seminars and courses to develop innovative, sustainable product designs based on biomimicry.
Veragua Rainforest actively engages in reforestation projects in the community, where trees were cut for farming and ranching.
Veragua Rainforest works to prevent illegal poaching of protected native wildlife. Over the past 10 years, illegal hunting has greatly reduced and animals have returned to the surrounding forest.
In July 2018, the Veragua Foundation was accepted by Amigos de Costa Rica, an initiative of the Costa Rica–USA Foundation (CRUSA), to receive donations in the United States via 501(c)3 status.