Officials Announce Plan to Make Barva National Park

As part of a plan to revitalize the northern province Heredia, Barva Volcano will be made into its own national park in 2009, according to statements from the Arias administration.

Presidency Minister Rodrigo Arias traveled to Barva Sept. 29 to inaugurate a new park ranger office at the entrance of the volcano, currently protected as part of the expansive BraulioCarrilloNational Park.

The so-called Plan Heredia “will have an enormous and positive impact on tourism development in this region, on the conservation of hydrological richness, scenery, flora and fauna, and culture and tradition,” said Arias, who like his brother, President Oscar Arias, grew up in Heredia.

The minister said in the short term, Plan Heredia will create jobs and stimulate investment and infrastructure improvements.

The project will bring in funds from the Universidad Nacional (UNA) and the Costa Rican Tourism Institute (ICT), which together with the government will invest nearly $90,000 by the end of the year.

The project, which involves more than $4 million, will include construction of “environmentally friendly” infrastructure, area roads and volcanic research centers to monitor the inactive Barva and other seismological activity in the Central Valley, the daily La Nación reported.