The Costa Rican government hopes that its Central American neighbors will take advantage of the upcoming meeting of the region's environment ministers, in Managua, Mar 10-14, to make commitments to improve management of protected areas. The meeting, the first in the context of the Mesoamerican Congress of Protected Areas, will evaluate the situation of the seven Central American countries and four southern Mexican states.

The Mesoamerican region holds 597 areas with different levels of protection for preservation. They cover a total of 164,000 square km, or 22.4 percent of the region's land area.