Geodiversity and Geoconservation in Central America: Comparison
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Please note this is a comparison between Version 2 by Jason Zhu and Version 1 by Adolfo Quesada-Román.

Central America is located in a dynamic region where tectonics and volcanism together with the tropical climate and its diverse vegetation have shaped the landscapes. 

  • geoheritage
  • geodiversity
  • geomorphosites
  • geosites
  • geotourism

1. Current Studies

1.1. Geodiversity of Central America

Due to their tropical nature, fluvial environments dominate the geographical features of the Central American isthmus with several water basins, lakes, and wetlands. The region catchments normally drain to the Pacific Ocean or the Caribbean Sea. The biggest catchments in the Pacific basin are Lempa, Tempisque, and Térraba, while in the Caribbean basin, the biggest catchments are Belize, Saarstoon, Motagua, Ulua, Patuca, Coco, Matagalpa, San Juan, Reventazón-Parismina, and Sixaola. Large lakes are located along the region in Guatemala (e.g., Atitlán, Amatitlán, Izabal), Belize (e.g., Challilo, Northern and Southern), El Salvador (e.g., Coatepeque, Ilopango, Olomega), Honduras (e.g., Yojoa, Caratasca, Tansin, Warunta;), Nicaragua (e.g., Xolotlán, Cocibolca), Costa Rica (e.g., Arenal), and Panama (e.g., Gatún, Bayano). Moreover, wetlands are common in the region, providing important ecological services as carbon sinks, water sources, coastal protection, and biodiversity refuges.
Another important geomorphic environment in Central America is the volcanic landscape. The physiographic provinces indicate the distribution of these landscapes along the Chortis, Nicaraguan, and Chorotega volcanic fronts. Some examples of Central American volcanoes are Tacaná, Tajumulco, Atitlán, Fuego, Santa María, de Agua, and Pacaya (Guatemala); San Vicente, Chinameca, San Miguel, and Conchagua (El Salvador); Amapala (Honduras); Cosiguina, Cerro Negro, Telica, Masaya, Momotombo, Mombacho, and Concepción (Nicaragua); Rincón de la Vieja, Tenorio, Miravalles, Arenal, Poás, Irazú, and Turrialba (Costa Rica), Barú, and La Yeguada (Panamá). Moreover, volcanic geomorphic environments comprise large mountain ranges with dozens of erosional and depositional landforms along the isthmus.
The region features the Caribbean and Pacific coasts with plenty of landforms. Central America’s Pacific coasts are normally intricated and rocky, alternating with sandy beaches (pocket or large), deltas, estuaries, and rich ecosystems such as mangroves and coral reefs (the latter usually of small dimensions). The Caribbean coasts of the region are normally sandy, elongated, and eventually influenced by coral reefs, and large wetlands (estuarine, palustrine, and lacustrine), drawing the fluvial flatlands transition with the Caribbean Sea.
Karst environments are mostly in the north of the region but are present throughout the study area. Cone and tower karst are common in northern Central America, especially in Guatemala and Honduras, while doline karst is typical of small zones of Nicaragua, Costa Rica, and Panama. Among the common landforms in the region are karstic hills (cones, cockpit, and tower type), sinkholes, caves, and other subsidence or collapse structures such as underground rivers. Glacial landscapes are limited to certain areas of Guatemala and Costa Rica. The highest summits of Alto de los Cuchumatanes in Guatemala and Chirripó National Park in Costa Rica present erosional and depositional landforms derived from the glacial and periglacial during the Last Glacial Maximum (approximately 21 ka ago).
The regular geomorphic environments in Central America are volcanic, fluvial, coastal, karstic, and paleoglacial. Hence, the typical geosites are volcanic, fluvial, karstic, coastal, and archeological in origin. Researchers found that waterfalls are located along the isthmus, which is a regular feature due to its formation in mountain landscapes. Volcanoes and their features are common landforms that mostly border the Pacific coast with some exceptions. Attractive rivers sites were mostly found in Nicaragua, Honduras, and Guatemala, but these geosites are impressive along the whole isthmus. Natural reserves are common geosites in Guatemala, but they are related with protected areas that are extensively present in the region and even have well-established biological corridors. Mountains are common landforms in the region due to their tectonic and volcanic activity. Lakes and lagoons are common fluvial landforms mostly located in Nicaragua and northern Central America. Karst features such as caves and dolines are more common in northern Central America due to their older geological formations. Coastal geoforms are rich and diverse in the region. Archeological sites are mostly located in northern Central America due to their vast indigenous history related to important groups such as the Mayans.

1.2. Geoconservation State of the Art in Central America

During the early 1980s, the cultural heritage policies developed a better understanding of the valuable assets the region possesses and how they can promote them through science and local knowledge. From the early 1990s, the environment, climate change, protected areas, and wetlands laws were enacted regionally and nationally to protect their natural resources but mostly to manage them in a sustainable manner to encounter an equilibrium with local communities and private sector interests.
The decade of 1990 marks the official beginning of the wetlands’ protection in the region. These ecosystems have been intensively altered during the last centuries in Central America due to the land use change and pollution. These environmental policies have substantially improved the status of these regional ecosystems. Wetlands such as lakes, lagoons, swamps, and mangroves provide immense potential for geoconservation and geotourism due to their great geo- and biodiversity. These environments have been favored by large wetlands territories protection along Central America.

1.3. Geotourism Basis in Central America

In Central America, different national policies were enacted to promote and organize the tourism sector in the last five decades. Some countries such as Costa Rica and Guatemala initiated a process that is widespread in the region nowadays. The economic influence of tourism has a direct impact on the GDP percentage of the national economies of the region. The mean direct contribution of tourism in the region has been growing from roughly 3% in 1995 to 6% in 2018. Tourism represented almost 15% of Belize’s GDP in 2018, while it represented almost 3% for Guatemala. All countries showed a marked deacceleration after the economic crisis of 2008. Moreover, tourism promotes effective economic chains that involve transportation, accommodation, food, and entertainment in every possible scale, generating economic growth. The sustained economic growth tourism in the region is closely related to an environmental consciousness and compromise translated into natural, climatic change, and protected areas policies over the last few decades.

2. Discussion

2.1. Geodiversity Richness of Central America

Researchers produced a geodiversity qualitative assessment that represents the different geomorphic units that compose Central America and gives a regional perspective of its geodynamics [57][1]. Due to their tropical nature, fluvial environments dominate the geographical features of the Central American isthmus with several water basins, lakes, and wetlands [42,46][2][3]. These environments are key for human activities, which are affected by droughts related with ENSO or extreme rainfall events due to the influence of tropical cyclones or cold fronts. Most of the population is located near rivers, lakes, and wetlands producing a continuous pressure on their ecosystems despite their importance. Another important geomorphic environment in Central America is the volcanic landscape [41][4]. These landscapes have a key function in fertile soils for agriculture, underground water recharge, human settlements, and tourism, especially in mountain regions. Nonetheless, volcanic active regions can be hazardous as have been seen in the region in the past.
The region features the Caribbean and Pacific coasts with plenty of landforms [58,59][5][6]. Pacific coasts present several deltas with extensive mangrove forests, elongated and pocket beaches, and impressive landforms such as arches, spits, tombolos, islands, bays, and gulfs. Caribbean coasts present elongated beaches, extensive lagoons and bars, massive coral reefs, and archipelagos. Karst environments are mostly in the north of the region but are present throughout the study area [60][7]. Karst in Central America is normally located in large mountainous systems and caverns, where a wide variety of erosional and depositional landforms appear. Glacial landscapes are limited to certain areas of Guatemala and Costa Rica [61][8]. The highest summits of Alto de los Cuchumatanes in Guatemala [62][9] and Chirripó National Park in Costa Rica [63,64,65][10][11][12] present erosional and depositional landforms derived from the glacial and periglacial during the Last Glacial Maximum (approximately 21 ka ago).

2.2. Geoconservation Potential of Central America

The extensive protected areas and environment laws in Central America have favored indirectly a tremendous platform to promote continental and marine geoconservation [66,67,68,69,70][13][14][15][16][17]. Moreover, these national protection systems have a well-established system of biological corridors [71][18]. These protected areas must consider and enhance their promotion through the rich cultural and indigenous knowledge present in Central America [72,73][19][20]. Moreover, these protected areas can be turned into geoparks to promote their spectacular geosites even more [74][21]. Nonetheless, community-based initiatives can lead to the creation of new geoparks. In 2017, Chirripó (Costa Rica) and Rio Coco (Nicaragua) applied to become UNESCO Global Geoparks [75][22]. Rio Coco is the first geopark in Central America; since July 2020, it has acquired 12 geosites with geological, aesthetic, and cultural values to promote sustainable tourism, education, and research [76][23]. Other studies in Costa Rica have conducted geoheritage inventories and evaluations as baselines to create geoparks in Poás and Irazú volcanoes [18,19][24][25] and Chirripó [20][26], which became national parks many decades ago.
Geoheritage conservation, the task of safeguarding and managing the most valued geological, geomorphological, hydrological, soil, and paleontology sites, is a growing challenge worldwide [77,78][27][28]. Central America’s society is fortunate to live in a geodiverse region, since this brings a huge range of benefits [79][29]. Researchers must be clear in indicating that these are only reported as common interesting touristic places and geosites that can be taken into consideration for future geoheritage assessments. It is highly probable that by increasing the analysis scale, more impressive geosites will emerge in every country, region, and locality [57][1]. Only the expansion of geoheritage studies at different scales inside every country of Central America will provide better analyses and inventories that can eventually result in increasing revenues for the local communities [80,81][30][31].

2.3. Prospective Geotourism for Central America

From the mid-1990s to 2012, the annual economic indicators per country showed that international tourism had a highly significant impact on the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) per capita and a positive impact on the economic development of the region [82][32]. Moreover, Central America has demonstrated a higher efficiency than other regions in the world, securing larger shares of tourist arrivals [83][33]. The promotion of geotourism through protected areas and popular natural attractions will increase socioeconomic, cultural, and environmental knowledge and promotion of the actions taken at municipalities. Municipalities should ensure the well-being and opportunities of their inhabitants. Accessibility is linked to the possibility to reach unique geological and geomorphological features, is an important property of the Central American geosites, and is commonly considered in their assessment [84][34]. Moreover, geoheritage must be promoted and taught through informative panels, brochures, and easy-access key data [85][35]. Therefore, territorial governance must include geoconservation studies to protect their geoheritage and promote it through geotourism.

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