COSTA RICA The Forests of Eden

With its lush rainforests, mist-shrouded volcanoes and abundant wildlife, Costa Rica is a vision of a tropical Eden. Stretched between two oceans and straddling Central America's rugged continental divide, it is among the most beautiful countries in the western hemisphere.

Costa Rica is recognized as a pioneer in the enviromental movement. In the early 1970s the goverment set out to protect the rich natural heritage by creating one of the most important systems of national parks and reserves in the world. This network of protected areas now comprises more than 15 percent of the entire country, including samples of Costa Rica's many varied life zones from highland cloud forest to dry coastal scrub and offshore coral reefs.

Kevin Schafer has been able to record much of this landscape and wildlife during five expeditions that took him to the rainforest of Corcovado on the Pacific coast, to the dry forest of the northwest, to the volcanoes, and to the mountains of the Talamanca Range. Through his vivid photographs and engaging text he creates a compelling portrait of an exotic tropical paradise.

Kevin Schafer is an awardd-winning nature photographer whose pictures have been published in major magazines around the world, including Smithsonian, Audobon, and National Geographic. He has documented Central American rain forest more extensively than any other American photographer.