Costa Rica Ties Park Access to Fines and Certification

Costa Rica’s park service is pairing a new certification program for tourist transport companies with fines of up to ₡4.62 million for operators or guides who take visitors into high-risk zones. The rules put access to protected areas under the authority of the National System of Conservation Areas (SINAC), while companies can seek official certification for following its access rules.

Who Controls Access

SINAC and Asotranstur, which represents formal tourist transportation companies, presented Ruta Responsable. The program is intended to help keep visitors out of closed and unauthorized areas of national parks. Tourist transportation companies can seek certification showing that they follow rules for access to protected areas.

The details remain unclear. Information about how companies can apply, what certification requires and how the certification will be displayed publicly wasn’t immediately available. The program’s stated purpose is clear; the process by which companies will demonstrate compliance is not.

The enforcement system already reaches visitors, guides and businesses. A reform to the National Parks Service Law took effect on April 30, penalizing people who enter restricted areas as well as tour operators and guides who promote, sell or lead trips into them. Anyone who enters a restricted sector or breaks park rules faces a fine of three base salaries, currently ₡1.39 million, about $3,040.

The Cost of Crossing a Boundary

Tour operators who advertise or sell trips to unauthorized sites face a fine of ₡3.24 million, about $7,090. Operators or guides who take visitors into high-risk zones face ₡4.62 million, about $10,130, and authorities can confiscate the equipment they used. The law also assigns charges when rescuers enter a restricted area: ₡2.31 million, about $5,060, for each person rescued, plus ₡4.62 million for the responsible guide or operator.

Repeat offenders pay 50% more. SINAC can also bar someone who offends again from protected areas for a year. The penalties therefore extend beyond the person who crosses a boundary: they reach the businesses selling access and, in rescue cases, attach substantial charges to the people rescued and the guide or operator held responsible.

The Tico Times reported that SINAC detected 408 people entering protected areas through unauthorized points between December 2025 and January 2026. Nearly half of those cases were at Irazú Volcano. Officials said more than 2,000 people had been caught entering parks without authorization over the previous three years; the enforcement system now makes the price of violating access rules explicit.

Damage, Risk and the Official Response

Unauthorized visits at Poás Volcano, Chirripó and Corcovado national parks have left illegal trails, abandoned garbage and fires. Poás, one of Costa Rica’s most visited parks, has also drawn warnings about illegal tours near its active crater. Visitors who bypass closures face exposure to volcanic gas and falling material.

No grassroots response, mutual-aid effort or community-organized alternative appears in the account. The measures described are institutional: SINAC’s enforcement powers, legal fines and a certification route for formal tourist transportation companies. Yeimy Cedeño, head of SINAC’s Control and Protection Department, said the fines took effect to deter unauthorized entry and activities. She said those activities cause environmental damage, alter habitats and put threatened or endemic species at risk. Companies may seek a badge of compliance, but the requirements for earning and displaying it have yet to be made public.