Sustainable forest management of the forest and ecological monitoring in two very humid tropical forests of the Northern Zone of Costa Rica

Abstract

An ecological monitoring was carried out on two properties subject to sustainable forest management (SFM), located in the Northern Zone of Costa Rica. For monitoring purposes, the basal area was chosen as the gross filter indicator, and the composition and diversity of diurnal butterflies of the Nymphalidae, Papilionidae and Pieridae families was chosen as a fine filter indicator. The results indicate that forests subjected to SFM , which were also affected by the passage of Hurricane Otto, suffered a significant loss of basal area, which implies adjustments in the new cutting cycle to ensure the recovery of forest areas. It was found that as lower forest cover, the greater abundance, richness and composition of butterflies. In order to use the monitoring of butterflies as an indicator of sustainability, a greater effort is required to achieve the construction of reference lines for this indicator.