Qualla: Jairo Mora Sandoval Gandoca-Manzanillo Mixed Wildlife Refuge

Jairo Mora Sandoval Gandoca-Manzanillo Mixed Wildlife Refuge: Introduction

Sun, 22 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit John McConnell (flag designer)NASA (Earth photograph)SiBr4 (flag image), Public domain. On the night of May 30, 2013, Jairo Mora Sandoval was returning from a patrol of leatherback turtle nests with four volunteers when masked men ambushed them on a dark beach road. He was 26 years old. His body was found the next morning on Playa Moin, bound and beaten. The wildlife refuge that now carries his name stretches along Costa Rica's southernmost Caribbean coast, where tropical forest meets coral reef and the beaches are swallowed by high tide twice a day. It is a place of extraordinary beauty and unresolved tension -- between poachers and protectors, between conservation mandates and the rights of the communities who were here first.

Image: John McConnell (flag designer)NASA (Earth photograph)SiBr4 (flag image) | Public domain

Jairo Mora Sandoval Gandoca-Manzanillo Mixed Wildlife Refuge: The Man Behind the Name

Sun, 22 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Jacob R. Barnett, CC BY-SA 3.0. Jairo Mora Sandoval grew up along this coast and became a vocal advocate for sea turtle conservation, working to protect the nests of leatherback, green, and hawksbill turtles that lay eggs on the refuge's beaches. His work made him a target. In 2012, he was threatened at gunpoin...

Image: Jacob R. Barnett | CC BY-SA 3.0

Jairo Mora Sandoval Gandoca-Manzanillo Mixed Wildlife Refuge: Roots Along the Shore

Sun, 22 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Jacob R. Barnett, CC BY-SA 3.0. Long before the refuge existed, the Bribri people inhabited this territory. During the 1700s, Afro-descendant fishermen from English Caribbean colonies began migrating seasonally along the coast to hunt sea turtles. In 1828, one fisherman brought his family to what is now Cahuita...

Image: Jacob R. Barnett | CC BY-SA 3.0

Jairo Mora Sandoval Gandoca-Manzanillo Mixed Wildlife Refuge: Conservation and Its Costs

Sun, 22 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Jacob R. Barnett, CC BY-SA 3.0. The refuge's creation raised a question that remains unresolved across the tropics: what happens to the people already living inside a protected area? In the early 2010s, residents of villages like Manzanillo, Punta Cocles, Playa Chiquita, and Punta Uva received notices of impend...

Image: Jacob R. Barnett | CC BY-SA 3.0

Jairo Mora Sandoval Gandoca-Manzanillo Mixed Wildlife Refuge: Where the Forest Meets the Reef

Sun, 22 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Jacob R. Barnett, CC BY-SA 3.0. The refuge protects both land and sea along roughly 15 kilometers of coastline. Coral reefs front beaches backed by tropical forest receiving between 1,950 and 3,000 millimeters of rain annually. It is one of only two places in Costa Rica where manatees still occur. Leatherback, ...

Image: Jacob R. Barnett | CC BY-SA 3.0