Caño Negro, one of Central America’s largest wetland systems, is disappearing. The culprit is no mystery to Andrea Corte, a green leader and stalwart advocate of this vast network of permanent and seasonal lakes, forested wetlands and flooded areas in north-central Costa Rica. In his home in the Costa Rican Central Valley city of Pavas—where he has built a veritable shrine to the wetlands consisting of myriad photos, maps and reports—Corte lays out official Transportation Ministry aerial photographs taken decades ago. Dog-eared at the edges but their images still sharp, they show translucent lakes shimmering beneath flocks of migratory egrets in flight. Fringing the lakes, the tops of enormous trees draped in vines, orchids and bromeliads are discernible even from thousands... [Log in to read more]