ABSTRACT
Introduction It is frequently assumed that the management and administration of protected areas tend to be more effective in rich industrialized and technologically advanced countries of the North rather than in poor developing countries. Rich countries should be more capable of providing the economic, technical and human resources necessary for effective conservation in protected areas. Through a comparison of the experience of establishing and managing national parks and other protected areas in the Central American republic of Costa Rica and the Federal Republic of Germany, this chapter suggests that the above assumption does not necessarily hold.
