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Pest Status and Management in the Forest Plantations of Costa Rica

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Forest Pest and Disease Management in Latin America

Abstract

Costa Rica is a tropical country located in Central America, with an area of 51,900 km2. Owing to the deforestation suffered during past decades, the development of forest plantations has been promoted in order to guarantee timber supply for domestic consumption. According to reports, until 2015, 105,000 ha had been reforested, mainly with Gmelina arborea, Tectona grandis, Vochysia spp., Cupressus lusitanica, Acacia mangium, Alnus acuminata, Hyeronima alchorneoides, Cordia alliodora, etc. It has been found that these plantations exhibit economically significant phytosanitary problems. Since 1984, the Forest Protection Laboratory of the Costa Rica Institute of Technology has been performing a national diagnosis of forest pests and diseases in Costa Rica. A total of 1310 insect species (74%), 347 pathogens (19.8%), 43 mite species (2.5%), 40 vertebrate animals (2.3%), and 9 mistletoe species have been reported in 182 tree species. The reports are classified according to the part of the tree affected, mainly in the foliage (67.3%), followed by the stem (16.1%). The main problems are described in reproductive structures, foliage, shoots, stem, twigs, and roots, caused by Atta spp., Hyblaea puera and Dictyla monotropidia; “rusts” on foliage and stems (Melampsoridium alni, Olivea tectonae, Prospodium sp., and Uredo cupressicola), shoot borers (Hypsipyla grandella and Cosmopteryx sp.), the “bark beetle” Scolytodes alni; borers (Pantphthalmus sp. and several Cerambycidae species). cankers on the stem (Nectria sp., Chrysoporte cubensis, Seiridiun cardinale and Botryosphaeria sp.), and the “crown gall” (Agrobacterium tumefaciens). Within the integrated pest management approach, silvicultural, biological, and genetic control strategies are proposed.

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  1. Instituto Tecnológico de Costa Rica, Cartago, Costa Rica

    Marcela Arguedas

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  1. Marcela Arguedas
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Correspondence to Marcela Arguedas .

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  1. Instituto de Ciencias Ambientales y Evolutivas, Universidad Austral de Chile, Valdivia, Chile, Center of Applied Ecology and Sustainability (CAPES), Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile, Santiago, Chile

    Sergio A. Estay

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Arguedas, M. (2020). Pest Status and Management in the Forest Plantations of Costa Rica. In: Estay, S. (eds) Forest Pest and Disease Management in Latin America. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-35143-4_13

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