 
To help save the reefs of other Central American nations, get active with these groups: Society for Environmental Education
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 | Mud Menace: Reefs near this river in southwestern Costa Rica are choked with silt from deforestation and banana plantations that bulldoze right to the riverbank.
Photo: Joseph Dougherty / SEE | Costa Rica
Reefs are dying in Costa Rica, long reputed to be an untouched paradise of reefs and rainforests. Sediment washed downstream from deforested areas and agricultural lands is choking reefs and smothering corals. Costa Rica's ecotourist popularity has damaged mangroves and coral reefs; spearfishing, overfishing, sewage, and farm runoff of herbicides and fertilizers head the list of non-tourist threats to reef ecosystems. In Golfo Dulce, the country's oldest reef, sedimentation has driven coral cover down to less than 2 percent. Guatemala
Guatemala's coastal waters in the Caribbean have suffered from oil pollution and construction erosion that covers reefs with silt. On the west coast at least, the government is getting involved: In June 1997, Guatemala joined Belize, Honduras, and Mexico in a pact calling for protecting the countries' massive Pacific coral reefs.
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