Costa Rica's highly diverse wildlife and ecosystems have another global green crusader on their side after the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) on Tuesday named this country one of 13 new natural “BioGems” it seeks to defend.

It is the first time the council has designated a country as a BioGem since the program was begun in 2001. Its usual practice has been to designate specific sites or individual species. Other new sites on the list include the Carrizo Plain National Monument in central California and the Peace-Athabasca Delta in Alberta, Canada.

NRDC said members are working with Costa Rican environment officials to help the government meet a pledge to become the world's first carbon-neutral nation by 2021. The council has also initiated renewable energy projects with the Costa Rican Electricity Institute. NRDC has also teamed up with the Tropical Agricultural Research and Training Center (CATIE) to plant 30,000 trees as part of a rainforest rejuvenation project, according to an NRDC press release.

“These BioGems are some of the last wild and unspoiled places left in the Western Hemisphere,” NRDC senior attorney Robert Kennedy, Jr. said in a statement. “By naming these places as BioGems, NRDC is empowering hundreds of thousands of concerned individuals to take effective action to save these natural treasures for generations to come.”

For more information, see www.savebiogems.org.