Where: Costa Rica, Central America

What's at stake: One of the world's most biologically diverse regions

Threatened by: Deforestation, mining, overfishing, oil exploration

Animals include: Spider monkeys, ocelots, macaws, jaguars, sea turtles, whales

• As part of a land bridge connecting North and South America, Costa Rica is a place where plant and animal species from both continents come together. The country is both the southern-most point of many North American bird migrations and northern-most point of many South American bird migrations -- meaning it has incredibly diverse birdlife.
• Throughout the year, more than 850 different birds can be spotted in Costa Rica. That's 10 percent of all bird species in the world and more birds than the United States and Canada combined.
• Perhaps the crown jewel of Costa Rica's biodiversity is the Osa Peninsula, home to Costa Rica's 11 endangered mammals, 375 bird species and more than 2,000 plant species.
• The beaches of the Osa Peninsula on the Pacific Ocean are breeding grounds for four of the world's seven species of endangered sea turtle: the green, leatherback, hawksbill and olive ridley.
• Despite Costa Rica's small size -- at just 19,730 square miles, it is smaller than West Virginia -- the country is home to more than 500,000 different species, nearly 4 percent of all plant, animal and insect species estimated worldwide.
• The Talamanca mountain range is the largest pristine rainforest in Costa Rica and part of the largest undisturbed tract of rainforests in all of Central America. This remote and isolated region is home to most of the country's animals and at least 90 percent of Costa Rica's plant life -- 30 percent of which can only be found in these mountains.
• Costa Rica has committed to becoming the world's first carbon-neutral nation by 2021.