The Costa Rican páramo includes several enclaves on the highest peaks of the Cordillera de Talamanca in eastern Costa Rica and western Panama, with a total area of 31 km².
It is surrounded at lower elevations by the Talamancan montane forests, and the World Wildlife Fund includes the Costa Rican páramo within the montane forests ecoregion, although the páramo has a distinct flora with affinities to the páramo of the Northern Andes.