Jairo Mora Sandoval Gandoca-Manzanillo Mixed Wildlife Refuge (Spanish: Refugio Nacional de Vida Silvestre Mixto Jairo Mora Sandoval Gandoca-Manzanillo), is a protected area in Costa Rica, managed under the Caribbean La Amistad Conservation Area, it was created in 1986 by decree.

It is located in a coastal beach region, fronted by coral reefs and clothed in tropical forest, with 1950-3000mm yearly precipitation.

Located in the Talamanca canton, the Jairo Mora Sandoval Gandoca-Manzanillo Mixed Wildlife Refuge is found at the southernmost Atlantic coast of Costa Rica, next to the border with Panama.

[2] There are at least three small villages or populated areas within the refuge: Punta Mona and Mile Creek along the coast, and Finca Buena Fe along the Sixaola River.

The larger area around the refuge is largely devoted to banana and plantain cultivation, both conventional plantations and mixed subsistence plots.

[5] Some historians allege that when in the early 20th century the US United Fruit Company moved into the country to begin banana plantations in the area, they murdered Bribri leaders and violently forced them off their land, causing them to flee away from the lowlands into the mountains.

[3][9] When it was created, the reserve originally included numerous small fishing villages along the coast inhabited by a population of the English-speaking Afro-Caribbean minority.

The region never saw the historical development as elsewhere in Costa Rica, and flimsy bridges along dirt roads kept the capital city far away during much of the 20th century, which helped preserve the culture and nature.

[5] The 1992 novel The Madwoman of Gandoca (Spanish: La Loca de Gandoca), by Anacristina Rossi depicts the fights and efforts to create the refuge from an autobiographical point of view, as there were opposite private and government efforts to develop the area as a travel resort,[10] the book was required reading at high school (secondary level) in Costa Rica.

[13] Having their lands declared a nature reserve subjected the community which found itself inhabiting the refuge to strict and onerous building codes as well as Costa Rica's Maritime Law, and numerous houses or local businesses were notified of impending evictions and subsequent demolitions of their properties in the early 2010s, leading to resentment towards the refuge and complaints of greenwashing racism.

[5][14] In 2014 the Costa Rican legislature adopted Law 9223, Recognition of the Rights of Inhabitants of the South Caribbean, by which 900 acres of land along the coast were removed from the refuge in order to rectify this situation.

[2] The palm Raphia taedigera, locally known as yolillo, and the trees Campnosperma panamensis (orey) and Prioria copaifera (cativo) are particularly common.

Besides grasses and floating vegetation, other common species are the trees Mimosa pigra (uña de gato) and Dalbergia brownei (varilla negra).

[2] Swimming with dolphins was a popular activity among tourists here, but Costa Rican law banned the practice in 2006 for the sake of the animals' health.

The introduction to the environment appears to have displaced the native population of spiny lobsters, previously one of the most important commercial catch species in the area.