DECEMBER 17-22

Space is still available on our Holiday Birding Trip, so join us for spectacular birding through the tropical forests of the Osa Peninsula! This five-day trip includes extensive birding, forest hikes, and nightly talks and excursions with our staff of biologists and conservation professionals.  The trip culminates in the National Audubon Society’s Christmas Bird Count—where you, along with thousands of other citizen scientists throughout the Americas, can participate in the longest running wildlife census to assess the health of bird populations.

The Osa Peninsula is the wildest, yet most under-birded, corner of the country.  It is home to over 460 species of birds, including the healthiest population of Scarlet Macaws in Central America, Red-capped Manakins, Yellow-billed and Turquoise Contingas, and even the Harpy Eagle.  Osa Conservation’s birding trips are led by resident ornithologist, Karen Leavelle, as well as trained naturalist guides who are intimately familiar with the bird species and tropical ecosystems of the Osa.

Your participation in the Holiday Birding Tour directly supports OC’s avian conservation and education programs. We invite you to be part of our mission to conserve the Peninsula’s globally significant biodiversity and we hope to see you on one of these fantastic trips!

For more information on our Holiday Birding Tour, or to see a trip itinerary, please visit our website at www.osaconservation.org/ConservationTrips.html. For trip registration or questions please contact Emily Angell at emilyangell@osaconservation.org or Karen Leavelle at karenleavelle@osaconservation.org.

September 18^th represented the 3^rd Annual Sea Turtle festival on Carate Beach.  About 100 members of Carate, Puerto Jiménez, and surrounding communities participated in sea turtle discussions, presentations fun activities with the theme of conservation.

The festival began with an interactive discussion with children and adults about the principal biological characteristics of the Osa, the turtle species that nest here, and the objectives and activities of the Sea Turtle Conservation Program developed by Osa Conservation on the beaches of Piro, Pejeperro and Carate.

Club Ambiental Las Abejitas of the Saturnino Cedeño School, under Laura Castro’s direction, prepared a theatrical skit for the event about the life of a sea turtle and the natural hazards and human threats that they face as well as the precautions that we must take on the sea turtle nesting beaches.

Activities included games on the beach, like turtle races and turtle sand castles, and a quiz competition about Osa’s biodiversity.  All participants in the event received informative material about sea turtle conservation, stickers, posters, and t-shirts for those who correctly answered the most questions.

Thank you to everyone who helped make this year’s event a success in raising awareness of the importance of conserving these incredible species.

Special thanks to:

SEEturtles, Luna Lodge, La Leona Lodge, ASCONA, Finca Exótica, Dereck Ferguson, Hacienda Río Oro, the Bellanero family, ACOSA, Tranquility, Frontier, Lapa Rios, Hoja de Osa School, Club Ambiental Las Abejitas, Laura Castro, and Mauricio Gutiérrez.

August 7^th represented the second Day of Beach Cleaning along sea turtle nesting beaches in Osa.  With the participation of around 150 volunteers from the community, local hotels, personnel from Osa Conservation Area, Frontier volunteers and Osa Conservation employees, we were able to collect waste along 12 km of beaches, from Carate to Matapalo.

Starting off early in the morning to take advantage of low tide, the groups divided up throughout the area with plastic bags, gloves, sun screen and lots of water.  The day of cleaning continued past noon, when the participants came together at the Piro Biological Station to have lunch and end with a soccer game.

As with every year, the majority of the waste found on the beaches was plastic bottles and pieces of Styrofoam, which shows us how businesses and consumers still have to work towards being more environmentally responsible.

We hope that this clean-up will help the sea turtles in their difficult journey from the sea to the beach and back again, a journey that, although short, implies a great physical effort on their part which they undertake with the goal of conserving their species.

Thank you to the following participants:
Lapa Rios, Bosque del Cabo, El Remanso, the Bellanero family, Hacienda Rio Oro,  ISEAMI, Lookout Inn, Finca Exótica, Luna Lodge, La Leona Lodge, ACOSA, FRONTIER, the community and Asdrúbal Cordero.

Parade for International Year of Forests Celebration

Stencil painting activity with ASCONA for International Year of Forests

Puerto Jimenez students performing a traditional dance for International Year of Forests celebration

Check out these exciting programs and events happening in Osa!

INTERNATIONAL YEAR OF FORESTS
In celebration of the United Nations International Year of Forests, FOO’s environmental education program began tropical rainforest workshops in April with students and teachers from 13 Osa schools.

There was an exciting opening event on Saturday April 30th, with the participation of MINAET and ICE and the collaboration of organizations such as TNC, Neotropica, Yaguara, ACEPESA, Shark Quest, ASCONA and RANA Group.  The event featured fun education and recreational activities as well as lectures and presentations of research happening throughout the Osa Peninsula.

The celebration will continue in August, September and October with a student reforestation campaign aiming to plant 4,000 native trees along Osa’s deforested stream banks!

Face painting fun at International Year of Forests event

SUSTAINABLE WATER MANAGEMENT
This year, Friends of the Osa’s environmental education program has partnered with the Central American Association for Economy, Health and Environment (ACEPESA) on a project called “Capacity Building in Coastal Communities of the Golfo Dulce to Improve Sanitary Conditions.”  This program serves to educate the communities of La Palma, Guadeloupe, Puerto Escondido, and students and teachers of 10 Osa schools, about the importance of watershed protection and the sustainable management of water resources.  Through this program, students will learn about the merits of alternative wastewater management systems, such as bioswales—systems that function as wetlands, catching and treating domestic wastewater naturally to prevent contamination of groundwater, rivers and soil.

YEARLY TRASH PICK-UP

In July, FOO will again host the annual community beach clean-up!  With the support of many Osa community members, we will pick up trash along the sea turtle nesting beaches from Piro to Peje Perro lagoon, as well as along the beaches and mangroves of Puerto Jiménez. Look out for posts and pictures from this amazing yearly event.

SEA TURTLE EDUCATION
In the months of October and November, FOO will be hosting sea turtle education workshops at Independence School and Academic College in La Palma. Look out for posts and pictures from these upcoming events.

The objective of this project is to contribute to community awareness about the responsible use of water resources and the proper management of wastewater through the construction of bio-boxes as a mechanism for treatment of gray water.

Workshop topics are: 1. Water and its importance to human life and ecosystems, 2. Water and watersheds, 3. Mangrove ecosystems, 4. Golfo Dulce ecosystem, 5. Global warming and its impacts, 6. Water and its effect on health and the environment, and 7. Alternative sanitation and rainwater harvesting.

Golfo Dulce, Osa Peninsula, Costa Rica

This project is relevant to the conservation of the Osa Peninsula’s aquatic resources including rivers, mangroves and the Golfo Dulce, helping to mitigate pollution and deterioration of these vital ecosystems.

Find out more about Friends of the Osa and our other conservation work on the Osa Peninsula by visiting our website, or plan a trip to the Osa Biodiversity Center.

We had around 60 participants, including students, girl scouts, Frontier volunteers, community members, hotel staff from Lapa Rios, Bosque del Cabo, El Remanso and other local organizations such as ASCONA.  In total, we cleaned 1.5km of beach and 0.5km of mangrove.

Looking at the results presented below, it’s clear that there is a need to reduce the amount of waste.  While we already focus on education and community awareness about the responsible management of waste and recycling, it is apparent that more action needs to be taken particularly along the edge of the mangrove.  The Environmental Coalition, in conjunction with the Ministry of Health and MINAET (Costa Rica’s environmental ministry), will be working on a way to address this issue.

Summary of the waste collected. 190 kg is recyclable while 2.3 TONS is not.

]]> http://osaconservation.org/blog/1623/second-annual-puerto-jimenez-mangrove-and-beach-cleanup/feed/ 2 http://osaconservation.org/blog/1407/second-annual-osa-peninsula-sea-turtle-festival/ http://osaconservation.org/blog/1407/second-annual-osa-peninsula-sea-turtle-festival/#comments Fri, 17 Sep 2010 12:00:45 +0000 Pilar http://osaconservation.org/blog/?p=1407 On Sunday September 12 we celebrated the Second Annual Osa Peninsula Sea Turtle Festival on Carate Beach. The objectives of this annual event are to raise community awareness about the importance of joint actions in the conservation of the sea turtle species that frequent the beaches of the Osa Peninsula in the months of nesting, and to share the objectives and results of Friends of the Osa’s Sea Turtle Conservation Program with the community.

Children made sea turtle sand sculptures

This year at least 120 people from the communities of Carate, Rio Oro, Piro, and Puerto Jimenez participated in the festival.

Puerto Jimenez students presented the play, “Survival of the Sea Turtles,” which told of the dangers that sea turtles are exposed to from the moment they are born. Educational games were played with children in which they acted out different parts of the sea turtle nesting process and lifecycle. Younger children and their parents made sand sculptures of leatherbacks and adults participated in the presentation about the Sea Turtle Conservation Program Piro-Carate.

We also announced the winners of the drawing contest “Survival of the Sea Turtles,” that was held with students from the Piro and Rio Oro schools. On this sunny day participants also played soccer, beach volleyball, sang karaoke and enjoyed a great picnic prepared by the community.

The objectives are for students to learn the importance of sea turtle conservation, why Golfo Dulce is a tropical fjord, and the ecological and scientific implications of this designation.

Students learn about the four sea turtle species that nest every year on the beaches of the Osa Peninsula: Olive Ridley (Lepidochelys olivacea), East Pacific Green or black turtle (Chelonia mydas agassizii), Hawksbill (Eretmochelys imbricata) and Leatherback (Dermochelys coriacea). They also learn about the nesting process, migration, life cycle, threats and efforts being made in the conservation of these species.

The topographical features of the Golfo Dulce, major ecosystems, both resident and non-resident species, such as humpback whales and the environmental impacts on ecosystems, are topics that are treated within the marine ecosystems program.

This section of the Environmental Education program seeks to foster student interest in understanding this unexplored area within the school curriculum, which has traditionally focused only on terrestrial ecosystems.

It’s really interesting for students to learn about species previously unknown to them, such as marine plankton, species that make aquatic ecosystems sustainable and contribute between 50-90% of the oxygen to the Earth’s atmosphere.

“In the mangrove there is no place for trash”

In three days in early August 2009, Friend of the Osa participated in awareness activities in Puerto Jiménez celebrating the International Day for the Protection of Mangroves. The Environmental Coalition of Puerto Jiménez delivered 50 mini waste collection centers to encourage garbage separation in households, and gave a talk about the importance of recycling and the impact of plastic bags on the environment. Pilar Bernal, our Environmental Education and Volunteer Program Coordinator, organized volunteers to pick up trash in areas next to the mangrove and install 15 signs with awareness messages about this critical ecosystem. FOO also organized a drawing and puzzle assembly contest with children.

Sea Turtle Festival

The Sea Turtle Festival in Playa Carate took place on September 27, 2009 in Carate Beach, organized by Pilar Bernal together with the Scouts from Puerto Jiménez and the Sustainability Committee of Carate. The documentary “The last voyage of Baula the Turtle” was screened, and there was a workshop to introduce the Sea Turtle Conservation Program in Piro-Pejeperro Beach. We also presented the Protocol for Construction and Management of Sea Turtle Hatcheries, supporting community initiatives to protect and manage nesting beaches.

International Coastal Cleanup

On October 3 2009, FOO staff and sea turtle program volunteers participated in our first Coastal Cleanup day as part of the international initiative by the Ocean Conservancy, the largest voluntary effort of its kind in the world. In 2008, more than 400,000 volunteers collected 3,650 tons of garbage from 6,485 sites in 104 countries.

Along the Pacific Coast in Costa Rica, the cleanup took place along 13 sites in the Osa and Golfito cantons, and a river stretch in Pérez Zeledón.