Community Outreach, Environmental Education, Land Conservation and Forest Restoration, Sustainable agriculture / 24.08.2020

Blog by: Hilary Brumberg, Ridge to Reef Program Interim Director Southern Costa Rica is home to two of the most important areas to conserve in Central America: the Osa Peninsula and the Talamanca Mountains. The Osa Peninsula is the most biodiverse region of Costa Rica and contains Corcovado National Park and Piedras Blancas National Park. Deemed one of Mesoamerica’s “5 great forests,” the Talamanca Mountains contain the largest altitudinal variation in a protected area complex in Central America. The mountain range hosts La Amistad International Park, which spans from...

Community Outreach, Land Conservation and Forest Restoration / 01.07.2020

Blog by: María José Mata-Quirós, Restoration & Rewilding & Data Management Coordinator For 105 years on June 15, Costa Rica has celebrated “Día del Árbol,” or Day of the Tree. Former President Alfredo Gonzales Flores established this celebration to raise national awareness about the importance of trees. More than a Celebration  Trees are one of the main sources of energy and matter in terrestrial ecosystems; They support a great diversity of animals, plants, fungi and algae. They are one of the most important carbon storages and climate regulators. They protect water...

Land Conservation and Forest Restoration, Science and Research / 15.01.2020

Blog by: Tara Jeffery, Botanic Program Research Field Assistant.  My main area of work is focusing on the production of trees for the arboretum and rewilding and restoration projects, which requires my team to venture into the forests to collect seeds from a range of tree species. To create a diverse collection of plants, it is important to use plants from different areas to fight against possible pest and disease problems. For this we have been across the Osa peninsula collecting ripe species. It can be difficult to predict...

Land Conservation and Forest Restoration / 07.11.2019

Blogpost by Anna Moragne, Restoration & Rewilding Program Intern, Lehigh University When I came to Costa Rica, one of the things I was most excited about seeing was the abundant wildlife that exists in the Osa Peninsula, including many species that I would never be able to see in the United States. What I didn’t realize was how immersed in this wildlife I would be while working at Osa Conservation. [caption id="attachment_18353" align="aligncenter" width="507"] New interns, Anna and Harris, with professor Don in restoration & rewilding plots during training today....

Land Conservation and Forest Restoration / 30.10.2019

Blog post by Daisy Pinner-Saunders, Wildlife Conservation Intern To ecological restore tropical rainforests quickly we need to do more than just plant trees. To ensure the success of forest regeneration, wildlife has to be encouraged back to the area, ensuring the reinstatement of vital ecological processes required for a healthy rainforest ecosystem. Here at Osa Conservation we are trialling different restoration and rewilding approaches to do just that. One of our rewilding projects is to bring forest associated bats back to our newly planted restoration plots. The restoration plots...

Community Outreach, Land Conservation and Forest Restoration / 04.07.2019

Blogspot by: Ruthmery Pillco Huarcaya, Botanical projects coordinator –OC Trees are important components of the forests and our lives, however, deforestation and illegal logging are threatening their existence and contributing to climate change. This year, the United Nations declared the decade of the Restoration of Ecosystems in order to strengthen large-scale degraded and destroyed areas. This was initiated as a proven measure to combat the climate crisis and improve food security, water supply and biodiversity. Every June 15 we remember ‘the day of the tree’, an environmental event...

Community Outreach, Environmental Education, Land Conservation and Forest Restoration / 15.05.2019

Blogpost by Jonathan Navarro Picado, Healthy Rivers Program Coordinator Children teach us new things every day and they are full of surprises; the only thing they need is a bit of motivation.  The community of Alto Laguna in Osa, the only indigenous reserve on the Osa Peninsula, is full of forest, life, stunning sunsets and inspiring people. The students of the school in the community received a talk about the importance of the rivers. But more than teaching them, they taught us through art the understanding they have of this...

Land Conservation and Forest Restoration, Science and Research / 04.04.2019

Blogpost by Jonathan Navarro Picado, Healthy Rivers Program Coordinator Whether we perceive it or not, the forest is alive; there is movement, there is disorder, and—most importantly—there are endless interactions. This last word is the key to help make this hidden world clear to our human "worlds,” which are so short and tiny in comparison to the existence of these forests. When you walk through the old growth and secondary forests of the Osa Verde BioStation (Piro), you can see everythimg from herbs, seedlings and shrubs to gigantic trees hundreds...

Birds, Community Outreach, Land Conservation and Forest Restoration, Science and Research, Sea Turtles, Volunteers and Visitors / 20.03.2019

Blogpost by Robin Morris and Steve Pearce, General Volunteers It seems like yesterday when we walked through the gate to the Osa Verde BioStation (Piro) for the first time in January 2017 and were greeted by a group scarlet macaws in the trees snacking and squawking.  We’re here now for our third winter excursion, and I have to admit we’ve done some cool things the last couple years.   Robin enjoying a two-year-old balsa forest. During Robin and Steve's 2018 visit, they helped clear plants around the small balsa saplings,...

Land Conservation and Forest Restoration, Science and Research, Sustainable agriculture / 21.02.2019

By Marvin Lopez Morales, Botanic Assistant Not long ago, the Costa Rican ethnobotanist Jorge Luis Poveda visited Osa Conservation. For me, it was an honor and pleasure to meet him.  Luis Poveda in the forest during his visit to our Conservation campus. Photo credit: Osa Conservation A simple and very friendly person, he has so many stories to tell about his personal experiences, plants, and teaching a wide variety of people. Poveda has devoted many years of his professional career to projects against cancer, Costa Rican Trees, and Manual of Plants...