News + Stories

The lush and enchanted forests of Piro, Osa Conservation saw the return of their majestic King of the Jungle after two long years. The Jaguar Is Back! In the late hours of 23rd March 2016 the first images of this beautiful creature was captured on the camera traps on the Ajo trail. Since the last sightings of the jaguar on the camera traps here was back in 2014, his return is very exciting. Especially for the big cat programme and its researcher Tabea who ran out screaming “JAGUAR JAGUAR” when...

Bokashi: Improving the Soil through Solid Waste By Yngrid Espinoza In a time of unparalleled consumption, intensive agricultural production, mass exploitation of raw materials and countless other activities that advance 'development' - we in Costa Rica are generating an enormous quantity of solid waste daily. According to the University of Costa Rica, each individual produces a staggering 1.3 - 2.4 pounds of waste daily. 45% of this ends up in illegal dumps and approximately 50-60% of this waste is biodegradable material. With this in mind, the vision of Osa Conservation's Sustainable Agriculture Program is utilize organic waste to generate organic fertilizer for our farm. It is essential...

Written by: Evan Whitfield and Tye Dubrule In February 2016, 13 undergraduate students and faculty members from the University of Alberta’s Augustana Campus in Camrose traveled from snowy Canadian winter, to the Osa Peninsula as part of a year-long tropical ecology and conservation course. This trip was the culmination of five months of preparation that included learning about neotropical biota, developing our field research proposals, and organizing trip logistics. For most of us the dream of an adventure to Costa Rica was many years in the making, and for all of...

By Ali Stahr The world has recognized that there is a new major environmental concern: the decrease of multiple bee species. This is extremely concerning because of the vital roles bees play in pollination. However, bees are not the only species suffering - there is an overall decrease in pollinators. Other such pollinators include butterflies and some species of vertebrae (hummingbirds, bats, etc). The U.N. has shed some light on the dilemma in a recently released report that analyzed 3,000 scientific papers. From the reports, they concluded that 40%...