Volunteering in Costa Rica and Protecting Wildlife

Reporter Jane from the Brisbane Times had the following account of working as a volunteer taking care of wildlife in Costa Rica.  It’s a great read and makes me want to return to Costa Rica.

Tapir (Photo credit: FrogMiller)

By 8am we’re sitting on upturned buckets on the floor of a concrete shed, up to our elbows in bananas, plantains, papayas and a curious tuberous vegetable called yucca. It has very hard, pure white flesh and tough, brown skin and it takes a good whack with a lethally sharp knife to break into bite-size pieces – just the way a hungry tapir likes it.

Later we’ll load two big buckets of this concoction into a wheelbarrow and march it down a short track to four hungry tapirs.

Animal rescue… tapirs are cared for at La MarinaWildlife Rescue Centre. Photo: Jane Mundy

Preparing food for the animals is the first task of the day at La Marina, a privately funded animal rescue centre in the central valley of Costa Rica. Animals as diverse as spider monkeys, capuchins, kinkajous, pythons, scarlet macaws, ocelots, eagles and vultures, crocodiles and even a pair of lions find homes here. Some are injured, some have lost their habitats or are handed in by people who have kept them as pets. Some will be nursed back to health and released into their natural habitat – but most will not. They will see out their days at La Marina, cared for and protected.

The small team of volunteers busy chopping, slicing and dicing is like a mini European Union. Tinoos is a thirtysomething Danish opera singer-turned-carpenter. Elias is a Belgian university dropout. Romy is undertaking field work for the biology course she studies in the Netherlands. There is someone from Russia, someone from Germany. They all seem younger than us and must wonder why a couple of oldies from Australia choose to spend a week of their Central American holiday in a place like this.

Yes, we could have opted for something cleaner, safer and more fragrant. But that’s one of the things about volunteering – you get all kinds.

As we come along the track with our wheelbarrow, the tapirs – three adults and an adolescent who has just grown out of his stripy juvenile coat – wait and watch. Tapirs are extraordinary-looking creatures, rather like a large pig with an extended nose-cum-trunk. It’s as though the animal thought for a while about being an elephant, then changed its mind. They come to the gate of their large, leafy enclosure, hungry and curious, sniffing the air, teeth bared.

I have a healthy respect for wild animals and the need to keep one’s distance so I tread cautiously. Two hundred kilograms of angry tapir can make a mess of your arm. Yet although they are equipped with a formidable set of teeth, these tapirs are docile and affectionate – seemingly not just because they’re hungry. They appear to be fond of being stroked, scratched and cuddled. Yes, cuddled. Arms around their necks, cheeks pressed against coarse hide. The full love-in.

Around the middle of the day we make our way to the lunch room where volunteers compare the contents of lunch boxes prepared for us by our hosts.

Part of the deal at La Marina is that volunteers are billeted with Costa Rican families and our “mother”, Xinia, takes the job of feeding us seriously. Today it is rice and beans. Yesterday it was beans and rice. Xinia speaks barely a word of English but we can more or less make ourselves understood and as well as feeding us and washing our filthy work clothes, Xinia makes us feel part of her wonderful extended family.

It’s usual for family members to live next door to one another; living next to Xinia is one of her five sisters and family, and next door again is a brother.

In Costa Rica, where more than 25 per cent of the country is dedicated national park, there’s no shortage of animal-viewing opportunities: by river, horse-back ride to the base of a volcano or guided walk through a forest.

Eco-tourism is a big earner but viewing opportunities in the wild, although plentiful, must be from a distance: scarlet macaws flash across a clear blue sky; a sloth is curled high in the tree tops; rustling branches denote a troupe of howler monkeys on the move.

You need luck, patience and good binoculars. At La Marina you get to see animals at close range, for longer, and can touch some of them.

But volunteering here is not all about cuddling tapirs, however. There is hard work to be done and it’s not glamorous: bird cages cleaned; building materials carried; paths swept. The wild pigs’ enclosure is cleaned daily – not a popular task.

However, there is something satisfying about these hands-on experiences and I find that I don’t want to leave. I have become attached to the animals. Even to tapirs.

FAST FACTS

Getting there

United Airlines has a fare to San Jose from Los Angeles for about $600 low-season round trip, including tax. Flight is about 8hr,s including transit time in Houston).

Volunteering there

La Marina Wildlife Rescue Centre is in San Carlos, Alajuela, 60 kilometres north-west of San Jose. A bus ($2.50, about 3hr) operates from downtown San Jose to Ciudad Quesada (8½ kilometres from La Marina).

A flat fee of $US250 ($256) applies regardless of the length of stay, including airport pick-up and introduction to a host family. An extra $US13 a day covers a room and meals; see zoocostarica.com.

Read more: http://www.brisbanetimes.com.au/travel/holiday-type/eco-tourism/talk-to-the-animals-20120531-1zjxs.html#ixzz1xF1I3JIj

Ecotourism in Costa Rica

Author (and darn great writer) Alice Henly had a great article about Ecotourism in Costa Rica, which echoed my experiences (and concerns) from my travel there.  Here’s Alice:

 

“The pigs stank when we got close. Six large ones, mottled cream and pink with enormous glistening snouts, lounged in the shed just down the path from my hotel room. “They’re our composting machines,” explains Andres Soley, the sustainability manger at Lapa Rios Ecolodge, which is perched on the southern tip of Costa Rica’s Osa Peninsula. “They eat all our organic waste from the lodge restaurant and kitchen.”

After the pigs churn through a meal, their excrement is pumped into a nearby biodigester, which captures the methane it releases. It’s then burned as a fuel for cooking meals. The leftover excrement is used as rich liquid fertilizer for nearby water lilies and other native plants that fill the lodge grounds.

I had never seen a biodigester until arriving at Lapa Rios for a winter vacation with my family. I spent my first afternoon at the lodge on a two-hour sustainability tour (which is offered biweekly to guests), getting up close and personal with the whole process — pigs, poop, power, and all.

Making energy from food scraps is just the beginning at this ecolodge, one of 148 nationally certified sustainable hotels in the Central American country located between Panama and Nicaragua. “Costa Rica is one of the pioneers of sustainable tourism, dating back to the 1980s when visiting tropical biologists started to bring their friends and family along on field trips,” says Ronald Sanabria, the Rainforest Alliance’s vice president ofsustainable tourism. Ecotourism thrives in Costa Rica, Sanabria says, because of the country’s impressive biodiversity, proximity to North America, long history of political stability, and high literacy rate.

“Costa Rica is not all eco,” says Martha Honey, co-founder of theCenter for Responsible Travel and former executive director of The International Ecotourism Society. “But the ecotourism revolution in Costa Rica has been really profound. It … still remains the best example in the world of successful ecotourism.” Today, though, that record is threatened by the growth of international hotel chains and plans for another international airport, which could transform the Osa Peninsula and push out its eco-lodges.

Despite covering 0.01 percent of the world’s landmass, Costa Rica’s rainforests and coral reefs are home to close to 5 percent of the planet’s biodiversity. The country boasts 500,000 (and counting) different plant and animal species. Roughly a third of the size of New York state, this small country has coasts on two oceans and six active volcanoes, creating many different microclimates, variable weather (sun and showers seem to swap places every few minutes), and a wide range of ecosystems.

In order to protect this ecological richness, Costa Rica’s government has preserved 26 percent of its land and 16 percent of its marine surface in 27 national parks, 11 wetland reserves, and two biosphere reserves. In 1997 Costa Rica’s Tourism Board (or ICT) established the Certification for Sustainable Tourism (CST) to distinguish and guide businesses that “comply with a sustainable model of natural, cultural and social resource management,” according to the CST mission statement. The CST ranks businesses on a scale of 0 to 5 to reward pioneering ecolodges and encourage further interest in ecotourism.

In 2003 Lapa Rios was the first hotel to achieve CST’s top ranking, level 5. The lodge is nestled in a fecund rainforest canopy alive with the calls of the chestnut mandible toucan and scarlet macaw. It overlooks the meeting point of the Pacific Ocean and the Golfo Dulce, the Sweet Gulf. “The lodge supports local micro-businesses wherever possible,” says Soley, the sustainability manager. Locals use recycled or renewable materials, like the locally grown Suiita palm, to make everything from the reusable bamboo straws in the restaurant to the furniture in the lounge.

The food is also grown or sourced locally. Three quarters of all ingredients come from San Jose, cutting down on the amount of gas guzzled and emissions spewed by transporting food from other parts of the world. All guests make their dinner selections in the morning so that the kitchen can order exactly the right amount to minimize waste.

During the four days I stayed at Lapa Rios, I began to appreciate first-hand the rich, diverse beauty of our surroundings. I swam underneath a waterfall. I surfed at a volcanic black sand beach. I hiked through the rainforest, watched howler monkeys swing through the trees, and held a baby green iguana, thanks to one of Lapa Rios’ wildlife guides. But I had the most fun walking hand in hand with Sweetie, the matriarch spider monkey, meeting and feeding animals at the Osa Wildlife Sanctuary.

We finally had to board a tiny airplane and fly back to grungy, bustling San Jose. As we took off, I had a clear view of the landscape and coastline leading away from the small town of Puerto Jimenez. Just inland from the shimmering water and untouched beaches I could see an abrupt shift from wild primary forest to the monoculture of a palm plantation. I later discovered that the massive plantation grows African palm oil, which a few years ago replaced smaller banana farms.

Honey, with the Center for Responsible Travel, told me that a massive development boom began in Costa Rica in 2002, particularly along the Pacific coast in a region called Guanacaste, when a new airport established direct flights from that area to the United States. The period from 2002 to 2008 saw an explosion of vacation homes, high-rise condos, and about a hundred new all-inclusive resorts.

Giants like JW Marriott, Hilton, and Four Seasons now dominate Guanacaste’s tourism industry. These complexes flatten thousands of acres with manicured lawns, spa centers, and golf courses. The Marriott, an imposing 310-room hotel that features four restaurants, two bars, and Costa Rica’s largest swimming pool, also boasts 7,223 square feet of indoor meeting space for up to 500 people.

The top ecolodges are expensive (Lapas Rios will cost a couple $760 per night during the peak season), but the best traditional hotels are in the same ballpark (rates vary daily but run around $745 a night for an ocean-view room at the Marriott). For the country as a whole, though, sustainable tourism is the better deal, Honey says. “The research that we’ve done indicates that these internationally owned complexes are a far less valuable tourism model for the country, both for high value long-term employment and benefits to conservation.

The Costa Rican government has recently proposed building another international airport in the Osa Peninsula. If these plans go ahead, the region will likely go the way of Guanacaste, and Lapa Rios could find itself struggling to compete with giant cookie-cutter hotel complexes. If that happens, the eco-lodge experience I enjoyed could become a thing of the past, along with the lush wild rainforest and fascinating local culture it nurtures.”

You can read the full article at http://www.onearth.org/article/can-ecotourism-survive-in-costa-rica

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Costa Rica designated BioGen by NRDC

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As written by Alexandra Marks of the Christian Science Monitor–

I’m currently sitting in the airport in Costa Rica, fresh from a yoga retreat and heading back home to Sheep Dog Hollow, the 100-year-old farmhouse we’re trying to renovate in as green a manner as is economically practical. (Think: from calming, tropical paradise to construction mayhem.)

I confess, I’m not quite ready yet to tackle the questions that I know are waiting for me – from timing on when we can start spraying our foam insulation to worries about our fast-draining checking account and whether we can really afford those $7-a-square-foot reclaimed wide board floors (that’s $7 a square foot not including installation or refinishing.

No, in my mind I’m still hearing the gentle roar of the ocean waves, the morning’s orchestral array of bird songs, and the rustling of palm fronds in the wind.

And so, since I won’t get to Sheep Dog to check on progress and attack some of those questions until Wednesday, I thought I’d just take a moment to reflect on how lovely it is to spend time in a genuine “BioGem.”

Yes, Costa Rica is the first country in the world to be designated a BioGem by the Natural Resources Defense Council. The reason for the designation, says the NRDC, is the government’s commitment to “becoming the world’s first carbon-neutral nation by 2021.”

For years, it’s also pushed sustainability and eco-tourism and expanded its natural parks to preserve its biodiversity. To say nothing of the fact that Costa Rica one of the hemisphere’s oldest, most stable democracies, which ranks pretty high in the United Nation’s Millennium Development Goals and the UN’s Human Development Index.

Yes, it’s an extraordinary place.

When you arrive, you experience it in subtle ways. The people have gentleness about them, or, as they say in Spanish, are they are “mui amable” – very amiable. The food you buy in the supermarkets, such as the tomatoes, have that sweet, home-grown taste that here in the States you can only get from a home garden.

And then, of course, there’s the pure air and the abundance of birds, iguanas, and little lizards you frequently see lazing in the sun. Yeah, there’s heat and dust – as well as pollution in the big cities – but compared to the other Latin American countries I’ve visited, it’s a veritable ecological Eden.

But there’s another reason the NRDC designated Costa Rica a BioGem: Because it’s potentially threatened. As the website Earth Explore notes:

Pressures to open coastlines to oil and gas exploration and drilling, and exploit virgin rainforest for timber and mining are ramping up. All too easily, this small nation could be directed down the path seen so often in the tropics; of slash and burn and quick profit.

To help the country stay on its current ecological path, the NRDC is “working with the Energy and Environment Ministry to identify measures to help the country meet its [goal to be carbon neutral.

The NRDC also just signed an agreement with the national electric utility, Instituto Costarricense de Electricidad, on energy efficiency and renewable energy projects. In collaboration with other Latin American environment agencies, it’s also launched “a rainforest rejuvenation project to plant 30,000 trees to restore a natural rainforest.”

So, as I head back home from that tropical ecological paradise, my Sheep Dog Hollow worries and questions have been put into a new perspective.

Yes, this green renovation is costing us more in the short term – in cash and headaches – but I again realize that if I can do a little bit now to help future generations enjoy the natural beauties of our country as I just have enjoyed Costa Rica’s, I know it’s worth the cost.

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Geotourism Challenge Winners

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Fifteen groundbreaking projects from around the world are the finalists in the “Geotourism Challenge: Celebrating Places/Changing Lives” competition, a collaboration of National Geographic’s Center for Sustainable Destinations and Ashoka’s Changemakers. The online contest was created to discover and support entrepreneurs with innovative approaches to geotourism, defined as tourism that sustains or enhances the geographical character of a place — its environment, culture, aesthetics, heritage and the well-being of its residents.

From the 323 entries submitted from 84 countries, these 15 finalists were selected:

1.    Wildlife Conservation Society, Gabon: Establishing Gabon as the gateway to Africa’s rainforests by highlighting its pristine nature and ancient cultures

2.    Blue Ventures Conservation, Madagascar: Using paying volunteer program as a strategy to protect threatened marine resources

3.    Banyon Tree Hotel, Maldives: Creating a marine lab to protect, conserve, research and educate about the coral reef environment

4.    CC Africa, South Africa: Pioneering land and wildlife conservation, and giving local rural communities a meaningful share of the benefits

5.    Chumbe Island Coral Park, Ltd., Tanzania: Creating a financially, ecologically and socially sustainable model to save the country’s coral reefs

6.    Crete’s Culinary Sanctuaries, Greece: Offering seminars for organic farmers, chefs, historians, mountaineers and other locals to share their knowledge about Crete’s culture and nature with visitors

7.    Eco-Health Farms, Latvia: Integrating ancestral traditions, nature protection and health prevention

8.    Evason Phuket & Six Senses Spa, Thailand: Setting up an eco-trail that shows locals and guests the resort’s environmental practices

9.    Exotica Cottages, Dominica: Integrating local expertise in gardening and conservation into the island’s ecotourism efforts

10. Great Baikal Trail, Russia: Establishing Russia’s first system of hiking trails to promote environmentally sustainable development

11. Rios Tropicales Lodge, Costa Rica: Protecting the rainforest through the collaboration of local communities, tourists and conservation organizations

12. Snow Leopard Conservancy India Trust, India: Changing local mindsets towards snow leopards

13. 3 Sisters Adventure Trekking, Nepal: Training and empowering women to be guides in adventure tourism efforts

14. Tourism Board of Bhutan, Bhutan: Making geotourism development a national policy

15. Yachana Foundation, Ecuador: Offering lodging, meals, adventure and education through experiences with local Amazonian nature and culture

The four judges who reviewed submissions and selected the finalists were Keith Bellows, vice president of the National Geographic Society and editor-in-chief of National Geographic Traveler magazine; Susan Berresford, past president of the Ford Foundation; Leonard Cordiner, CEO of WHL Travel; and Nachiket Mor, president of the ICICI Foundation for Inclusive Growth.

“I was stunned at the quality of the applications,” said Bellows. “They showcased great innovation that can be exported to other countries, terrific successes against long odds and a far-reaching global distribution of projects. Not only did the entries make fascinating reading, but I was inspired by the vision, imagination, passion and entrepreneurship of the people who are making a difference in the lives of locals and travelers.”

The global online community can vote for the three winners, through Wednesday, June 11, at www.changemakers.net. The winners will be announced on Tuesday, June 17, and each will receive a cash prize of US $5,000.

“The Geotourism Challenge received entries from the most countries for any collaborative competition we’ve held so far,” said Charlie Brown, executive director of Changemakers. “This shows that the Changemakers global online community is influential in surfacing innovators who are helping destinations benefit from tourism while protecting the assets that make their places special.”

National Geographic’s Center for Sustainable Destinations is dedicated to protecting the world’s distinctive places through wisely managed geotourism and enlightened destination stewardship.

Adult Summer Camp to Costa Rica

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Ritchey Woods Nature Preserve offers extreme adventure camp

The Indy Star website announced that Ritchey Woods has a brand new opportunity that allows even adults to go to summer camp. Travel with the naturalist staff of Ritchey Woods and a bilingual guide to Costa Rica. Compare the habitats and wildlife of the tropical paradise to the habitats and wildlife of Indiana. Program will include classes at Ritchey Woods before and after the trip to explore Indiana’s flora and fauna for comparison.

The company, Education First, Educational Tours, offers trips all over the globe. They have been doing so since 1965. The program is an eco tourism summer camp for adults as well as children ages 12 and older. The hope is that participants will take on a new appreciation of how diverse and amazing Ritchey Woods is and that protecting the amazing resources in “your own backyard” is vital to the health of the entire globe.

Participants must register with EF Tours by March 1. $30 paid to Town of Fishers per participant and $2,365 per adult or $2,075 per child (ages 12-23) paid to EF Tours Educational Tour Company. Prices are approximate and may vary slightly. Prices are locked n at time of registration. Under most circumstances, the sooner participants register, the more affordable the price. Price includes travel, three meals per day, and admittance to all activities on the itinerary.

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