Blog Articles

Planet is supporting the Volunteer 2010, Take action!

Wed, 03 Feb 2010 21:07:51 GMT

Planet is supporting the Volunteer 2010, Take action!
Planeta Voluntários apoía a Campanha 2010, Tome uma Atitude!
¡El planeta apoya el de voluntarios 2010, Toma medidas!

A Thank You Note From Osa Wildlife Sanctuary, Costa Rica

Sun, 31 Jan 2010 13:34:39 GMT

WATER, MORE THAN A TUBE / AGUA, MÁS QUE UN TUBO

Sun, 17 Jan 2010 20:24:08 GMT

Nestled In the mountains of northern Costa Rica, there is a beautiful place, the watershed of La Balsa River. Its waters flow through the mountains, from Nicaragua to the Caribbean Sea.

The area was covered in cloud forests which produced an abundance of water, and it was home to a unique biological diversity. But now the waters are scarce, and they are being contaminated, and the wildlife takes shelter in small fragmented forests.

The communities have taken action. Their challenge: to restore their local watersheds, bring back the vitality of their rivers, and witness the wildlife return

En las montañas del norte de Costa Rica, existe un bello paraje, la cuenca del Rió La Balsa, sus aguas se lanzan montaña abajo hacia Nicaragua y llegan hasta el Mar Caribe.

La zona estuvo cubierta de bosque nubosos que producían agua en abundancia, y eran hogar de una biodiversidad biológica única. Pero hoy las aguas son escazas y se están contaminando, y la vida silvestre se refugia en pequeños bosques dispersos entre el agropaisaje.

Las comunidades han entrado en acción. Su reto: la restauración de sus microcuencas, devolver la vitalidad a sus ríos, y logra el retorno de la vida silvestre.

Read more about it at: http://www.afamaar.org/

Adopt an Acre in Costa Rica

Sun, 06 Dec 2009 00:53:49 GMT

Costa Rica's Osa Peninsula

Where Jungle Meets Sea

You can help protect one of the world's most beautiful and diverse habitats when you Adopt an Acre® today.

Day or night, the Osa Peninsula crawls with life. Howler monkeys greet the break of dawn with a thunderous roar while scarlet macaws wing over treetops as the sun begins its slow trek across the sky. Tapirs cool themselves from the hot midday sun in cool, sparkling rivers while poison-dart frogs hop in the nearby vegetation. At night, jaguars stalk moon-lit beaches looking for prey.

At Costa Rica's southwest corner, 400,000 forested acres of the Osa Peninsula jut into the Pacific Ocean. Only a strip of white sand beach separates the lush rainforest from the sea. The forest is alive with a wealth of magnificent plant and wildlife, including jaguar, puma, sloths and four species of monkey. You'll also find 4,000 plant species, including trees that can grow more than 200 feet tall.

A Threatened Paradise

Historically, the dense forests and rocky terrain of the Osa Peninsula shielded it from the outside world. But improved transportation and expanding development now threaten the peninsula. Osa's forests are starting to disappear as this once isolated land increasingly attracts farmers, hunters, developers, gold miners and tourists. Sadly, lands are being cleared for logging and agriculture at a higher rate than anywhere else in Costa Rica. Illegal logging, poaching and ill-conceived land-use activities further threaten the region.

How The Nature Conservancy Works on the Osa Peninsula

With the Costa Rican government and a strong network of partners, The Nature Conservancy is working to protect and maintain the Osa Peninsula’s forests and coastal areas. We are doing this in a variety of ways, such as:

How The Nature Conservancy Works on the Osa Peninsula

Acquiring and protecting land
Strengthening the management of protected areas
Hiring and training park staff
Creating a 100,000 acre biological corridor between Corcovado and Piedras Blancas National Parks
Creating sustainable, bush-based job opportunities
Establishing a network of marine protected areas

How Can You Help Save Costa Rica's Osa Peninsula?

When you give today to the Adopt an Acre® program, you will help the Conservancy protect and restore one of the world's most extraordinary yet highly threatened regions. You can also call 1-800-84-ADOPT to donate.

With your $50 donation per acre to the Adopt an Acre® program, you will receive:

Personalized certificate with signature photo of the Osa Peninsula commemorating your generosity
Colorful fact sheet about the Osa Peninsula
Adopt an Acre® Osa magnet set
Adopt an Acre® world map
Four issues of Nature Conservancy magazine to keep you informed all year about the many places the Conservancy is working to protect. (Plus, we'll rush the current magazine issue along with your personalized certificate!)
An invitation to create a personalized nature homepage on nature.org
Great Places E-Newsletter subscription to our monthly e-communication with local conservation updates, enviro-tips you can use and stunning nature photography downloads.

Best of all, you'll get the satisfaction of knowing you're helping to protect this extraordinary wild habitat now and for future generations. Please Adopt an Acre today!

Read more about it at: http://adopt.nature.org/acre/costa-rica/

The Voice of the Leatherback Turtles

Sat, 05 Dec 2009 19:51:41 GMT

An Eco-Bulletin "e-zine" published to alert the people of the world about the plight of the Leatherback Turtles' nesting beaches in Costa Rica.
President Oscar Arias is pushing a bill through the legislature to downgrade the status of the Las Baulas Marine National Park
to allow condominiums and other developments to take place on the turtle's nesting grounds.
This magazine presents the case for the defeat of this proposal and for the continuation of the National Park to help insure the survival of the Leatherback Turtles

The Leatherback Trust, Costa Rica

Sun, 01 Nov 2009 15:26:14 GMT

The Leatherback Trust is a non-profit foundation established by James R. Spotila, Ph.D. to save the leatherback turtle and other sea turtles from extinction. The Leatherback Trust scientists were instrumental in founding a new national park, Parque Marino Las Baulas, on the Pacific coast of Costa Rica. The park protects the most important leatherback nesting beaches in the Pacific Ocean. Our scientists have trained park rangers and guides, worked with local school children and advised the local community on living in harmony with the leatherbacks. Before the Park was established poachers took 100% of nests. Now almost all nests are protected and a hatchery protects nests that would be washed away by high tides or eaten by predators. Now thousands of hatchlings crawl to the ocean every season where five years ago only a few survived.

More about The Leatherback Trust you can read here:http://www.leatherback.org/

Saving Mono Titi, Costa Rica

Thu, 15 Oct 2009 19:00:07 GMT

The Story of the Mono Titi

Manuel Antonio Park is the crown jewel of the Costa Rican National Park system. Some would say that it is the birthplace of Eco Tourism. Manuel Antonio Park is also one of the two restricted habitats of the highly endangered Mono Titi squirrel monkey.

Among the smallest of all primates, weighing in at around one and half pounds, the Mono Titi is as endearing as any creature in nature. Known as the “peaceful primates”, their social structure is unique in the egalitarian nature of their interactions. Both male and female nurture their young and they enjoy equal status within their troops. They live, they play and they love with the youthful exuberance of a band of mischievous teenagers on a holiday bash.

More about saving momo titi you can read here:
http://www.savingmonotiti.com/

Fundacion Santuario Silvestre de Osa , Costa Rica

Wed, 14 Oct 2009 13:29:41 GMT

Fundacion Santuario Silvestre de Osa is a local enterprise wholly committed to providing wildlife rescue and rehabilitation for orphaned, injured and displaced animals indigenous to the southern zone of Costa Rica.

Working with the local community, local businesses and government, we provide the best care possible for the animals in our care.

We also strive to be an active and valuable member of our local community.

More about Fundacion Santuario Silvestre de Osa you can read here:

http://www.osawildlife.org/

"Sweetie and her 6 week old baby sister, Winkie..."

Dan Janzen in the Costa Rican rainforest

Wed, 07 Oct 2009 13:28:51 GMT

A quote from Dan Janzen, the President of GDFCF

We are the Guanacaste Dry Forest Conservation Fund (I am the President, my wife Dr. Winnie Hallwachs is the secretary and treasurer, and it is a US registered 501.c.3 It is also a registered NGO in Costa Rica, the NGO for Area de Conservacion Guanacaste (163,000 ha, 2% of Costa Rica; 2.6% of the world’s species, and real conservation into perpetuity). GDFCF currently owns 13,000 ha of ACG forest all purchased with donations, and all eventually to be given to the government, but currently simply managed by the government (by the ACG staff). The project is to obtain all the forest portions remaining around the margins of ACG, to make it as large and climate-robust as humanly possible, and endow all of the ACG (which currently has only an endowment of $6 m but we are working on it).

The Prince's Rainforests Project

Wed, 30 Sep 2009 22:26:02 GMT

Rainforest destruction is burning issue of our time. Emergency action will be needed to prevent run-away climate change. Tell the world to stop tropical deforestation by sending a Rainforest SoS to the world. "If we lose the battle against tropical deforestation, we lose the battle against climate change."~ The Prince of Wales