Sustainability Through Community: Costa Rica

We left Tegucigalpa, Honduras on a whirlwind 13 hour bus ride to Managua, Nicaragua on March 29th. A quick night's sleep, and we were off on another 10 hour bus ride to San Jose, Costa Rica. After a day of talks in San Jose on environmental issues facing Costa Rica with an Emphasis on successful programs linking conservation and development, we headed to the beautiful, mountainous, rain forest region of Talamanca on the east coast bordering Panama and Costa Rica.

During our first 10 days in Talamanca, we are working with Association Wak Ka Koneke, a community development organization within the Kekoldi Indigenous Reserve. The Indigeneious BriBri people have lived in these mountains for many generations. In the words of the BriBri:

We have seen many changes and know that more will come in the future. We would like to ensure a sustainable future for our children by protecting our natural resources and our cultural heritage. Our bird and iguana conservation and ecotourism programs are some of the ways that we are able to do this.

Through partnering with Kekoldi, CELL is learning how the BriBri are conserving one of the most biologically diverse land areas in the world while at the same time providing a sustainable economic benefit to their families. The BriBri are a beautiful, culturally proud, hardworking indigenous tribe. They formed the preserve and the Wak Ka Koneke non profit organization so that they could do biological research, run ecotourism and educational programs, and generate revenue that will enable them to expand their reserve by purchasing additional land for conservation. As Sebastian, a BriBri leader and founder of Wak Ka Koneke says, "Our goal is to conserve our land so that future generations can enjoy what we have now."

We spent five days in Kekoldi learning about their conservation and education programs. On the second day, we visited the Iguana Conservation program. Green Iguanas are an endangered species in Costa Rica as they are hunted for meat, oil, and skins to make drums. Only one-in-one-hundred iguanas in the wild survive to adulthood, and most of these have been hunted. However, at the Kekoldi Iguana Conservation Farm, 95% of the iguanas grow to maturity (in two years) and are then released into the wild. This program has been very successful in helping to restore this endangered species to the Talamanca region.

For the next two days, we participated in two bird conservation programs: 1) mist netting song birds, and 2) monitoring raptor migration. Birds are an important indicator species of the health of local ecosystems and, in the case of migratory species, an indicator of the health of populations and ecosystems globally. The loss of wild habitat to development; toxic pesticides; and air, land, and water pollution, are causing the decline of bird species worldwide. Preserves like Kekoldi not only provide vital habitat for birds, they also help ensure the survival of song birds and many other species with whom they share their habitat.

Mist netting: This was really cool. We set up three - 12 meter long by 3 meter high fine-meshed black nets that are virtually invisible in the forest. Then we waited. It was like going downstairs Christmas morning... We caught a variety of birds: long-billed and strip-throated hermit humming birds, ochre-belly fly catchers, white-collored manakins, etc. There are over 50 species of humming birds alone in Costa Rica. This place is a birders paradise. The humming birds are my favorite - darting around like a 2 inch helicopters on steroids.

Once we capture the birds, we then record information: age, sex, physical condition, resident or migratory status, and weight. A tiny band with serial number is usually placed on their right leg, and they are then released into the rain forest no worse for wear. This research not only generates scientific knowledge on the biodiversity of the Kekoldi Reserve, the data on the migratory species becomes part of an international data base providing valuable information on migratory patterns, physical characteristics, and ecosystem management.

Raptors: Kekoldi is the world's second largest raptor migration site with 3.5 million birds flying over the reserve's observation tower annually. Seventeen species of raptors migrate across the skies of the reserve and three species (Turkey Vulture, Swainson's Hawk, and Broadwing Hawk) account for 98% of all birds counted. Raptors are also important environmental indicators. An extreme example of this is from Argentina where a farmer found 5,000 birds poisoned to death by pesticides a few years ago. With this information and data collected from bird migrations, conservationists in Argentina were able to successfully lobby for the prohibition of harmful agricultural pesticides (dangerous chemicals supplied by the United States and harmful to not only birds, but to other species - including humans).

We also had a chance to hike deep into the rain forest to a remote waterfall. It was amazing - a steady stream of water cascading down a sheer rock face into a deep, fresh water pool 70 feet below. The waterfall and surrounding cliff formed an amphitheater with lush, dense, mist-soaked vegetation covering a steep 280 degree bowl around us. We jumped off a rock cliff into the deep, cool water and swam over to the waterfall to soak in the mist and shower of plummetting water and the magic of this tropical paradise.

I am so grateful for the opportunity to be here in Central America. We're learning so much about "sustainability through community"
- learning that it's not simply about preserving rain forests, or protecting animal and plant species. It's also about people; and it's about community. If we want to preserve rain forests (or any other habitat), we have to find ways for people to meet their economic needs without destroying the natural environment where they live. Kekoldi is on a sustainable path to do just that; and these beautiful people are teaching us how "It is possible."

For more information on Kekoldi, you can check out their website at: www.kekoldi.org and for more information on CELL, you can check our our website at: http://www.cellonline.org/.