Climate Action Costa Rica Project #14307

Nature solutions for Community development

by Corcovado Foundation

Nature solutions for Community development

Project Report | Jun 4, 2014
A new path for Gustavo and Chichi!

By Alejandra Monge | Executive Director

Children at work

Chichi and Gustavo, ages 8 and 9, are from the sleepy but beautiful town of El Progreso, in the Drake Bay area. This town is distressed by its poverty. The lack of jobs, the deficient education, and other situations force many residents to move out of town. Many times, the ones who stay must take from nature to satisfy their basic needs. Chichi and Gustavo's father, Jose, is no exception. Known as the most active woodsman in town, Jose logs massive trees without permission in order to feed his family. This, of course, is an illegal practice and could lead to his arrest with jail time if he gets caught. But without proper education, he does not realize the implications this can have on the surrounding ecosystems nor does he see what his absence could do to his family.

The kids, on the other hand, are going in a different direction from their father. They are learning to use nature in a responsible way through the Corcovado Foundation's environmental youth program called the Pumas. Assiduous and enthusiastic participants, these brothers are the first ones to show up and the last ones to leave every weekly meeting. These meetings are part of the Foundation's “Creating Environmental Leaders of the new millennium” project which includes four other environmental youth groups in the nearby communities.

These groups are formed by children from different ages ranging from 6 to 12 years. Its objective is to create awareness among local children of the importance of protecting their environment. Through our environmental educator, kids are taught how harmony in the environment is paramount to their own survival and prosperity. They are given examples of how a thriving forest full of animals can used as a permanent source of income through tourism and how certain plants can be harvested responsibly to provide a sustainable source of food and housing.

The Corcovado Foundation's environmental education program is now 11 years old. More than 50 kids are participating directly in the youth programs in 5 different communities. Over 450 children receive some kind of environmental education class in school at least once a month. In order to maintain and grow this exceptional program we desperately need your help and donations. Gustavo and Chichi have an amazing capacity to track and spot animals in the wild. Those skills could easily help them become proficient hunters, or with the proper guidance, they could become amazing naturalist guides!

We thank you for all of your support!

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Mar 5, 2014
Empowering young leaders in the Osa Peninsula

By Alejandra Monge | Executive Director

Turtle Festival

The Drake Bay area in the Osa Peninsula is probably the most beautiful place in Costa Rica, at least that is our opinion at the Corcovado Foundation. The communities that live in this amazing place are sometimes little unmindful about its beauty, its incredible biodiversity and its fragility. Our environmental education program strives to create awareness, especially among children, about the particularities of their surroundings and the incredible heritage that they have received.

Due to its coastal location, many tourism-related activities in Drake Bay take place on the water, including the transportation of supplies for hotels. As such, we have focused our efforts on the protection of the marine environment. Many of the children that we work with one day will become boat captains, guides, dive masters, or tour leaders, so we are promoting responsible practices through our environmental education program. How do we create mindful citizens? How can we promote a responsible and active role for children, so that in the future they feel empowered and motivated to take proactive steps toward conservation? It is a big challenge!

We want to start by promoting good leadership values: sharing, standing up for what you believe in, supporting your peers and their interests, loving, protecting the defenseless, and conserving nature.

For the last ten years we have taught environmental education in schools in the Osa Peninsula, incorporating it permanently into their curriculum, and for the last five years we have maintained several out-of-school youth groups in the villages. These last three months we organized several activities with these groups in order to promote these values. We hosted Christmas parties with children in two underprivileged communities, held two environmental festivals, and coordinated weekly meetings and activities to try to help foster a generation of more environmentally mindful children.

During the Tree Festival, our five environmental groups spent two days together playing and learning about trees, wild animals, and how to live together more sustainably.

The Sea Turtle Festival was another grand event. Organized by our turtle conservation team, it gathered 200 people from all over the regions – hoteliers, tourists and members of local communities – who enjoyed all kinds of artistic performances, games and competitions, and cultural and environmental events. The highlights of the day were the children’s presentations. Their songs, plays and messages invited their parents to protect their environment, to stop turtle egg poaching, to plant trees, to refrain from hunting, and to love nature.

The children of Drake Bay are the future environmental leaders of these communities, and we need to make sure that we inspire them, support them, and provide them with the resources they need so that they can change their communities and the world. And they will.

Please help us to maintain our program by making a donation to our environmental education program. We are striving to produce the environmental leaders that will protect this amazing place: The Osa Peninsula.

Links:

Facebook, environmental education

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