Nature solutions for Community development

 Yes, we are all worried about climate change.  The news is not promising.  But I promise we will continue doing everything possible to mitigate climate change and protect the communities and their surrounding environment.  Since 2022, we have planted 3364 trees and aim to have 4,000 by the end of the year.

This year, we have had several reforestation campaigns for native fast-growing trees. Since then, we have implemented 4 reforestation campaigns with 1123 trees planted on Government land, 51 trees, and 30 live tree posts in cattle farms.   We also planted 18 fruit trees in Don Juvenal's demonstrative farm.  We believe that by the end of September, we will be able to plant 700 more trees, for a total of 1823 trees since the beginning of this project.

Regarding the environmental education activities, we performed 98 educational sessions.  25 in local schools and 73 in afternoon groups. We are planning that by completing this project, we will have at least 200 educational activities performed.

Also, we have worked with 3 regenerative agriculture demonstrative farms, which are now planting trees, leaving some areas for reforestation, and creating signs to make their farms more demonstrative and educational.

We also worked with 10 cattle farmers, who received an intensive one-week training regarding holistic cattle farming.  The process included understanding cattle farming as an opportunity to regenerate land, absorb carbon dioxide, and improve farmers’ economies. The process also included planning cattle areas for intensive pastures, reforestation of riverbanks, and implementing life fences to provide shade and rewild the area.  Farmers also think about working with nature rather than working against it. Cattle farming has been proven to restore grassland soils and minimize climate change's and desertification's damaging effects. 

If you want to be part of this effort, support our project on GlobalGiving between September 18th and 22nd during the Little by Little campaign.  GlobalGiving will match 50% of any donation of $50 USD or less.   You are hot?  Help us plant trees, please! 

2023 has been a great year for our environmental education program.  3000 trees have been planted and 2000 more will be planted soon by the end of the year. 42 workshops have been held, reaching 107 children in our environmental education groups and 12 formal lesson were held in 7 different schools.

This program is working on five main areas, Environmental Education, Regenerative Agriculture, Regenerative Livestock, Forest Restoration, and Community Support; all of them focus on Nature solutions for Community development, which is why we changed the name of our project. These five priorities are operated in different rural communities of the Drake district and seek to promote the sustainable development of these communities while promoting actions to restore natural resources while mitigating and adapting to climate change. 

In 2023, we celebrated the 20th anniversary of the Environmental Education Program of the Corcovado Foundation in Drake Bay. We created five more groups throughout these years. At this point, about five hundred kids have passed throughout our program, and the results have been extraordinary.

In 2023, we have worked in 5 communities: Rancho Quemado, Progreso, Los Angeles, Agujitas, and Los Planes. We worked with the children through workshops, which they attend weekly voluntarily in the afternoons. These kids are learning and developing actions for the environment. The classes usually contain information on the subject, and then games or crafts help reinforce theoretical knowledge while children have fun and build communication, art, and teamwork, among other skills.

During this year, 42 workshops have been held, reaching 107 children. Some of the topics that we studied are what are forests and their types, ecosystem services of forests, types of plants in forests (levels), diversity in forests, problems faced by forests, ways to conserve forests, community awareness about caring for forests and forests as a home for all.

Regenerative Agriculture: we continued collaborating with Drake's families, who learned about regenerative agriculture techniques in 2020-2021.

We are following up on three families who want to implement the Integral Demonstration Farm model. For this, we have been working on the issue of bio inputs, vegetation cover, and composting. This work is possible because of the support of our volunteers.

In addition, with the support of the UNED, we train 47 families of Drake in processing healthy foods. They learned about different food processing techniques and worked on developing innovative recipes with local products that families contributed.

Forest restoration: During 2021, were carried out several rainforest restorations in 3 private farms in Drake (Banegas, Progreso, and La Bijagua). Some areas of the farms were reforested with native species to create connectivity in areas near the forest.  In total, we have planted 241 trees which have been monitored.  

In 2021, we began a restoration of 4.7 hectares of land belonging to a farm in the Golfo Dulce Forest Reserve. By the end of 2023, we will have planted approximately three thousand native trees.

In addition, we are coordinating to support a new project in the Golfo Dulce Forest Reserve, where we want to restore another farm of 17 hectares that are now pasture. At this moment, a first visit was made, and the farm offers excellent potential.