Nature solutions for Community development

Español a continuación: 

On behalf of the Corcovado Foundation, we wish you that all that is beautiful, meaningful, and joyful be yours this Holiday Season and throughout the coming year.

We are so grateful for all of you, your support, and your friendship! Thanks to you, we have had a fantastic year, bringing knowledge, assistance, hope, and even gifts to people all over Osa and beyond.

Thanks to you, we have been able to:

• Implement 43 Environmental Education sessions in 8 schools and one high school, in 9 different communities, 216 children reached.

• We have worked with 5 Environmental Groups in 5 communities for 125 workshops and conservation activities implemented.

• We have delivered 180 food packages to the elderly and vulnerable families, with 20 families reached per month.

• We have planted 2,142 trees on three private farms and in the Golfo Dulce Forest Reserve.

• We have been carrying out reforestation, fauna monitoring, beach cleaning, and exchange with international students, with 18 students from the Drake school participating in the Junior Park Ranger Program with the Corcovado National Park

• We have organized forest restoration activities for more than 50 local people and volunteers.

• We support the design and consolidation of 3 integral Farms in 3 Drake communities.

• We have established a demonstrative project of bio-inputs and a vegetable garden in the Corcovado Foundation’s Biohostel in Progreso.

We organized a 4-day exchange in Sarapiquí with 14 cattle farmers and producers from Drake Bay to learn about regenerative agriculture and ranching.

• We have backed the construction process of the new high school in Drake Bay.

• We have helped organize 4 recycling collection campaigns, collected five and a half tons of recycling, and supported the Municipality of Osa and ECOINS.

• We organized one castration campaign in Progreso, where 37 dogs and cats were neutered.

• We completed a sustainable consumption plan for mussels (Anadara tuberculosa) for the Térraba Sierpe Wetland

• We have implemented a restoration process for 13 hectares of mangrove swamps in the Térraba Sierpe National Wetland and Bahía Tomas Mangrove.

We are so grateful for all of you, your support, and your friendship! Thanks to you, we have had a fantastic year, bringing knowledge, assistance, hope, and even gifts to people all over Osa Peninsula and beyond.

Dont miss our staff video attached. 

Español 

En nombre de la Fundación Corcovado, le deseamos que todo lo que es hermoso, significativo y alegre sea suyo en esta temporada navideña y durante el próximo año.

¡Estamos muy agradecidos con todos ustedes, su apoyo y su amistad! Gracias a ustedes, hemos tenido un año fantástico, brindando conocimiento, asistencia, esperanza e incluso regalos a personas de todo Osa y más allá.

 Gracias a usted, este 2022, hemos podido:

• Implementar 43 jornadas de Educación Ambiental en 8 colegios y un liceo, en 9 comunidades diferentes, alcanzando 216 niños.

• Hemos trabajado con 5 Grupos Ambientalistas en 5 comunidades para 125 talleres y actividades de conservación implementadas.

• Hemos entregado 180 paquetes de alimentos a adultos mayores y familias vulnerables, con 20 familias alcanzadas por mes.

• Hemos sembrado 2.142 árboles en tres fincas privadas y en la Reserva Forestal Golfo Dulce.

• Venimos realizando actividades de reforestación, monitoreo de fauna, limpieza de playas e intercambio con estudiantes internacionales, con 18 estudiantes del colegio Drake participando del Programa de Guardaparques Junior con el Parque Nacional Corcovado

• Hemos organizado actividades de restauración forestal para más de 50 personas locales y voluntarios.

• Apoyamos el diseño y consolidación de 3 Fincas integrales en 3 comunidades de Drake.

• Hemos establecido un proyecto demostrativo de bioinsumos y una huerta en el Biohostel de la Fundación Corcovado en Progreso.

Organizamos un intercambio de 4 días en Sarapiquí con 14 ganaderos y productores de Bahía Drake para aprender sobre agricultura y ganadería regenerativa.

• Hemos respaldado el proceso de construcción de la nueva preparatoria en Bahía Drake.

• Hemos ayudado a organizar 4 campañas de recolección de reciclaje, recolectamos cinco toneladas y media de reciclaje, en colaboración con la Municipalidad de Osa y ECOINS.

• Organizamos una campaña de castración en el Progreso, donde se castraron 37 perros y gatos.

• Finalizamos un plan aprovechamiento sustentable del piangua (Anadara tuberculosa) para el Humedal Térraba Sierpe

• Hemos implementado un proceso de restauración de 13 hectáreas de manglares en el Humedal Nacional Térraba Sierpe y Manglar Bahía Tomas.

¡Estamos muy agradecidos con todos ustedes, su apoyo y su amistad! Gracias a ustedes, hemos tenido un año fantástico, brindando conocimiento, asistencia, esperanza e incluso regalos a personas de toda la Península de Osa y más allá.

No te pierdas del video de nuestro equipo

Links:

• Happy Holidays

Environmental Education: Growing Hope

Inga Gusanova, The Nature Fund For Costa Rica

How old were you when you learned what was possible – and what wasn’t?

Growing up, I spent many summers in a rural village. Middle of nowhere, about 20 houses. I had a friend there – a girl my age. We were inseparable. We were about 11 when I asked her what she wanted to do after school. In my big city circles it wasn’t too early start thinking about universities. She paused and thought. “Well,” she said. “My mom washes elevators. I really hope that wouldn’t be my life.”

What does any of this have to do with environmental education in Costa Rica?

The thing is, the way Corcovado Foundation runs its “Environmental Education” program, it becomes about expanding the limits of what is possible.

“It was not only conservation that they taught us. But they helped us to grow and to have skills, to know that we had abilities for many things… to have better expectations of our lives.” Mauren Morales, 2003 program participant.

Costa Rica made many improvements in its educational system over the years: Secondary school attendance rose from 60% in 2000 to 98% in 2018. Unfortunately, the COVID pandemic wiped out many of these gains. The latest UNESCO estimates are that only 58% of Costa Ricans overall complete high school: A rate that rises to 80-93% among the rich and falls down to 33-34% among the poorest.

Lack of education translates into further lack of opportunity. These kids face further life struggles, such as losing motivation, systemic barriers, and never escaping poverty. In circumstances like these, access to additional supports and resources becomes even more important.

Social science has more than 20 years of research on helping youth build resilience. We know what matters. A sense of connection – to other people, to something important, to one’s own identity. Believing that you can get where you are going – that you can, somehow, figure it out and take action (aka the “sense of agency”).

Those strengths do not just magically appear. Children learn them in many ways over time. Through supportive family and friends. Through having someone believe in you. Through having access to school and extracurriculars where they gradually build skills: How to achieve a goal, how to learn from manageable mistakes, and how to keep going.

It is much harder to get such experience in deprived rural areas. Schools already have too few resources. Even the most well-meaning and loving families are hurt by chronic stress and poverty. Exhausted parents often have an understandably harder time being responsive and supportive. That’s where additional programs can have a tremendous impact.

CF’s environmental education program includes classroom instruction about the environment and the role that humans play in it. The topics cover climate change, ecosystem restoration, and regenerative agriculture. But it goes far beyond this, by facilitating extracurricular activities that build skills and confidence. Together, children organize beach clean ups and recycling collections, discover arts and stage their own plays, learn about useful plants and plant organic gardens in their schools, play games and have fun.

By their very design, these activities also increase social support. Over the years, environmental educators end up serving as informal mentors when needed. The children have a chance to build deeper friendships with each other. Taking part in group organizing and coordinating effort allows these youth to develop and practice crucial social, teamwork, and leadership skills. Typically, these are the only extracurriculars available in their remote rural communities – and thus the only opportunities to do all this in a managed, structured way.

According to a local high school teacher, they can tell when a kid was a part of the Corcovado Foundation’s youth group. Those who had participated, were reportedly more aware and concerned about nature, protecting wildlife, recycling, etc. Yet as evidence of deeper impact, they were also reportedly more interested in learning overall; as well as more respectful with their environment, their peers, and themselves.

Throughout 2022, 60 kids from five participating Osa communities have been meeting weekly for youth groups. Over the years, approximately 500 kids from seven communities participated in all kinds of activities from brief tours to national parks or for whale and dolphin watching tours. Tourists come from all over the world for these experiences. Yet the kids who live literally next door to those natural wonders rarely have the same chance. Once a year, Corcovado Foundation organizes a 3 to 5 day out-of-town experience, in which children travel to communities further away to expand their horizons.They meet leaders who have achieved the goals by dreaming big and working hard.

“It lit a spark in me, you see? …The trips that we made… These are some of the most beautiful experiences I have.” Josué Quirós, 2003 program participant.