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The forests of Costa Rica’s Osa Peninsula contain half of all species in the country. The Osa Conservation Area oversees 14 protected areas, including two national parks, nine wildlife refuges, a biological reserve and a protected wetland. To establish these involved conflicts with local populations, and resolving those was one focus of the Neotropica Foundation’s BOSCOSA project. It aimed to integrate development needs of local populations with conservation goals for the forest. In populated buffer zones adjacent to critical areas, projects supported forest management, agroforestry, conservation education, alternative forest products, and general sustainable development. https://www.acicafoc.org/organizaciones/neotropica/
Paraforestales
Forestry interns measuring a tree, part of creating an inventory of the forest reserve.
Rancho / House at a ranch
Niña / Girl
Girl on the porch of a house, Rancho Quemado
Albergue Chacuaco
Chacuaco Lodge for travelers to Rancho Quemado
Ganado
Cattle Farmers in Rancho Quemado made cheese from milk their cows gave. Without refrigeration or easy access to urban markets, they used salt to preserve the cheese.
Casa y carro
Ranch house with truck and motorcycle. Both are needed — one to move goods, the other for transporting people.
Establescando datos forestales
Creating a scientific database of the Osa forest reserve requires good data about kinds, varieties and properties of the complex plant life found there.
Coopeagromuebles
This cooperative workshop was set up to encourage value added and sustainable forestry. When local people can keep more of the income from timber products, there’s less need to cut trees.
Educación forestal
Teaching the next generation to value the forest for more than its timber is a critical part of BOSCOSA’s program.
Explotación forestal
Logging is one threat to the integrity of Osa’s forest reserve.
Ordenando vacas / Milking cows
Preparando queso / Making cheese
Metate quitacáscaras
Traditional method of pounding and winnowing rice to remove the hulls, in a wooden metate
Cosecha de frijoles
Bean field at Rancho Quemado
Cucina rustica
It’s a rugged and lengthy climb up to this gold claim at El Tigre, where an extended family mines gold. The miners stay for days, with a family member — in this case a young girl — to cook for them.
Minero
Miner at El Tigre
Reunión de BOSCOSA
A meeting at BOSCOSA headquarters
Ganadero cruzando un rio
Rancher crossing a river