Costa Rica Conservation Trust

PROGRAMS & PROJECTS

Learn about CRCT's programs and current campaigns, including a Recycling and Waste Management Campaign, Ecological Awareness Campaign, Water Protection Program, Sustainably Grown Coffee Program... MORE

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By supporting CRCT, you are helping preserve and heal ecosystems that are in danger of deforestation and poaching. Please help us keep our planet green, protect our wildlife and educate towards a better world.
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VOLUNTEER PROGRAM

"Leave a positive footprint!" Experience Costa Rica in a meaningful way! Open to families, individuals and youth. Learn more about our Volunteer Program Today!

ABOUT CRCT

Costa Rica Conservation Trust (CRCT) is
a non-profit organization dedicated to the preservation, rejuvenation, and low impact management of ecosystems in Costa Rica. LEARN MORE ABOUT US

STAFF MEMBER PROFILE

Kimberly Klootwyk
Programs Director / Board Vice President
kim@conservecostarica.org

Kim's Bio:

I was born in El Salvador to a Costa Rican father and a U.S. American mother.

During my formative years, I traveled around a lot, giving me an opportunity to experience different cultures and bioregions. I've lived in San Salvador, California, Alaska and Arizona.

It was at the age of 17, while working for the forest service in Alaska, that I came to truly appreciate the wonder of nature. I soon became known among the indigenous population on the small island where we lived as the "crazy girl who walks the forest alone without a gun." They thought I was crazy because the population of grizzlies was higher than the population of humans on that island. But I felt comfortable among the animals, and the few encounters I had with bears were uneventful, for I think they knew I respected them and would not harm them, thus they never harmed me.

In El Salvador it was almost impossible to experience nature because most of the country has been deforested and ravaged by war and overpopulation. When my older brother moved to our father's homeland, Costa Rica and I came to visit him for the first time in 1999, I could see all that El Salvador once had been. Walking down the streets of Puerto Jimenez, I could hear monkeys in the trees, macaws flying overhead and huge iguanas crossing the road. I felt so at home and so thrilled to see so much life.

I have been living in Arizona for the last seven years. I came here to go to college. Now that I have completed my B.A. in History and Anthropology. I plan on returning to Latin America to raise my family in Costa Rica.

In 2000, my sister, a single mother living off of the land in a very rural area of Costa Rica, called me to tell me that one of the few old growth corridors available in the Rio Division Valley for wildlife to access the river, was going to be sold to a logger unless someone else came up with the money. I took out all the student loans I had to purchase that land.

It has been my dream for many years to help preserve lands for our animal and plant relatives to have a chance of survival in these difficult times. I also feel that the best way to pass along a love for nature is to expose children to it is in a non-threatening way. We can talk about the importance of conservation, recycling, etc. to our children, but unless we and they EXPERIENCE the wonder of the natural world, it is difficult to change the destruction paradigm.

I return to Costa Rica this year with the aim of beginning a multicultural, ecological summer camp project where children and their parents of different backgrounds can come together in a safe environment and learn from each other and from the bounty of the Costa Rican countryside. The camp will also serve as a model of sustainable living for them to experience so they can come away with the first hand knowledge that it is a true possibility to live in communion with the natural world. It is my wish for them to SEE, rather than for them to be TOLD.

My profession is teaching, developing curriculum for a new era, and grant writing. I am assisting a local school district develop and implement a culturally sensitive language program for immigrant children. I am a college instructor at a local community college and the grant writer for The Institute for Cosmic Awareness, a Mother Earth Spirituality based organization that facilitates Earth Dance, awareness workshops, and traditional indigenous ceremonies year round.

It is my honor to add to my responsibilities the position of Secretary for Costa Rica Conservation Trust, as it gives me an opportunity to work directly with others in the preservation of some of the last remaining rainforest areas in Central America.

Education

B.A. from Northern Arizona University
Major in History, Minor in Anthropology
Summa Cume Laude (2002)

Associate of Arts Degree from Yavapai College, AZ.
conferred honors (2000)

High School Diploma from the International School of San Salvador
conferred with honors (1994)