Costa Rica Conservation Trust

PROGRAMS & PROJECTS

Learn about CRCT's programs and current projects, including a land trust, ecological park, healing community and educational outreach. 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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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

THE BIGGER PICTURE
Socially Responsible Conservation

CRCT was developed by a team of Central and U.S. Americans in direct response to what was evidenced in and addressed by Costa Rican communities in and around remaining old growth forests of Costa Rica. After years of exposure to the environmental catastrophe befalling the Central American ecosystems, CRCT's Program Development Staff concluded that conservation and socio-economics are so deeply tangled up together that only by working on both these issues simultaneously will true protection and recovery of threatened ecosystems take place. CRCT believes that poverty creates an atmosphere in which people must often hunt animals or destroy forests for survival - that lack of educational and awareness contributes to contamination and misuse of resources - that buying out farmers to establish private reserves is not a socially or environmentally sustainable solution over the long term and should be a last resort - that farmers can and will change their destructive behaviors and become the conscious caretakers of their own lands if the education, tools and resources to do so are made available to them.

CRCT has developed an approach that makes conservation work more socially responsible and humanitarian/social work environmentally sustainable. CRCT works to protect and recover endangered ecosystems, but also to alleviate poverty, avoid the forced economic migration of small farmers and indigenous people, raise educational levels, and other related social issues that are inextricably connected to global environmental sustainability. CRCT's Costa Rica Volunteer Program is the main program through which CRCT helps to simultaneously solve the environmental and social problems of the region.

The specific problems CRCT works to solve:

Environmental:

The following threats to the environment were openly apparent to our Program Development Staff or brought to their attention by local residents and community leaders over a period of six years (1999-2005) of observation and conversations and negotiations with rural village leaders. Our research occurred primarily in and around the Los Santos Forest Reserve in the Central Pacific Region of Costa Rica (Savegre Watershed), but we found that this situation is typical of most of the rural areas of Costa Rica, as our partners in other regions of the country and the local governmental agencies we work with expressed similar concerns:

Indiscriminate extraction of old growth and endangered trees from private forests and national protected areas.
Inappropriate and excessive use of chemical pesticides/fungicides/herbicides, including illegal ones, on crops and fields.
Massive soil erosion due to unsustainable cattle ranching practices on very steep and deforested hillsides.
Over-hunting in private forests and public protected areas. Hunters of the area sometimes take 3 or more hunting dogs with them, which are trained to kill anything that moves. Thus, one hunting expedition leads to the killing or harassment of many animals, including endangered species.
Expansion of the agricultural/ranching border into privately held old growth forests and national protected areas.
Pollution of waterways from the improper management of human and animal wastes, including grey and black waters.
Unregulated road and driveway construction. These unsustainable roads and driveways often cause mudslides, massive erosion, and other similar problems.
Lack of forest cover around creeks sides, river banks, and springs; springs are running dry.
Constant bovine and equestrian access to rivers and creeks - a source of river contamination and degradation of the river bank and riparian areas.
Crawdad fishing practices that poison the creeks and rivers - for example, fishermen dam up a portion of a water way, then pour a strong pesticide (including illegal ones) in the water so that the crawdads run out of the water and can easily be captured. Fish are often killed in this process due to the high amount of poison in the water.
Burning of household and agricultural garbage, including plastics, pesticide containers and metals. Other households bury their garbage inappropriately or litter the streets and/or river.
Annual burning of fields.
Clearing of areas where ecological recovery is occurring.
Lack of government surveillance and control of the above listed activities, although there are laws forbidding most of these. This is due to lack of funds, logistics, politics, inaccessibility of rural areas, and other factors.

General conclusions (some obvious) can be drawn at this time regarding contributing factors that help determine the level of severity of environmental destruction and contamination:

The lower the human population in an area, the lesser the degree of destruction.
The higher the educational level of the inhabitants, the lesser the degree of destruction and more willingness to listen to ideas regarding sustainable development.
The more distant and isolated an area is in relation to an urban center, the less destructive people are on the one hand (they still grow most of their food and due to difficulties of transportation, produce less outside garbage and use lesser amounts of pesticides). On the other hand, their isolation leads to more unregulated building, clearing of forests, extraction of wood and animals from protected areas, etc.
The poorer the residents of the area, the greater the degree of destruction - it is for survival that many people illegally hunt/poach and deforest. For example, plummeting prices in coffee and beef have forced many to clear more areas of land to be able to have more cattle or coffee trees to make up for the low price paid per unit. Also, trees on the borders of pastures and fields are logged to sell on the illegal market. On the other hand, large wealthy landowners are usually the ones that build large polluting pig farms and clear huge areas of forest all at once to graze hundreds of heads of cattle. Foreign and locally owned Agro-businesses and development entities also cause huge amounts of destruction and misuse large amounts of water. Eco-minded foreign landowners are increasingly found in the region and they often protect the environment in model ways, but tend not to interact with the local people in a responsible way or they displace small farmers when purchasing land.

Socio-Economic:

While assessing the ecological threats and problems of the region, it became apparent to CRCT's Program Development Staff that the ecological problems of the area were intertwined with socio-economic problems. After conducting interviews it was found that most farmers in the area were suffering from one or more of the following situations:

Average educational level - 3rd grade, and lack of educational opportunities beyond the 5th grade in many rural communities.
General poverty and a life of constant struggle and hard work that does not seem to ever make ends meet.
Very low wages and lack of employment opportunities, particularly for the youth. Thus, a constant exodus migration to urban centers and the United States. Fathers are also migrating, leaving wives and young children behind to take care of the farm. Oftentimes, these men never return and there are cases that the wife and children never hear from them again. There are numerous reports and cases of immigrants dying trying to reach the United States in search of a living wage. Some families consider the option of selling their farms instead of taking such a large risk. Ironically, most families that sell their farms end up having to immigrate to the United States anyways, because the money from the sale of the farm doesn't last very long or is mismanaged due to low education levels.
Forced sales of land due to economic hardship, bank loan foreclosures and other similar reasons. Most families interviewed were sad to have to sell their land, disappointed that after a life-time of trying to make it off their land they would have to abandon all the work they had done and the only life they have ever known. There was often no established plan for managing the money they would make in a long-term sustainable way.

Interviews with economically displaced immigrants that sold their farms showed that life did not get easier for many of them upon arriving in the city and the United States. As farmers, their technical training made their employment opportunities limited mostly to landscapers, laborers, factory and agricultural workers, and domestic maids. Many end up living in the most dangerous and poorest parts of Latin urban centers where drugs, violence and prostitution are common. Others continue their journey to the United States in search of a better life, where unfortunately many immigrant families do not fare well due to being undocumented and the prevalence of drugs, gangs, prejudice, and racial conflicts. There is also a general sense of regret that they no longer have the option of returning to the countryside where they feel their children would be safer and healthier.

Interestingly, many farmers selling their farms do not have a larger grasp of what happens to most immigrant families after selling their farms, and that $25,000 - $50,000 is not really that much money over the long term, particularly when it is split up amongst many children (some have up to 18 children). Many think that that money will set them and their children up for life, or they simply do not have a choice because they have to pay their increasing agricultural debt (much of it caused by unsustainable agricultural practices and the pesticide treadmill syndrome).

This all represents a larger environmental problem as well because Latin urban households create (on average) two times more garbage than a Latin rural farming households, and the average U.S. household creates double what a Latin urban household creates. Thus, after immigration, a large family that at one time lived on the same farm in a complex of small houses, now live spread out in numerous urban households and each of them is creating an average of four times more garbage than they used to. We hypothesize that this occurs because they rapidly adopt an urban disposable culture and begin buying foods in excessive packaging and begin using disposable diapers, drinking out of disposable water bottles, etc. They also no longer have animals that eat their meal scraps so their organic wastes are thrown in the garbage. In addition, numerous studies have shown that urban, consumer-based culture and over-taxed urban centers are wreaking havoc on the environment in ways that in many respects are worse than the damage farming families were doing when living on their farms. And lastly, it is not uncommon for farmers that at one time were logging a few trees per year to end up working in a sweat shop or factory for a company that contributes to the clearing of thousands of acres of forest each year and other massive environmental problems.

Input of local leaders and youth regarding all of this:

In 2000-2005, ARAUCARIA, a Spanish NGO, worked in the Savegre Watershed and helped organize the local communities around the issue of conservation. They identified local leaders and provided them with a series of workshops and awareness and educational activities which raised their ecological, social and global awareness. They also provided them with training on how to develop and carry out projects and programs, become organized, and manage micro-credit banks and start sustainable micro-enterprises, such as eco-tourism.

As a follow-up to the work ARAUCARIA did, CRCT's Program Development Staff spent 6 months working closely with a group of local leaders from 5 communities in the Savegre Watershed (mostly youth ages 16-25 years old), mentoring, training and inspiring them to take action to do something about the destructive habits of their families and neighbors. They were asked to reflect on what they thought needed to happen for their families and villages so that they would truly convert to sustainable income strategies and start adopting sustainable living practices in their homes, farms and businesses.

Out of these conversations, the following pragmatic solutions were determined:

1) AWARENESS EDUCATION: First, they felt that raising their awareness was vital, as most of their neighbors were not even conscious that they were doing things that were harming the Earth, their health, their long-term economic and ecological sustainability, etc. They agreed that awareness education should include education on family planning, even though it goes against Roman Catholic doctrine.

2) TECHNICAL EDUCATION: Secondly, upon realizing that the way they are doing things is destructive and unsustainable, they need information and technical training on how to do things differently, both at home and on their farms. They felt that any program aimed at helping teach them how to sustainably develop their farms should start by teaching them how to improve on what they already know how to do. In other words, to work within the systems of production they know, and to honor their culture and traditions. Thus, they felt it was best to focus first on income strategies they are comfortable with - in the case of the Savegre farmers, these include: coffee, wood, cattle, bananas, and sugar cane. However, many expressed a keen interest in expanding into the eco-tourism market, as there is wide popular acceptance of this new income strategy as being economically and ecologically sustainable. Others are open to try totally new products and services once trust is established with CRCT.

This component would also have to include technical education on topics such as "sustainable management of household wastes," "non-toxic cleaning solutions," "natural medicine," "sustainable housing construction," and other similar workshops, talks, and educational campaigns that teach sustainable living practices in general.

3) RESOURCES: Given that it takes funds, time and resources to convert from non-sustainable income strategies to sustainable ones, the farmers mention over and over again that without these resources they cannot make the larger changes to sustainable development. Many are already living in poverty or just barely scraping by. They do not have the resources or ability to finance their conversion to sustainable income strategies without some kind of assistance. They need low-interest, long-term loans, volunteers and other similar resources.

4) CONCRETE SUSTAINABLE INCOME OPTIONS BASED ON REAL MARKET NEEDS: Farmers express a willingness to convert to new products and to diversify their farms, but they need real and concrete market security before making a change. They have had bad experiences where they have been told by local institutions or the private sector to grow certain products, and then end up with no one to buy the harvests. Their low economic level also makes expansion into new areas very risky for the livelihood of their children and family.

Thus, they need A COMMITTED BUYER; before beginning the process of conversion to organic agriculture, ecotourism or another sustainable income strategy, the farmers need a committed buyer that is ready to buy their product/service at a better price than what they are currently getting for their traditionally grown product. Without this guarantee, it is unreasonable to ask them to undergo a conversion to a sustainable income strategy. In order to find a committed buyer, they need help linking their product or service with the market and the tools to market these.

5) DEMONSTRATION SITES: Farmers are often afraid to make a change and suffer ridicule from their community, more debt or bankruptcy. They also do not believe that organic agriculture is really possible in their specific region or that the market would pay more for organically and sustainably produced products and services. One farmer put it well when he said: "Go talk to Juan next door - if Juan does it first and I see that it really works and that he is doing well, then I will talk to you again." This underscores the need to support pioneer individuals that are willing to be the leaders and take the necessary risk of conversion. These brave farmers will carve out a new path of options for their neighbors that are more hesitant and fearful of change.

Taking Action Together:

After digesting this "Bigger Picture," our Program Development Staff, Board of Directors and Advisory Board agreed that the best, long-term approach to conservation (in this part of the world) was through collaboration and co-creation with the local people. We set out to create a process that helps them become the caretakers of their own lands and rainforests and the protagonists of their own sustainable development. In addition, it is vital to provide them with the intellectual and physical tools to do this work and also to empower them and give them enough creative space so that they solve their own problems.

Our programs and projects are designed to support the pragmatic solutions the local people shared with us - always looking to alleviate and solve the ecological and socio-economic problems identified and discussed above. CRCT's Costa Rica Volunteer Program is our main avenue of support to the local communities. It provides local leaders the human and economic resources they need to carry out locally impacting conservation and sustainable development projects in their communities. The projects and programs our volunteers support are often designed by the community groups themselves and CRCT acts more like a consultant, supportive partner, and channel of resources. At the same time, the volunteer program helps visiting volunteers become more aware of how socially responsible conservation and environmentally sustainable humanitarian work can happen and take these ideas to other parts of the world (we like the mantra "think globally, act locally).

Some programs that have been carried out thanks to our volunteer program include recycling centers, ecological awareness campaigns, and an endangered tree nursery. The volunteer program also provides paid employment to local leaders who are developing, supervising and carrying out these programs (many of them young men and women). Many of them were considering moving to San Jose or making the journey to the United States before this program was established. Now they are paid for doing what they are passionate about and they can stay in their villages, which is where they want to be. It is a win-win situation and helps stop the flight of youth that are motivated to convert their family farms to sustainable farms.

We are currently looking for funding, volunteers, and sponsoring buyers to finance larger projects like the building of a biological research station, the launching of a Sustainably Grown/Fair Trade coffee label for the regions' coffee growers, and an Endorsement Program aimed at helping foreign land-owners and tourism-related businesses conduct business in Costa Rica in a socially and environmentally conscious and responsible way. We envision becoming a source of information for visiting tourists on how to leave a positive ecological and social footprint while visiting this country and support the sustainably produced services and goods small farmers are offering in their attempt to convert to sustainable development. In addition, we aim to provide social/cultural and ecological awareness education to foreigners wishing to relocate to Costa Rica so they can purchase land in a socially responsible way and integrate with the local communities around them in a way that creates win-win situations for everyone.

To date, CRCT initiated projects and programs include:

501 (c) 3 Fiscal Sponsorship Program (in development stage)
Biodiversity Between Oceans & Continents Photographic Exhibit (finished, but can be re-exhibited upon request)
Connections Eco-Cultural Expedition (in development stage)
Costa Rica Volunteer Program (active)
CRCT's Environmental and Social Endorsement Program (in development stage El Brujo) Ecological Awareness Campaign (active)
La Danta Endangered Tree Nursery Project (active)
La Danta Sustainably Grown Coffee Project (in development stage)
Recycling and Waste Management Program (active)
Research Station and Field Camp (in development stage)
Sustainable Management of Pig Farms Project (active)
Water Protection Program (active)
Youth Mentorship Program (active)

These programs and projects are possible thanks to the amazing work and support of the local community groups of the Central and South Pacific region of Costa Rica, our volunteers, our partners, individual donors, corporate sponsors, two grants by the New Earth Foundation and a grant from The Captain Planet Foundation and ARAUCARIA/MINAE.

Ways to become involved:

EXPERIENCE COSTA RICA AS A VOLUNTEER!
We offer volunteer opportunities in Costa Rica and the U.S.
Visit our Costa Rica Volunteer Program page for more information!

BE A CONSCIOUS CONSUMER!
Buy sustainably produced goods and services when you shop. CRCT offers endorses a sustainably produced coffee and eco-tourism-related businesses in Costa Rica Call us at: (415) 359-4759 or write to: info@conservecostarica.org

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