How to save the tropical forest and help poor communities at the same time? Luckily, people still use wood in furniture and in their homes, because of its beauty. As it turns out, wood is carbon taken OUT OF the atmosphere, mitigating climate change. But the demand of wood should come from plantations and not from our super diverse tropical forests. By planting trees, communities create a source for local income and jobs, while protecting the forest and all of its incredible inhabitants!
Small farmers in on the Carribean Coast of Costa Rica are hard pressed for productive alternatives on their farms- especially older farmers whose children have gone off. Tree planting is a great way to generate income, while producing wood for local demand. The trees and their wood products fix carbon from the air, helping mitigate climate change while producing jobs and protecting our diverse tropical forest; home to sloths, anteaters, monkies, hundreds of birds and thousands of insect species.
With this project, you will be helping ASIREA (a local farmersorganization in the Caribbean coast of Costa Rica that has planted over 1.5 million trees with over 400 families and aided in the conservation of over 12,000 hectareas of tropical forests) to continue to asist farmers. ASIREA gives technical support for ALL the phases of reforestation: starting with trees from our nursery to helping the farmers safely harvest and sell their wood. We hope to add more value to wood by drying it.
ASIREA has been doing this for more than 25 years. With the support of donors, ASIREA will continue working with local producers to promote reforestation technical assistance and the financial support from our government. More positive experiences in reforestation will generate a snowball effect attracting more farmers to participate in reforestation projects and their economical and environmental benefits, more jobs will be created, more carbon will be taken from the atmosphere.
