Corcovado National Park Rescue Project!

Not every country celebrates Thanksgiving. It is not a Costa Rican tradition. But giving thanks should be a daily thing and having a holiday to give thanks it's a beautiful idea!

Let us not fool ourselves, 2020 has been a challenging year. So many people are unemployed worldwide -according to some estimations, 40% of Costa Rican households will fall under the line of poverty by the end of the year- and so many people died to the COVID 19. It has also been harsh weather-wise; draughts, hurricanes, and floods hit us left and right. Not an easy year.

Yet, I can not help to feel grateful. This year you -and friends like- you have stepped up more than ever to show your solidarity! Your trust, generosity, and commitment have helped us bring relief to people in the Osa Peninsula's most vulnerable and impoverished places. And that's not all, we have been really busy helping people stay on track! Thanks to you we have

1. Supplied relief to 50 senior citizens in Drake Bay, every month since April 2020,
2. Protected more sea turtles nests than ever before,
3. Given remote environmental education every week to kids all over the Osa Peninsula
4. Provided training, materials, and organic seeds to 30 families who are now practicing regenerative agriculture to improve their food independence without damaging the environment.
5. Trained and certified 11 tourism guides in the Talamanca Region
6. Supplied training to 10 associations all over the Talamanca region
7. And this end of the year, we will be bringing Christmas gifts to 95 kids all over the Osa Peninsula whose parents are struggling.
8. We helped open Corcovado National Park and have been supplying funds to community park rangers to enhance its protection.

There is so much need in Costa Rica and the world, but you have been a light helping stay on track through this bleak time.

If you celebrate Thanksgiving, I hope you enjoy it, and if you don't, I hope you have lots of things to be grateful for anyway. We are indeed thankful for you!

Warmest regards,

Ale

ear friends of the Corcovado National Park

I hope that you are feeling well and staying safe.

Corcovado National Park is a haven of incredible biodiversity, wonderful ecosystems, and complex bio relationships that exist in very few places in the world.

Corcovado National park is also the heartbeat of the local economy. With Corcovado closed, tourism in the area was not going to happen. To open the park, we needed to help them install proper sanitation kits for the park entrances in order to meet new hygiene standards. Thanks to you, we raised enough money to help the park open its gates to tourism again.

Also, we could enable their communication system by paying for satellite cellphone access because of your support. Satelite cellphone is the only way the park rangers can communicate from ranger stations in Los Patos and Sirena. Thanks to this contribution, they have been able to report illegal activities and prosecute them.

The park is always in need, especially now that the Costa Rican government struggles with its debt and managing its budget. The economic situation caused by the pandemic and the government's inefficiency directly impact the conservation of Corcovado National Park. Please consider maintaining your support to Corcovado National park. They need you as more than ever.

Please find a thank you note from the park administrator Stephany to you, our hero! 

There are unique places on the earth of such mesmerizing wonder and beauty that they literally defy description. They must be experienced, explored, and studied to be fully understood and appreciated. They must also be relentlessly protected. 

Corcovado National Park on Costa Rica’s spectacular Osa Peninsula is one of those places.  It’s a tropical oasis of incredibly intense biodiversity, harboring 2.5% of the world’s biodiversity in just 1/1000 of the planet’s landmass.  And every year, more species of s are found.

The park’s jungles, rivers, and surrounding Pacific Ocean waters are teeming with a menagerie of wildlife. Tapirs, jaguars, crocodiles and caymans, pumas, peccaries, and coatis move throughout this dense coastal rainforest. In the canopy, the chatter, and howls of all four species of Costa Rica’s monkeys, combined with the songs of all manner of tropical birds, accented with brilliant flashes of their vivid colors, including scarlet macaws and toucans. After sunset, a roaring cacophony of insect sounds fills the night air.

Offshore, the waters are host to migrating whales, schools of dolphins, sharks, black marlins, barracuda, and tuna, just to name a few. Its reefs and coral gardens are filled with brightly colored tropical species of all kinds…

Its beaches and coves are isolated, untouched, and enchanted. This incredible concentration of flora and fauna is why we love this place so very much. That is why when you visit Corcovado National Park, you never want to leave.

However, this treasure of biodiversity is under constant pressure, made worse by COVID-19. The virus has resulted in the shutdown of Costa Rican tourism and eliminated access for volunteers and researchers from abroad. The surrounding communities that depend on tourism for income-producing jobs have been devastated. Local people have had to turn to illegal hunting, animal trafficking, logging, and mining to feed their families.

Without the revenue generated by park visitors and tour operators, the authorities and park rangers are scrambling for resources to meet the new challenges of what is literally an invasion of Corcovado and the outright assault on the precious creatures within its boundaries.

Now more than ever, Corcovado National Park needs the support of people that love it, like you and me. Donations to this program will help us finance immediate needs that the park requires to face the challenges that threaten its biodiversity and ecosystems. 

On July 15th, GlobalGiving will be matching any donation between $100 in $1000. The Park Officials have offered special prizes for the five most substantial contributions received during the first 12 hours of the Bonus Day.  When Costa Rica reopens, the first five largest donors to this campaign, and a friend, will join an expert ranger team to cross from Los Patos to Sirena, visiting the most untouched and unexplored areas of the park. You’ll be going into places under the supervision of the rangers where tourists cannot go.  This is the most awesome Corcovado experience that anyone can hope for!  Be ready to donate on July 15th, make a massive difference for Corcovado National Park, and live the most amazing and wild experience of your life. 

Managing Life in a COVID-19 World

As we consider the COVID-19 global pandemic, it is clear that we are all navigating uncharted waters. Our “new lives” distance us from our friends and extended families, disrupting every aspect of our regular schedules and a sense of personal freedom. We have had vacations, business trips, and meetings canceled. Sadly, almost every one of us will lose some income, possibly our jobs or even our businesses. We simply don’t know how this all plays out.

So, as we strive to keep our loved ones safe and hold on to some sense of normalcy in our lives, we all need to spread as much kindness as we possibly can.

I have faith that the measures taken by the Costa Rican, U.S. and Canadian governments, as well as others the world over, help flatten the curve by slowing the spread of the virus, thus reducing at least some of the strain on the world’s health systems. It may even buy us some critical time needed to develop a vaccine.

But like a devastating storm or earthquake, the aftermath of these measures will see entire towns and extended communities crushed by job and income loss. I can already see in the faces of small business owners in Drake Bay the agony of having to choose between taking whatever income they made this high season to reimburse people that had to cancel their trips, or using that money to keep their employees in their jobs to support their families. It is a scenario playing out in thousands of communities across the planet where people depend on tourism and other industries to survive.

In an effort to try to stay closer, motivated, and sane, the Corcovado Foundation will refocus our efforts to use our platforms and networks to support those who need us the most. Our objectives will shift to collecting goods and cleaning supplies for the most vulnerable population at the moment — the elderly people of Drake Bay.

We have served this community for over 20 years. With tourism being the main source of income in the areas around Drake Bay, the elderly will be among the first and hardest-hit victims of the COVID. We will, therefore, direct our talents, energy, and time to collect money and goods, then deliver food baskets and supplies to help lessen at least some of the health risks and economic damage facing the elderly.

But we expect the economy will be restored eventually and our people and people around the world will create new ways to do things. New paradigms. New perspectives.

There may even be a reassessment of priorities and values. Maybe we don’t need to fly 1000 miles for a meeting, or perhaps we’ll think twice about vacationing on one of those floating Petri dishes called cruises. Maybe we no longer shake hands. Other cultures have figured out other ways to greet each other.

But what we need to do right now is to make sure COVID-19 doesn’t bring out the worst in us as human beings. We need to believe in each other, to be tolerant, and empathetic given we don’t know what other people are going through.

And above all, we need to be kind, thinking about how we can help each other by using our gifts for the common good. There is a bright side in everything so let’s find it. For me, it’s having my children in our home for a while longer. Empty nesters everywhere are getting this opportunity to use the one thing we have all been given by this virus — time in our homes with our families.  

Let’s think of small ways to help the economy to keep running. If you can, get more take out, use delivery services, or do curbside pick-up at your favorite restaurants and shops. And please, let’s not buy all the Purell, wipes, or toilet paper. Other people need to stay clean too!  

And though right now, the most important thing we must do is to stay away from each other, that doesn’t mean to disconnect. As we are all in this together, let’s use our devices to hold on to our relationships and keep them thriving.

They say distance makes the heart grow fonder. Let’s prove it. Be positive. Keep the laughter going between us. If allowed in your community, meet up with each other and walk the neighborhoods and parks. Just stay 1.5 meters apart!

As always, we at the Corcovado Foundation are deeply appreciative of your support. There is a need now, so if you can, please help us provide some relief for the most vulnerable in the remote places of Costa Rica in this time of need. A $50 USD donation, or any amount made during the Little by Little Campaign to our Community Support Fund Program, will help us make bring some relief to those that need it the most.

Whatever the “new normal” is when we come out of this pandemic, we’ll remember that we got through it together because we chose to stand together in caring and kindness.

On February 26, during the Osa Chamber of Tourism meeting, the Corcovado Foundation launched a program to hire for Corcovado National Park.

The Corcovado Foundation that was born for this protected area, has undertaken the mission to carry out a campaign to raise awareness and raise funds to strengthen this park and support its authorities to finance their efforts and thereby ensure the conservation of this national park in the long term.

Corcovado is home to a third of the tree species and half of the threatened plants in Costa Rica, home of 50% of the species that live in Costa Rica and 2,5% of the biodiversity of the planet. Therefore, the Osa Peninsula is one of the favorite tourism destinations in the country. In 2019, the park received 62,000 tourists in 2019, who require the hiring of hotels, restaurants, boatmen, transporters and local guides. At least, about 18.6 million dollars a year are generated by tourists visiting the national park. The Corcovado National Park is the engine of the economy of the Osa Peninsula.

However, this park has only 10% of the budget it needs to operate. We know that the government does everything they can, but with 25% of the country’s territory under some sort of protected status, 163 protected areas and only 34 of them receiving tourism, it is a huge undertaking. The Corcovado National Park has an extension of 42,570 ha and currently, the personnel designated to patrol it are 24 officials. Each park ranger of Corcovado National Park must take care of 1774 hectares. Take a look at our interviews with these courageous men and women that fight every day to maintain the integrity of this park. Protecting this national park is not only the responsibility of the government, but it is also the responsibility of all of us who benefit from this gem.

Help us protect Corcovado National. You can join donate on GlobalGiving now or you can also join the Little by the little campaign where a small donation will be matched by 50% by GlobalGiving. Our goal for this first campaign is US$10,000. With your help, it will provide the initial funding to meet the most urgent Park Ranger needs for basic field equipment, including proper dry-fit uniforms, radios, and compasses. This equipment is critical so rangers can do their job properly and protect the unique ecosystems of this beautiful national park.

Links:

• Heroes of the forest