Help indigenous women conserve the environment

Dear donors, thank you once again for wanting to plant a future with us. During the last months of 2022, we managed to support the So Cagru de Boruca Indigenous Eco-Cultural Tourism Association, with the link with important allies for the development and strengthening of the Project.

Thanks to the organization's links with specialists in the issues being worked on, it was possible to manage the visit of Dr. Karen Holl, a specialist in ecosystem restoration and a great reference on the subject worldwide. The visit of Dr. Constato of a tour of the Cuji Cuji community farm located in the Boruca community and also, the visit to the Crun Shurin community, where the project is to be scaled up.

The objective of this visit was to receive recommendations and feedback from Dr. It was carried out with people who are part of the Diwo team, as well as representatives of both communities and coordinators in land administration in those spaces. Initiative of great importance since it improves the technical considerations of the project and supports two sites of interest of the group of women for the creation of synergies.

On the other hand, the visit of the Project of the five great forests of Mesoamerica was arranged, thanks to previous contact with the Re:Wild organization participating in said project. The objective was to share the experiences developed by the Project, mainly from a community gender perspective, for which a lunch is organized between the representatives of Re:Wild, the Costa Rica Wildlife Foundation and the Wildlife Conservation Society, and representatives of the group of Mujeres So Cagru and the group of women entrepreneurs from Boruca. On this occasion, it was possible to share the various achievements at the time of the project, needs and possibilities of joint work. We hope this is the beginning of a successful alliance that allows support for community conservation actions.

During the tour we had some accidents, which did not cause a major problem other than a delay in the schedule, but it is a real sample of the difficulties that vulnerable communities live with every day and reinforce the importance of donations like yours, we urge you to spread the word and invite other people to donate, each support counts and the common well-being depends on it.

In recent months, thanks to the support of Dìwö donors, we have been able to continue a series of filed trips carried out together with the women beneficiaries of the project.

During these field trips, visits were made to sites of environmental importance for the community, such as the community nursery, where women restorers of the ecosystems dedicated hours to planting seedlings that will soon be planted in the community forests, increasing not only the forest cover present in the community, but also the mitigation and adaptation actions to climate change in which these women work.

In addition, activities such as the construction of the community seed sanctuary have been monitored. Throughout the year, several visits were made to the community, accompanied by volunteers who supported the construction of this structure, which will benefit not only the women involved in this project, but the community in general.

Thanks to the support of Dìwö donors in GlobalGiving, it was also possible to start a first stage of the project "Employability of women and youth in sustainable green businesses", which benefits about 25 women heads of households and their families in strengthening their entrepreneurial skills. These women were trained in topics such as environmental management, business management, communication, human rights, and gender. In addition, forest restoration processes have been developed in parallel to these activities.

This project has even allowed us to open our second project on the GlobalGiving platform, allowing us to provide support to beneficiary families and women entrepreneurs.

The income we generate through the platform will allow us to follow up and continue supporting these women, their businesses and the forests.

We are deeply grateful for the support that our donors provide to the indigenous communities of Costa Rica and we look forward to continuing to work together.

Dear donors, thanks to your kind support to our project "Help indigenous women conserve the environment" we have achieved up to 10 visits to the indegonous territory of Boruca, as well as the Palmar Sur community in the south of Costa Rica and the Río Celeste community up north of Costa Rica. 

During these visits, and specifically in the Boruca community, where the project is held, educational processes have been held mainly with the women of the community, although other important groups such as men, families, youth and children have also benefited.

These formal educational processes are part of the employability project that is being carried out between the months of May and August in the community of Boruca. In these, the aforementioned groups have strengthened their capacities in matters of business, environmental management, communication, as well as gender and human rights.

In addition, the participating women of the community have been able to develop business models in topics such as sustainable food production, sustainable animal care, sustainable nurseries, handicraft businesses such as traditional masks and weaving, among many others.

With the knowledge and tools acquired by the families, the businesses described above are expected to have a positive impact on the economy of these communities, as well as on a social and environmental level, since the development of eco friendly businesses has been promoted aas well as a healthy use of ecosystem services.

In addition to the training that has been developed in the community, tours have been made to different recovered farms with the aim of making good practices of ecosystem restoration visible.

Visits have been made to farms belonging to other members of the same community, as well as to external farms in communities such as Palmar Sur.

Finally, two volunteering processes have been established. At least 25 volunteers participated in these, supporting the construction of a bamboo-based seed sanctuary.

We hope to continue counting on your support, which is very important to continue supporting restoration, mitigation and adaptation actions to climate change.

Dear donors, over the last few months, especially in the final months of 2021, thanks to the support we have received from you, we have managed to support 2 pilot processes for the community that will allow us to continue conserving and restoring the forests of the mountains of the territory. indigenous Bruncajc, one was the implementation of a small demonstration plot of the Sintropic Agroforestry System, and the other was an environmental education process with children where we were able to address the importance of forests and learn about the nursery.

In the case of the training of the agroforestry system, it was with the guidance of the Waybil Collective and the support of the Restoration Stewards program of the Global Lanscape Forum. This training sought to exchange knowledge in agriculture, focusing on the agroforestry systems and the ancestral knowledge of the community. Several agricultural and tree species of importance to the community were used, such as cocoa, banana, turmeric, sweet potato, among others. The idea is that this site works as a small demonstration space and as an organization our mission is to carry out this methodology to other family or community farms to promote food security and the rehabilitation of the forest landscape.

On the other hand, in the process of environmental education, with the group that has been called Guardians of the Environment, we address the importance of protecting water resources through the conservation and rehabilitation of forests. Approximately 20 boys and girls from the community participated, between 8 and 16 years old, who could not only learn more about forests, rivers and climate change, but also took care of the small seedlings from the nursery that will be destroyed into trees. in the future

As an organization for this 2022 we are organizing ourselves to scale the project to other communities and thus facilitate the obtaining of cooperation funds and climate financing, which allows us to continue promoting food security, the rehabilitation of the forest landscape and the generation of new models. of green and sustainable businesses in rural and indigenous communities.

With your support we will achieve it, thank you for wanting to sow a future with us.

En nombre de todo el equipo de nuestra organización Diwo Ambiental y la Asociación de Mujeres Indígenas Eco-Culturales Só Cagrú de Boruca, les agradecemos todo su apoyo, les deseamos buena salud y bienestar.

Como saben, nuestro objetivo es restaurar el paisaje forestal que conserva la biodiversidad y el agua dulce en las montañas del territorio indígena de Boruca , Costa Rica, junto a un grupo de mujeres indígenas y sus familias. Para lograr esto, plantamos árboles nativos que generan empleo en la comunidad a través de las jornadas laborales en los distintos procesos e ingresos a través del turismo cultural Bruncajc encadenado al voluntariado. Además, promovemos prácticas de producción agrícola sostenible y regenerativa para la generación de alimentos para el autoconsumo de las familias.

Analizando las necesidades presentes en el proyecto y las familias, hemos invertido las donaciones recibidas en el período junio-septiembre en apoyar procesos relacionados con la producción de plántulas del vivero construido en el mismo período con el apoyo de Restoration Stewards, que tenemos done Se trata de comprar insumos como bolsas para las plántulas, fertilizante, entre otros, lo que nos permitirá alcanzar la meta de 5,000 plántulas establecidas en el vivero para fin de año, una meta más realista que las 20,000 que inicialmente pensamiento. Además, se ha realizado la compra de herramientas que se utilizarán para la plantación de los árboles como palas, carros, baldes, entre otros, así como herramientas que mejorarán los procesos de monitoreo como el GPS.

Como te contamos en el informe anterior, comenzamos recolectando semillas para su germinación, sin embargo, en la práctica nos dimos cuenta de que lo mejor era recolectar semillas ya germinadas del bosque y plantarlas en bolsas para cuidarlas, hasta que estén quietas. lo suficientemente fuerte para ser plantado. Es por eso que gracias a las donaciones logramos capacitar a las personas de la comunidad en el proceso de recolección de plántulas, lo que les permitirá realizar este proceso de manera independiente, lo que reducirá costos y mejorará la calidad de los árboles futuros. En este proceso logramos generar alianzas con la organización Osa Conservation y el desarrollo integral de la asociación comunitaria, la idea es seguir trabajando juntos para seguir restaurando el paisaje forestal y promoviendo el desarrollo de la comunidad.

Gracias a las jornadas laborales generadas por las donaciones, nuestros socios comunitarios pudieron mantener sus albergues y poder recibir a nuestros grupos de voluntarios, a la fecha han participado 75 voluntarios que han generado un ingreso económico directo a nuestros socios comunitarios de USD $ 3,000 para servicios brindados como hospedaje, alimentación, caminatas en la naturaleza y talleres culturales.

Nada de esto sería posible sin ustedes, cada una de estas donaciones nos ha permitido mejorar nuestros procesos como proyecto y también impulsar un modelo de negocio a través del turismo y basado en la plantación de árboles que genera un beneficio a nuestros socios comunitarios. Esperamos seguir contando con su apoyo que genera un beneficio económico, ambiental y social para la comunidad.

Me despido, no sin antes agradecerles el tiempo que han dedicado a leer este informe, pero sobre todo quiero agradecerles una vez más su confianza en nuestro proyecto .