Thanks to a generous donation of $600 to offset the donor CO2 emissions, Omar Quesada has been paid the minimum he deserves for continuing to protect his rainforest and keep his granddaughter in school.
Although free primary education is a universal right in Costa Rica, many families struggle to find the cash to buy the items (including textbooks and uniform) and tuition necessary to attend secondary school or university. With your support, Miriam's daughter is able to go to college with everything she needs. This is why we call this project “Preserving Rainforest and Education'”.
Omar is doing more than his fair share to release life-giving oxygen into the atmosphere. He’s a true oxygen farmer. He has the opportunity to do so with his forested land. But how can we non-forest owners help to support the health of our planet? Read about offsetting your carbon by planting trees directly for our projects on our very own site. See the link below.
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Every year the Quesada family protect 93 ha of native rainforest from being sold and developed; their efforts protect countless species, promote biodiversity and remove over a thousand tons of carbon yearly from our atmosphere. They do this out of their love for the forest and continue to protect it from the very real threat of development despite their financial struggles.
In March La Reserva paid the family $500 in Environmental services, a fraction of the $60 per ha they should be receiving. The family used this money to pay for their granddaughter to finish school with a degree, something that is so valuable to girls here.
Through their loving protection of this forest this family offset the annual carbon emissions of 55 Average Americans!
If you and your family would like to be among them please consider supporting this project.
Not only will you offset your personal carbon emissions but invest in the future of a young girl who will in turn invest in the future of her community.
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Because of your great generosity during the holiday season we were able to pay Omar and Miriam Quesada 10% of their environmental service payment for their 93 hectare forest property on the slopes of Miravalles Volcano.
Other hopeful news for the Quesada’s is the possibility of the long awaited REDD forest carbon project that I developed in 2008 being implemented. The project consists of over 7000 hectares of existing forests in the hands of about 40 landowners. In February a new carbon offset company in London contacted me about bringing the project to market. We’ve been busy calling all of the landowners (the Quesadas have been on the project since the beginning), getting coordinates of the properties and mapping them. Now we wait for the verifier to arrive at the end of May and away we go.
Wish us good success, that we will finally be able to provide an income for these people who have been conserving these vital forests for decades.
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We are moving in the right direction with this project. Many generous donations were received during the month of December from employees at the Eli Lilly company. Thank you so much for caring about Omar and Miriam Quesada.
At Christmas time Omar and Miriam came to visit as they do almost every year. I was excited about the influx of donations and told them what had happened. Over 10% of the project’s total funding has been raised. I promised them that when we receive the disbursement from Global Giving for these donations we would pay them what has been received. It’s better for them to have whatever is available to date than have it sit in bank waiting for all of the funding before paying them.
School begins this week and the GlobalGiving disbursement will be here any day. The check we are able to write them will help Miriam’s daughter buy the necessary items for this years classes.
Thank you for your generous support and send this project around to your friends. They may agree with you, it’s a cause to be passionate about.
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Omar Quesada has conserved this 93-hectare rain forest for decades. He, and his daughter Miriam, must come up with the resources to provide an education for Miriam’s daughter. She has only a couple of years of school left to graduate with a degree. Although Miriam works they live in constant financial distress and her daughter's degree is in jeopardy.
Recently we have spoken with them about the environmental service payments and they have agreed that if we can get together half the amount we promised to pay them ($30/ha/year) they would accept that until we can raise the other half. This will pay the family for conservation of this forest so that Omar's granddaughter will be able to finish school.
Payments for environmental services to the Quesada’s for 1 year saves the 93-hectare forest from being sold/developed, preserves habitat necessary for the wildlife, gives resources badly needed by this family and removes much CO2 from our atmosphere.
This forest is removing approximately 1115 metric tons of CO2/year from the Earth’s atmosphere. Why not help offset your CO2 whilst helping this family?
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