Rainforest and Turtle Conservation In Costa Rica

The last year has been a very challenging year for everybody in every corner of the world.
Depending on tourism for a large part of the funds allocated to conservation, the reduction of
international visitors has seriously affected the funding of environmental protection in Costa
Rica. In Tortuguero this loss of external revenue put a big strain on the livelihood of local people
and the projects in the National Park. The increasing numbers in international travel during this
year has been a much-needed relief for conservation in our country in general, and our base in
specific.

In Jalova we collect essential data on diversity, abundance and behavior of the wildlife in
an endangered habitat. In close cooperation with the local national parks service, SINAC, we
are able to collect data that is essential to the management decisions in the conservation of the
National Park and its inhabitants. Located at the southern end of the National Park, we are the
only field station collecting this essential information in the most remote part of the park.
Although we are able to do the research with minimal resources, funds gathered through GVI
Charitable Funds allows us to acquire essential field tools to expand the reach and efficiency of
our projects. We also believe that community is closely related with conservation. Only an
empowered community has the luxury to think about conserving its environment.
Our fundraisers this year consisted of walking many miles for the good of conservation and
community. This way we were able to raise a stunning $650 for our projects by walking over
1000 kilometers in total. This year’s main beneficiary of the donations through GCP was the
Turtle project. Thanks to the generous donations that we received as a result of our fundraising
activities we were able to buy a much-needed GPS for our Turtle project, meaning that the
different projects that we run now have their own GPS. This is essential to avoid data loss and
confusion in the processing of our GPS points for the different project. It has made work on all
projects a lot more consistent and easier.

The rest of the funds raised this year were used to update our hardware for the field. We were
for example able to buy a new caliper to measure adult turtles. A vital piece of data we were
missing.

As a result of our longstanding collaboration with various partners and your much needed
donations through GVI Charitable Funds we are able to continue and expand our efforts to
conserve this unique habitat on the Caribbean coast of Costa Rica.
We thank you wholeheartedly for your support in our efforts to create a greener and cleaner
future.