Help Us Stop the Poachers

Two groups desperately need your help. The local group of the World Wildlife Fund and the Buala Boys of Sea Turtles Forever. These two groups patrol the beaches every night battling poachers to save the turtles. The group from the WWF patrols the beach from the estuary in Playa Junquillal to Playa Blanca. The group from STF patrols the beaches from Playa Blanca to Avellanas. These groups operate on a very small budget of less than $20,000 per year. Please go to their website and make a donation to support them:
Sea Turtles Forever

Below is an article that appeared in AM Costa Rica last week. Two years ago there was virtually no poaching of eggs at Playa Blanca. This year at least half of the nests we have found there in the mornings have been robbed of all or most eggs.

Here is a photo of Noah moving seven eggs that were left by poachers. Each nest normally contains 80-120 eggs.

By Bryan Kay
Special to A.M. Costa Rica

Turtle egg poaching at Playa Junquillal in Guanacaste has taken a sharp rise — just a couple of months after conservationists said the practice had been almost wiped out.

The World Wildlife Fund, which has been working with local people to combat the problem, announced in September how the fund's efforts had wiped out the illegal activity.

But Gabriel Francia, the man behind the awareness project, said there has been a recent spike in poaching in the area to about 25 percent.

He blamed the increase on a population surge, saying the likely culprits were people who are living in the area for short periods of time, such as those working in the booming Guanacaste construction trade.

They don’t have children in the schools, and they don’t have any long-term relationship with the area, he added.

Francia earlier had said in a press release about the first arrivals of the leatherback species for the nesting season how poaching had dropped from 100 percent to nearly zero.

The World Wildlife Fund has been working with the Junquillal, Paraiso and Pargos communities for two years in a project known as the Pacific Leatherback Conservation Project.

One of the key planks of the project involves working with children in the local schools. Francia said the hope is that youngsters will take the message about the dangers of turtle egg poaching home to their parents.

Valerie Guthrie, another of the project organizers, said they can’t completely rule out locals as responsible since eating turtle eggs is “super cultural” in Junquillal. But she said moves were now being made to work in conjunction with the construction companies to disseminate the same message.

Local hotel owner Rainer Frommlet said the project had been successful, but estimates that around 50 percent of local people continue to flout the law.

“The ratio of those who respect the turtles to those who don’t is probably still 50-50,” he said. “But before it was probably 70-30 against.”

A.M. Costa Rica/Bryan Kay

Menor and Jaime Jen await the end of egg laying by an olive ridley turtle so they can hide them elsewhere.

Reformed poachers Jaime and Menor Jen, two of the local volunteers, blame much of the residual poaching on alcoholics who steal the eggs and sell them.

“The problem with alcoholics is they take them so they can get a drink,” said Jaime Jen. “They sell them for 2,000 or 3,000 colons for 100.” That's from about $4 to nearly $6.

During a recent night patrol of the beaches at Junquillal, the two men told a reporter how they had been unaware of the damage they were causing to marine turtle populations until the project began.

Pacific leatherbacks — one of three species the Junquillal project works with, along with the olive
ridley and the black — are an endangered species. Biologists say that numbers have dropped by around 90 percent in the last two decades. Egg poaching has been identified as part of the problem, but accidental catches by fishermen, climate change and coastal development have also been cited as factors.

Meanwhile, as the Jen brothers spoke of their fondness for the creatures, an olive ridley emerged from the sea to lay eggs.

The pair waited patiently as the turtle laid 106 eggs in a nest it had burrowed in the sand. Then the two men collected the eggs and put them in another spot where poachers will be less likely to find them.

They carry out the patrols every night, but claim they have no intention of returning to their old ways.

“We learned about the problems in the sea and the numbers. Plus, they are beautiful,” added Jaime Jen.

Construction Begins on Commercial Center

Tierra Pacifica broke ground on its new commercial center on November 14, less than 48 hours after receiving the necessary permits.
La Plaza de Tierra Pacifica is expected to be completed in November 2008 and is located adjacent to the front gate on the public road to Playa Junquillal. The prime location of the 17,398-square-foot commercial site will provide future business tenants with excellent exposure to vehicle and pedestrian traffic.
La Plaza will include a 6,562 square-foot two-story restaurant and bar with a rooftop garden terrace, as well as eleven retail shops and professional office spaces ranging from 315 to 630 square feet. The owner of the Surf Cafe restaurant-bar is in the process of finalizing an agreement with Tierra Pacifica over operation of that business, which will offer a cosmopolitan menu with a full selection of wines and spirits, bar area including pool tables, and a sunset grill on the terrace providing magnificent ocean and mountain views.
Some of the 11 other commercial spaces are expected to be occupied by retail businesses such as a clothing store, souvenir shop, a day spa, a bakery, a bookstore, an ice cream parlor, a retail electronics store, an art gallery, and a furniture store. Professional offices likely will include architectural and interior design services, attorneys, clerical services, accountants and general contractors. Prices for commercial spaces start at $60,000.
La Plaza de Tierra Pacifica will feature a Spanish pueblo design motif with railed balconies, varied window moldings, tile roof, wrought iron light fixtures and a grand central entryway that opens into an expansive botanical courtyard.

Costa Rica and US Trade Debt for Nature

Ancient trees in the Amistad region of Costa Rica

Alejandra Vargas
24 October 2007
Source: SciDev.Net

[SAN JOSE] Costa Rica and the United States have signed an agreement to swap US$26 million of Cost Rican debt for funds to protect more than 1,000 acres of tropical forest.

The move will protect biodiversity in the region and help thousands of indigenous people maintain sustainable livelihoods.

The two countries made the agreement this month (October), with Costa Rica agreeing to spend the swapped amount on forest conservation over the next 16 years.

The US will contribute US$12.6 million, with environment protection organisations The Nature Conservancy and Conservation International each providing US$1.26 million.

The agreement is in line with the US Tropical Forest Conservation Act, under which the eligible countries can use their debt payments to finance tropical forest conservation.

"This is the first swap in Costa Rica under the Forest Conservation Act. This is also the largest swap we have ever made," David Henifin, attaché of the US embassy in Costa Rica, told SciDev.Net.

Six areas have been designated for protection, based on a scientific analysis to determine gaps in forest protection, says Zdenka Piskulich, director of The Nature Conservancy in Costa Rica.

The swap will target forest protection in some of Costa Rica's best known biodiversity hotspots, such as Tortuguero, a system of natural waterways near the Caribbean Sea.

The area surrounding the Rincon de la Vieja volcano, home to over 300 species of birds, and the Osa Peninsula, home to 2.5 per cent of the world's animal and plant species, will also benefit, along with ecosystems in the Amistad region, which contains 90 per cent of Costa Rica's known plant species.

Piskulich said in a press release that the funding will also allow indigenous communities, many of whom live in the Amistad region, "to pursue sustainable and economically viable livelihoods, thus improving their lives and sustaining the diverse biological resources on which they depend".

Costa Rica's environment and energy minister, Roberto Dobles, says that they hoped the investment would improve indigenous people's quality of life, allowing them to benefit from tourism.

The money will be part of a national trust under the administration of the Costa Rica-USA Foundation.

Courtesy of our friends at Science and Development Network. http://www.scidev.net/

Welcome to Tierra Pacifica

Tierra Pacifica is a unique development nestled in the foothills and overlooking the Pacific Ocean in the Guanacaste region of Costa Rica. While discussing our overall goals for this very special 220-acre parcel, the first question we asked was “How can we develop this beautiful piece of land while adding value to the local community, maintaining the natural integrity of the land, and also maximizing the quality of life for the new owners?” Our second question was, “How do we establish and maintain a community where the ideals we live by are shared with those we will live with?” This required slowing down for just a moment and reflecting on how we can truly live in harmony with our environment. We believe Tierra Pacifica, a development that balances a high standard of living with innovative environment-enhancing design, is the answer to these questions.