No menu items!

COSTA RICA'S LEADING ENGLISH LANGUAGE NEWSPAPER

HomeArchiveMore Funds Sought for Osa Conservation

More Funds Sought for Osa Conservation

Recent conservationist fundraising that has yielded thousands of dollars and a brand new park ranger station at CorcovadoNational Park are among the efforts to preserve the OsaPeninsula, an area in the Southern Zone that biologists estimate houses 1-3% of flora that does not exist anywhere else on the planet, according to the Osa Campaign.

The efforts have concentrated on replenishing the peninsula’s decimated jaguar and peccary populations, which dropped dramatically in recent years because of poaching.

From 2000 to 2004, the jaguar population decreased from 100 to 40-50 individuals, while peccaries, the jaguars’ food source, went from 2,000 in 1999, to 300-400 last year (TT, Sept. 9, 2005).

Members of the National Osa Campaign Committee, the local component of an international fundraising effort to preserve the OsaPeninsula, launched a campaign earlier this month to attract more Costa Rican donors.

Since it began in 2003, the Osa Campaign has collected more than $17 million mostly in international donations, according to campaign marketing director Sandra Fraga.

However, the campaign aims to collect a total of $32.5 million to complete four main goals that include buying private lands within Corcovado and Piedras Blancas national parks and improving management of the peninsula’s other reserves. The campaign also aims to turn a mostly privately owned 85,000-hectare area plagued by poaching and deforestation into a biological corridor between Corcovado and Piedras Blancas.

Of the total funds, at least $3 million must be collected in Costa Rica, Fraga said, explaining that conservation of the OsaPeninsula is a matter that demands the commitment of Costa Ricans.

During the March 18 national campaign launch, held at the home of William Abraham, one of the National Osa Campaign Committee’s seven members and general manager of Intel Costa Rica, $25,000 were raised, which the Costa Rica-USA Foundation (CRUSA) has pledged to match, Fraga said.

CRUSA, a private, bi-nat ional nonprofit foundation that supports sustainable development in Costa Rica, has pledged to match up to $3 million through its challenge grant to the campaign.

Other members of the National Committee include former U.S. Ambassador to Costa Rica Francis McNeill, CRUSA founder Luis Diego Escalante, and prominent Costa Rican businessmen Pedro Dobles, Federico Golcher, Jorge Oller and Robert Woodbridge.

Partners of the Osa Campaign include international nonprofit organizations The Nature Conservancy and Conservation International, CRUSA, and the Ministry of Environment and Energy (MINAE), whose head, Carlos Manuel Rodríguez, delivered a speech at the March 18 event.

Los Planes de Drake, a park ranger station recently inaugurated near DrakeBay, on the northern end of the OsaPeninsula, has also brought considerable benefits to the area, according to park director Eliézer Villalta.

The ranger station, inaugurated Feb. 17, is located in a remote area behind CorcovadoNational Park. It consists of a four-bedroom house with a living room, an electrical plant and a water well that serves as living quarters for approximately 15 park rangers who previously lacked an adequate shelter in the area, said Allan Sánchez, finance manager of the Los Planes project.

“Before the station existed, rangers could not spend much time out there (in the remote Los Planes). This control post is an improvement – there is plenty of illegal hunting in the area,” said Sánchez, who works for Fundación Corcovado, another nonprofit conservation organization in the area.

The ranger station was built with a ¢28 million (approximately $56,000) donation from The Nature Conservancy, the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and the San José-based Horizonte Nature Tours Travel Agency, according to Sánchez.

Clínica Bíblica, a private hospital in downtown San José, provided its engineering staff for the project, while Fundación Corcovado was in charge of fundraising and financial administration of the project, Sánchez said.

How to Contribute

Donations to the Osa Campaign can be made in two ways. Donors seeking a tax deduction in Costa Rica can contribute through the Campaign’s Web site: www.osacampaign.org or by contacting the Campaign offices in San José at 234-3360. Donors seeking a U.S. tax deduction can make gifts to CRUSA’s affiliated organization in the United States, Amigos de Costa Rica. (Gifts should be designated for the Osa Campaign.) For more information, e-mail info@amigosofcr.org or call (202) 238-2281

(WashingtonD.C. office).

To contribute to Fundación Corcovado, call 297-3013 or visit www.corcovadofoundation. org.

 

Trending Now

Hondurans March to Mark 2009 Coup as Election Battle Heats Up

Thousands of government supporters marched Saturday in the capital of Honduras to commemorate the anniversary of the 2009 coup that ousted then-leftist President Manuel...

Guatemala Offers Asylum to Nicaraguan Migrants Deported by U.S.

Guatemalan President Bernardo Arévalo announced on Friday that his country will grant asylum to Nicaraguan migrants deported by the United States who do not...

Costa Rica and Panama Seek Gold Cup Glory Against North American Giants

With no Caribbean teams advancing, a Central American contingent made up of Panama, Costa Rica, Honduras, and Guatemala heads into the quarterfinals of the...

A Costa Rica Love Story: From Rustic Cabina to Separate Dreams

My Tica wife and I have been together for over a quarter century. When we met, I was living a simple life here. Three...

Costa Rica Surf Film Festival Honors ‘Pura Vida Bodysurfing’ with Top Audience Award

Pura Vida Bodysurfing is an award-winning short film that strips surfing back to its essence—riding waves without a surfboard. Filmed across Costa Rica’s legendary...

Costa Rica’s Pride 2025 Closing Event Bans Minors, Sparks Outrage

Costa Rica’s Pride 2025 closing event, set for June 29 at San José’s Plaza de la Democracia, was thrown into controversy when the government...
Avatar
spot_img
Costa Rica Tours
Costa Rica Coffee Maker Chorreador
Costa Rica Coffee Maker Chorreador
Costa Rica Travel Insurance
Costa Rica Rocking Chait
Costa Rica Travel

Latest News from Costa Rica