Pablo Ureña’s family has been preserving primary forest on their farm for three generations.  As vast deserts of pineapple plantations encroach upon his property, and offers from Del Monte to sell his land are resisted, it becomes ever more apparent that his work is essential in maintaining the natural environment of the area, but he needs help.

After spending 12 years in the U.S., Pablo returned to the farm in Costa Rica to take care of his aging dad and to get back to a simpler life.  He named his farm Santuario Filaverde, or “Green Line Sanctuary”  because he knows the area is one of the last remaining pieces of primary forest in this land of corporate pineapple plantations. The forest is significant also because it continues the Alexander Skutch Biological Corridor, providing essential habitat for resident capuchin monkeys, birds, and there is even a family of pumas, one of which they recently photographed.

Pablo, his son Juan Pablo, his dad and sister, had Jim, Usha and I over for lunch after our morning hike in the Los Cusingos Bird Sanctuary nearby. They made us some delicious vegetables including squash (ayote & chayote), rice and beans and chicken, with freshly blended “fresco” of pineapple juice. 

  

Then we set out for a walk on the farm, riding first in the back of the truck through the pasture towards their forest sanctuary. The most beautiful aspect of their forest is the towering matapalo or strangler fig trees and winding vines, evidence of it being never touched for hundreds of years.

 

Emerging out of the forest the contrast of the surrounding pineapple plantations is striking. Knowing that the area was all natural primary rainforest and is now a vast field of pineapples that are sprayed with pesticides and injected with hormones to grow faster makes you think twice about that next pineapple, and you hope that it has come from someone’s farm, grown naturally among other plants.

 

 

Pablo loves to give tours of his property, and makes a great snack of pupusas – fried tortillas filled with cheese, and coffee of course after the nice walk. His sense of humour and passion for his forest are contagious. All he needs is more visitors so that he can benefit from preserving this precious piece of nature.

-  Kelly Galaski

There are some people in this world that have such a passion for things it is contagious, and those that come into contact with them may be changed, even just a little bit, for the rest of their lives.

Luis Angel Rojas of the small community of Quizarrá, located within the Alexander Skutch Biological Corridor in Costa Rica, is such a person. He loves birds – all kinds, little brown ones to big colourful ones. He is excited to show you when he sees one or tell you which one it is when he hears it. Over 200 species of birds arrive on his property – a mixture of primary rainforest, shade-grown coffee (with the largest trees I’ve ever seen in a coffee plantation – it looks more like a forest with some coffee plants in it), and butterfly gardens and a trail that goes down to the river below, that you can hear in the quiet of the night among the sounds of crickets and other night creatures.

Luis is passionate about birds and everything that the natural surroundings of his farm provides.  We sat in a lookout perched on rocks above the river at the bottom of his property and talked about his dreams for the area. Usha wanted to know what they need to continue the conservation, increase the forest-cover and make the biological corridor successful. Luis told us that he would like to see programs that educate all of the producers/farmers in the area about sustainable agriculture, about farm diversification, about the benefits of planting fruit trees among coffee and pasture in order to create a healthier ecosystem and habitat for the birds and other animals of the area. He would love to see everyone aware of the abundance of migratory species that visit the exact same locations, year after year, so that they would know how important each and every tree is.

 

Luis also hopes that the market increases for sustainable, shade-grown coffeeso that more farmers will have reason to plant more trees, or convert their pasture back into coffee in order to strengthen the corridor as a passage for birds and animals.

We are now here at La Escondida, “the Hidden Farm,” which is both a home and a place for visitors to enjoy the natural, peaceful surroundings.  Usha and James have their own small “cabaña,” built by Luis and his son out of wood, including a re-used floor made of wood from an older home in the area.  It is a simple cabin, but you can look out to the forest and Los Cusingos bird sanctuary beyond, listen to the sounds of the forest, watch the toucans eat berries in the trees overhead, and contemplate the peacefulness of this special and little known place.

 

- Kelly Galaski

- Kelly Galaski

Today we arrived in another rural area of Costa Rica, the Alexander Skutch Biological Corridor. It is named after the ornithologist (bird biologist) that lived here on 100 acres of pristine rainforest for 60 years, with his wife, studying the birds and writing books about the nature he was surrounded by and the birds that fascinated him. Dr. Skutch is author of Birds of Costa Rica, the book carried by avid birdwatchers that visit the country. Today his home is preserved inside the Los Cusingos Bird Sanctuary which is open to the public for birdwatching tours and to see the ancient petroglyphs that lie deep within the forest.

The “Corridor” is so called because it is a designation given by the Ministry of Environment for areas that are between two protected nature reserves – in this case the Las Nubes cloud forest and Los Cusingos – which has the goal of increasing the total forested area to create one larger forested area for species to have a broader range of habitat.

The communities within this corridor mostly have sugar cane, coffee farms or pasture and therefore the forested areas are fragmented or separated by open spaces which means that species cannot move easily throughout the area. This necessitates initiatives such as the community-run tree nursery which grows and sells trees to farmers to dispurse throughout their coffee farms to create more sustainable shade-grown coffee. This also creates a need for incentives for the people to plant more trees, therefore there is a need for more demand for shade-grown coffee, more awareness on the benefits the tree cover can provide, and for more tourism to the area so that they can benefit monetarily from preserving the private forested farms.