News
The Latest...
Dec 2011 As of this month, there is a new way for you to support Nectandra Institute’s work: simply search the web using www.GoodSearch.com, an internet search engine that donates half its revenue to qualifying non-profit organizations. Please go to our profile page on GoodSearch and make us the cause of your choice. While there, learn about the other ways GoodSearch makes it possible for you to raise funds for your cause. It’s easy and free!
Dec 2011 Nectandra Institute co-sponsored the second annual “Conteo Navideño del Bosque Nuboso de Occidente” (Christmas Bird Count in the Cloud Forests of the Western Region). This bird count is officially recognized by the National Audubon Society and the 2011 edition included 16 routes, one of which passed through Nectandra Cloud Forest Preserve and another which traversed the first community-owned restoration property purchased with eco-loan financing. Around 70 birdwatchers from different parts of Costa Rica participated to see how many of Costa Rica’s 890 bird species they could spot. The results for this year are still being tabulated, but last year, 346 species and 5393 individuals were spotted along 15 routes by 59 participants. The role of birds as seed dispersers plays a very important part in forest restoration projects.
Dec 2011 Children from Palmira and Pueblo Nuevo, two of Nectandra Institute’s partner communities, enjoyed a visit to the Nectandra Cloud Forest Garden and Preserve. The visit marked the culmination of the kids’ participation in a nine-month-long water and environmental education program covering topics such as recycling, forest restoration and conservation, the water cycle, and ecological concepts such as food chains in the natural world. The educational program is an initiative of the VIDA Clubs from the respective communities. In Palmira’s case, this is the program’s third consecutive year, and it is the second for Pueblo Nuevo.
Nov 2011 A group of international students from Costa Rica’s Tropical Agricultural Research and Higher Education Center (CATIE) paid a three-day visit to the Balsa River Watershed for an in-depth look at the coordinated watershed protection efforts of Nectandra Institute and our partner communities. This is the second year in a row students participating in CATIE’s course on rural development select Nectandra Institute’s program area to conduct their field case study. The group met with and interviewed Nectandra staff, representatives from local water management boards, the local association of organic growers, and members of the Zarcero’s environmental commission, among others. They also visited the restoration property purchased with eco-loan assistance by the water management association serving the communities of La Brisa, La Legua and Angeles de Tapezco.
Oct 2011 Seven individuals, including one of Nectandra Institute’s three staff persons, make up the environmental commission for the Municipality of Zarcero. Approximately 80% to 90% of the canton of Zarcero is located within the Institute’s priority program area, the Balsa River Watershed. In October, the commission moved forward with its plan to reboot the Municipality’s recycling program. Commission members surveyed a sample of 230 households in order to obtain information about the recycling habits of the canton’s residents. Subsequently, the commission complemented the information obtained through the surveys with actual physical analysis of garbage samples to get an idea of what kind of materials people are throwing away and what recyclables are or are not being separated out. The commission will use its findings in order to design a publicity campaign to promote better recycling habits by the canton’s residents and businesses.
Sep 2011
Septembers are special to Nectandra Institute and our partner communities. In 2008, we started a new tradition in the Balsa River Watershed, dedicating a whole month to celebrating a “new culture of water”. The phrase originates from the movement of the same name that began in Spain and has spread to other parts of Europe. Proponents support a new water philosophy, one that avoids seeing a river, for example, as a simple conduit for H20 and instead tries to view it with full appreciation for the complex and dynamic niches of life it supports and the valuable environmental services it provides to people. This year, San Luis, one of our most recent eco-loan beneficiaries, served as the host community. The festivities kicked off with the inaugural event and continued with the Water Soccer Championship, the New Culture of Water Queen Pageant, and much more. During the month, San Luis was able to raise $10,000. Funds were used to pay down the restoration property purchased in February by the community’s water management association.
Aug 2011
Nectandra Institute made its ninth eco-loan. The water management association for the community of San Antonio used the loan funds together with some of its own money to buy 2 acres of land around one of its intake springs. San Antonio’s new property is adjacent to and downslope from another piece of land that had previously been purchased by the community and planted with native species trees. Residents will carry out restoration and conservation work on both properties in order to increase the level of protection for the community’s source of drinking water. Nectandra’s eco-loans have helped our partner communities buy and protect 490 acres of critical watershed land.
Jul 2011 Nectandra Institute staff trained members of the youth water board from the community of Tapezco on methods of analysis for determining water quality in local creeks and rivers. The teens learned how to collect samples of aquatic insects and other macro-invertebrates and analyze the diversity of organisms collected in order to get a sense of the level of contamination present in the water. In general, the more diversity found, the better the health of the freshwater ecosystem.
Jul 2011 Residents from the Balsa River Watershed communities of Angeles Norte, Alto Villegas, La Brisa, San Luis, and Tapezco invested approximately 180 person-hours this month in restoration work on the properties these communities purchased in order to protect their sources of water. Activities included the planting of new trees, reinforcement of fences to keep cattle in neighboring grazing sites from eating the saplings, and carefully cutting down tall grass around young trees. Greivin Quíros, volunteer board member for La Brisa’s water management association spoke to us about the importance of this restoration work.
June 2011