Environmental education & conservation in Costa Rica
Environmental Education with the Children’s Eternal Rainforest of Costa Rica
In Costa Rica, we partner with the Monteverde Conservation League, a community organization that conserves the Children’s Eternal Rainforest (CER). This area was protected initially by local Quaker residents, and then greatly expanded through the efforts of school children, from over 40 nations, who collected spare change in the late 1980s and early 1990s. Today, the community protects over 50,000 acres of highly biodiverse forest in one of the largest community managed rainforests in Central America. You can learn more about the Children’s Eternal Rainforest at: https://www.acmcr.org/content/
Engage supports environmental education programs at the CER including:
In Costa Rica, we partner with the Monteverde Conservation League, a community organization that conserves the Children’s Eternal Rainforest (CER). This area was protected initially by local Quaker residents, and then greatly expanded through the efforts of school children, from over 40 nations, who collected spare change in the late 1980s and early 1990s. Today, the community protects over 50,000 acres of highly biodiverse forest in one of the largest community managed rainforests in Central America. You can learn more about the Children’s Eternal Rainforest at: https://www.acmcr.org/content/
Engage supports environmental education programs at the CER including:
- funding of a full-time environmental educator
- field trips for students from seventeen local schools to visit the forest and learn about conservation
- conservation education at seventeen local schools - providing the only environmental education in the region
- reforestation efforts including growing and planting of native plants and trees
- creation of the Club Ambiental para Niñas (CAN), an environmental club for girls in late primary school, to help inspire them to continue to study environmental issues in high school and to become conservation stewards.
- engagement with faith communities including conservation education, community service programs, visits to the forest, and reforestation projects
Conservation and Growth of the Children’s Eternal Rainforest of Costa Rica
Protecting a large forest requires significant funding for hiring local guards, who help to reduce poaching, illegal logging, and forest fires. Additionally, research is needed into the biodiversity and health of the forest to identify what strategies can help the forest and community be resilient in the face of climate change and other challenges. There are also opportunities to expand the Children’s Eternal Rainforest by purchasing adjacent properties, of former farming land, and reforesting them with native plants and trees. Properties are selected with the long-term goal of establishing a biological corridor to the Pacific Ocean for migrating species, such as jaguars, the bellbird, and many species of bats and frogs.
Protecting a large forest requires significant funding for hiring local guards, who help to reduce poaching, illegal logging, and forest fires. Additionally, research is needed into the biodiversity and health of the forest to identify what strategies can help the forest and community be resilient in the face of climate change and other challenges. There are also opportunities to expand the Children’s Eternal Rainforest by purchasing adjacent properties, of former farming land, and reforesting them with native plants and trees. Properties are selected with the long-term goal of establishing a biological corridor to the Pacific Ocean for migrating species, such as jaguars, the bellbird, and many species of bats and frogs.
