Our green lungs
Our green lungs
My conservation experience in costa rica
These are some of the photographs I took while working on a rainforest conservation program in the Osa Peninsula of Costa Rica. The volunteer work I and other fellow volunteers did not only impacted the trees of the rainforest, but also had a larger positive impact on the Costa Rican wildlife and the people who live in the Osa Peninsula.
The majority of my volunteer project was devoted to tracking the seed dispersal of the largest timber tree species in the area (Virola surinamensis). By doing this work I contributed valuable data to the research project of our scientist supervisor who was monitoring the overall health of the rainforest and hoped to generate new information on conservation. Apart from seed dispersal, my project also focused on planting new Virola trees. In total, my volunteer group devoted over 552 hours of service and covered an area of 93 quadrants (1 m2 each) of rainforest!
While volunteering in Costa Rica, I also helped clean up the beach, which lies right next to the rainforest. And, in order to raise tourist awareness, my friends and I created signs to educate people on how to minimize their footprint in both the rainforest and the beach.
Last but not least, by volunteering in Costa Rica I was able to make a positive impact on the native Costa Ricans who hosted us in their homes. Besides providing a source of income for these people, we helped protect their rainforest home and raised awareness on the importance of allowing the native people to be the main caretakers of these tropical habitats.