The project partners with the White Hawk Foundation, a charitable organisation working on the Osa Peninsula to purchase private lands that encompass primary rainforest adjacent to the National Park to ensure its conservation in perpetuity.
The project aims to protect private lands that are directly adjacent to the Corovado national park in an exquisite and virtually untouched valley of primary rainforest, ensuring it will be off limits for development.
National Geographic has described the remote Osa Peninsula in Costa Rica as the most “biologically intense” places on Earth. It hosts more than 50 percent of the country’s animal and plant species, while covering only 3 percent of Costa Rica’s land area, or 2.5% of global biodiversity in less than 0.01% of global landmass.
The Costa Rican government has protected around 50% of the peninsula in two national parks, providing the most significant ecological refuge for wildlife in the country, however fragmentation and adjacent land uses impacts the integrity of the park.
Corcovado and Piedras Blancas National Parks currently exist within a matrix of unprotected land used for agriculture, urban areas, and plantations of rice, palm oil and teak.
The purchase of properties adjacent to the National Park offers an opportunity to increase the ecological functionality of the protected areas network. Safeguarding these lands will help reconnect fragmented forests throughout Osa’s biological corridors with rare, native and endemic tree species. Increasing connectivity will improve the structure, dynamics and diversity of the forest, sustaining both genetic and species diversity and offering greater resilience in the face of extreme climatic events and disturbance.
Over 60% of the world’s tropical forests lack the connectivity needed to withstand climate change.
The project aims to protect private lands that are directly adjacent to the Corovado national park in an exquisite and virtually untouched valley of primary rainforest, ensuring it will be off limits for development.
National Geographic has described the remote Osa Peninsula in Costa Rica as the most “biologically intense” places on Earth. It hosts more than 50 percent of the country’s animal and plant species, while covering only 3 percent of Costa Rica’s land area, or 2.5% of global biodiversity in less than 0.01% of global landmass.
The Costa Rican government has protected around 50% of the peninsula in two national parks, providing the most significant ecological refuge for wildlife in the country, however fragmentation and adjacent land uses impacts the integrity of the park.
Corcovado and Piedras Blancas National Parks currently exist within a matrix of unprotected land used for agriculture, urban areas, and plantations of rice, palm oil and teak.
The purchase of properties adjacent to the National Park offers an opportunity to increase the ecological functionality of the protected areas network. Safeguarding these lands will help reconnect fragmented forests throughout Osa’s biological corridors with rare, native and endemic tree species. Increasing connectivity will improve the structure, dynamics and diversity of the forest, sustaining both genetic and species diversity and offering greater resilience in the face of extreme climatic events and disturbance.
Over 60% of the world’s tropical forests lack the connectivity needed to withstand climate change.