Central American Institute for Biological Research and Conservation

Pricincipal investigator: Maguil Castro Turfs, M.Sc.

Participant and Beneficient institutions: Instituto Centroamericano para la investigación en Biología y Conservación, Asociación Río Minas Zurquí, Jan Atwood and Friends for the Garabitos Children Fund, Maxine Beige Fundation..

Other Collaborating and Participant Institutions: Aventuras del Sarapiquí, Luis Morales Tourism transportation, Yehudi Hernádez Naturalist guide, Sun Tours Travel Agency, San José Police Force, La Suerte Biological Station.

Other related activities:

General missions

• To develop to a plan prospective plan who rescues the use of communal gardens as well as green area parks in the community by means of the use of native vegetal species of the zone, which will offer refuge and food to the birds, butterflies, bats and the rest fauna present at the area.

• The incorporation of young people in the project can produce a greater understanding in the community on the irrefutable links that nature has with humanity.

Specific objectives

• To evaluate the viability of projects of reforestation on medium scale in the community.

• Overseen the number of new vegetal species in the area that can be implemented as the result of this project.

• To reinforce the self-esteem of children and young people.

• To implement, in a parallel way, environmental education courses and tours as an integral part of the project to foment the participation of children and young people of the community of Garabito.

• To create and to maintain green houses for their use in the recovery of green areas in the community.

• To foment the community-work and a better understanding on of the value of the recovery of green areas that can perform as communitarian gardens

• To provide the community with a clean area so in case of natural disasters the Costa Rican Red Cross could raise the treatment and refugee tents to assist the community.

• To provide the community with recreational area with a safe atmosphere in which the natural elements are an important component of the surroundings.

Area of Study

The project is develop at the north zone of the Central Valley, in the district of  Leon XIII (Tibas).

This project fundamentally involves the recreational park of the house complex of Garabito and the bordering tree-lined avenues. The park is in the heart of the district which is one of the most urban areas.

Results

Material results

After two years of work the project has managed to recover a tree-lined avenue where the gardens already are in flower. In addition to sudden flight the works to recovery of the park of Garabito that had been taken by indigents and drug addicts and that at the beginning of the project was not more than another garbage dump area and a source of diseases. To the date, all the area of the park has been cleaned. Within the basic work the removal of big objects was performed and then this debris was classified into three categories: rubbish, metals and small inorganic sweepings (i.e. plastic, synthetic materials etc.) and of organic origin (wood, cardboard and marijuana mainly). We estimate that around 30 tons of trash were eliminated during the cleaning of the park.

To August (2006), the park is in the phase of space redistribution, maintenance and repair of games, the surrounding metallic mesh and the sowing of ornamentals trees and plants.

The project has produced two environmental education tours and an English course for the children and young people of the community of Garabito; both activities were created by professional experts in those areas and their planning as well as their implementation were done as a pro-bono activities.

Social impact.

The impact that the project has had in the community has been satisfactory; the involvement of the active forces has demonstrated the power of the idea of recovery and fight of a district that has undergone the abandonment and the marginalization of this place in the Costa Rican society. All these begun with two individuals begun to repair the metallic meshes of one of the flanks of the park, now the project has catch the attention of the young people of the community, some religious groups in the area and other active forces of the community. At the present time the maintenance of the park brings together 10 people every Saturday, the majority of them young people belonging to the “pastoral” group of Garabito. At some moments the works have counted with the participation of more than 30 people; so it was the case for the first two Saturdays of August of 2006. The children and teenagers are the main favored with the works because the park has been recovered for their benefit and they and have begun to notice the recovery of it, creating the return of the mothers and their children to the park as well as the awareness of the government as well as the community that this neighborhood has few group accomplishments in the last years and this fact has deteriorated its self awareness and vision of the possible future.

English course