Once natural landscapes are touched by the human hand driving urbanization we often drift towards the tendency to extract plant life and replace it with non-native garden ornamentals and young sapling tree species that often times don’t necessarily belong there, are non-native, not beneficial to wildlife, or worse yet, invasive. We see this in much of the world including the richly biodiverse Osa Peninsula.
Because reforesting degraded lands and providing bird friendly contiguous landscapes is such a significant part of Osa Birds mission, we have embarked on a project with the Primer Canje de Deuda por Naturaleza and the community of Rancho Quemado that supports the creation of a native plants nursery. We are specifically working with the Community Biological Monitoring Group made up of people who have been part of our biological monitoring initiative since 2015 who are working to understand and monitor the rich biodiversity that occurs in and around their community.
The nursery was build in late 2018 and now has nearly 8,000 trees, shrubs and plants that are solely native to Costa Rica or the Osa, endemic and/or endangered. The objectives are to provide trees and plants for:
- Reforesting degraded lands including riparian areas
- Birdscaping for bird friendly gardens
- Creating a new botanical route through town
- Beautifying the local community and its public areas including the elementary school
For more on the Primer Canje de Deuda project visit our page that will bring you detailed information and inspiration on how community collaboration and participation can lead to amazing results.
