Costa Rica Ecotourism Trail
Volunteer on the Wild Side
Article by: The Thorn Tree, September 2006
Costa Rica has some of the most diverse wildlife and natural landscapes in the world so it is no small wonder that ecotourism has become big business. It seems like everyone wants to jump on the green bandwagon; there are 'ecological' car-rental agencies and even 'ecological' menus in restaurants.
Volunteer programs are also taking off where travellers can get involved in reforesting national parks, turtle-tagging on the coast and tracking endangered animals.
The best option for finding a worthwhile project is to first spend some time on the ground, getting a feel for which organisations are working in your area of interest whether it's wildlife protection, environmental conservation or community development. It's also possible to arrange a position before you even step on the plane, since most Costa Rican organisations advertise their programs on the web.
Check out the projects as carefully as possible - sometimes the too-good-to-be-true volunteer stints are nothing more than high-priced tours. As a general rule, volunteers are asked to pay a small maintenance fee for food and accommodation, though you should be wary if a program has a hefty price tag, especially by Western standards.
Contributors to Thorn Tree, Lonely Planet's online travel forum, have volunteered in Costa Rica and posted up their ecotourism tales. To get a real-life feel for volunteering check out these posts:
Posted by: Eryn
I spent a month at Finca Ipe, a farm located inland about a half-hour bus ride from Dominical, on the Pacific coast. I went to Finca Ipe to learn about organic farming and to escape the tourist road for a bit.
Each morning all the volunteers met at the seed tables where the farm manager gave us duties for the day. Duties included: caring for the farm's resident animals (goats, sheep, chickens, and guinea pigs); creating new compost piles; weeding the fields; and harvesting citronella/lemon grass and cinnamon. We also got demonstrations on how the essential oil was made from the harvests.
Work stopped at about lunch time and the rest of the day was spent lying in hammocks, lazing at the beach, painting a mural on the wall of the sheep pen, and practicing yoga.
Posted by: Erica
For two months I lived in the Gandoca-Manzanillo Wildlife Refuge, on the Sixaola River near the border of Panama. I was volunteering for a Costa Rican sea turtle conservation project run by Asociacion ANAI. It was an amazing and challenging experience - one I'll never forget.
One of the jobs was to walk several miles up and down the beach in night shifts to locate the females coming ashore to lay eggs. We mostly found leatherbacks, but also an occasional hawksbill or green. The leatherbacks were so huge they looked pre-historic. The whole process was painfully slow. We would stay behind the turtles, so they wouldn't notice us and carefully collect the eggs as they were laying them. We then took the eggs back to the hatcheries and re-buried them in a man-made hole. Sixty days later, the baby turtles would emerge from their holes and shells. It was amazing to see them and their unending determination to make it into the sea. Sadly, of a group of 100 eggs only five or six will eventually make it to adulthood.
Posted by: Eryn
I was involved for two weeks with La Tortuga Feliz, a turtle conservation project in a remote area off the Caribbean Coast, north of Limon. The man behind the project, Paul, takes volunteers on a 45-minute boat ride to the project in what's known as Costa Rica's mini-Amazon - the location is absolutely breathtaking and completely untouched.
As a volunteer I spent time marking, painting and counting the beach markers which are used for recording locations of turtle nests. I also helped design and dig a hatchery on the beach for the laying season. The resident biologist educated both volunteers and locals on all things turtle: nesting and mating habits; instructions on how to handle eggs; how to patrol the beach at night; and how to spot turtles crawling up the beach.
While at La Tortuga, I had opportunities to interact with locals in a way I would not have otherwise. Although the project is still in its infancy, I learnt a lot and had a wonderful time.
Posted by: Will
I volunteered in Costa Rica for my senior thesis through the Institute for Central American Development Studies. It was a great place and they got me into a volunteer program at ASEPROLA. I was studying the labour rights movements in Central America. There are a lot of problems with big agricultural multi-nationals abusing local labour laws, so we did a whole lot of organising to educate people about the Dominican-Republic -Central America Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA). It was a good time and I met a lot of really interesting people down there.
If these tales inspired you, check out these ecotourism programs recommended by Lonely Planet travellers:
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