Summary | Background | About EcoEra Rainforest Reserve | History of Analog Forestry on the EcoEra Reserve | Philosophy

This we know. All things are connected like the blood which unites one family... Whatever befalls the earth, befalls the sons and daughters of the earth. Man did not weave the web of life; he is merely a strand in it. Whatever he does to the web, he does to himself. Ted Perry, inspired by Chief Seattle

Watch the Video: Welcome to Eco Era

Summary

EcoEra Foundation is a non-profit environmental and educational organization, founded in 1991, that manages a 2,600 acre tropical rainforest reserve in the Cerro Nara watershed of Costa Rica's Central Pacific Coast. The EcoEra Rainforest Reserve is part of the 7,500 acre Zona Protectora Cerro Nara, protected lands that are earmarked to be instated as National Wildlife Refuge in the future.

EcoEra was created to help protect biodiversity by ensuring that critical habitat is preserved in an intact and pristine state and to educate people about the important legacy the rainforest holds as well as how to contribute to a sustainable future.

Background

Inspired by the profound beauty of the plants and animals in Costa Rica's tropical rainforest and aware of the peril they faced if deforestation were allowed to continue at its present rate, in 1991 Gustavo Calderelli took an active stand for the cause of nature preservation. He collaborated with friends on the purchase of some large tracts of primary rainforest land in the Cerro Nara mountain region of Costa Rica's Central Pacific Coast with the intention of preserving the land as a sanctuary. This marked the beginning of EcoEra.

Since that time, EcoEra Foundation has been devoted to securing adjacent tracts of rainforest land to add to the preserve. The goal has been to reestablish an unfragmented biological corridor by extending the reserve to encompass the entire Cerro Nara watershed from the headwaters of the Rio Naranjo to the river's mouth in the Pacific Ocean. By utilizing Analog Forestry methods to reforest the degraded sections of annexed land, this would completely restore the biological corridor of the region.

In 2005, this dream was realized when the 2,600 acre EcoEra Rainforest Reserve was officially acknowledged by the government of Costa Rica. The acreage of the Zona Protectora Cerro Nara and the lands of the EcoEra Rainforest Reserve were joined providing 7,500 acres of uninterrupted rainforest habitat.

About EcoEra Rainforest Reserve

The EcoEra Rainforest Reserve, embraces the entire height and breadth of the mountain of Cerro Nara (1,080 meters tall) and its watershed and is adjoined by the Cerro Nara Zona Protectora, an area officially designated as protected rainforest by the Costa Rican government. The beaches of Manuel Antonio National Park flank the foot of the EcoEra Reserve.

EcoEra is working in collaboration with Ascomoti, the Association for the Preservation of the Mono Titi (Costa Rican name for the Squirrel Monkey) to establish a biological corridor between Manuel Antonio National Park and the EcoEra Reserve to ensure that the populations in each locale can reach each other to interbreed so that genetic diversity will not be compromised.

The EcoEra Rainforest Reserve passes through three life-zones:

• Lowland Rainforest
• Tropical Wet Forest
• Pre-Montane

The Tropical Wet Forest is the most species-rich Life Zone in Costa Rica. Amidst the lush flora, three-hundred species of birds have been documented to date, including the endangered Scarlet Macaw. It is also home to many endangered tropical mammals, including the jaguar, the jaguarundi, the agouti paca and the squirrel monkey.

The reserve is one of the few locations in Costa Rica where all four native species of monkey still reside. It is also home to a plethora of insect, amphibian and reptile species including the Green Iguana, the Ctenosaur, and the remarkable Basilisk Lizard who has the ability to run for up to 50 yards on the surface of the water. The beautiful Morpho butterfly, whose iridescent blue wings span 6', is plentiful here thanks to EcoEra's concerted preservation and planting of its host plants.

Three rivers run through the reserve. The largest is the Rio Naranjo which is 20 miles long and empties into the Pacific Ocean. The 10 mile long Rio Brujo and the 2 mile long Rio Cerra Nara are its tributaries. Numerous small springs and creeks also course through the Cerro Nara watershed. Three magnificent waterfalls grace the reserve; the waters of the Rio Naranjo crescendo at Salto El Nara, a huge waterfall that cascades down from a height of 220 ft. spilling into an inviting swimming hole below. The Eco Era Rainforest Reserve serves as a living laboratory for the study of rainforest biodiversity and offers the opportunity to actively participate in Analog Forestry restoration efforts. The reserve provides a safe setting for practical field experience in all areas of tropical rainforest biology and ecology.

History of Analog Forestry on the EcoEra Reserve

Though much of the land that EcoEra initially purchased was still in its pristine state as primary rainforest, deforestation of significant portions of it had already occurred. Local people, needing to generate income to support their families, had been cutting down trees to make room for cattle-grazing and cash-crop farming. These colonos, people who are not indigenous, had lost touch with their ancestor's ways of living off the land sustainably and had adopted the western model of land use for personal gain alone without being mindful of the impact they were having on the ecosystem.

As a result of the clearcutting that had occurred on this and adjacent land, native animal populations had already begun to decline. Habitat fragmentation had disrupted their natural breeding range causing genetic bottle-necking to occur. Stands of many native trees and shrubs upon which the birds and mammals depended for food, shelter, or breeding and nesting sites were no longer present in sufficient quantity and density to support healthy populations.

Convinced that, even in modern times, there must be a way to provide for the needs of the human community without compromising the integrity of the ecosystem, Gustavo began to investigate other models. He felt it to be of paramount importance to find a means to restore the biological corridors for the endangered fauna before any more species were lost.

With this objective in mind, Gustavo met with Dr. Ranil Senanayake, a biologist and ecologist from Sri Lanka who, since 1987, had been developing a sustainable system of forest management that he referred to as Analog Forestry.

Analog forestry is a land-management system that reconstructs the deforested land's original composition of tree and plant diversity so that its ecological processes are replenished. It is essentially analogous to the original forest, hence the name Analog Forestry.

The revegetation design also incorporates economically viable tree and plant species that, while conforming with the local ecology, will also provide the local people with a range of products for personal consumption as well for surplus sale as marketable goods. Everything is cultivated using organic methods and the planting pattern mimics that of the local undisturbed forest so that accelerated erosion is prevented. Conservation of native biodiversity is achieved while providing for the economic needs of the community.

Since 1992, Dr. Senanayake has overseen the land management at EcoEra Reserve, from implementing Analog Forestry recovery methods on newly acquired, freshly-grazed cattle pasture land to the protection of the old growth forest. What was stripped pastureland is now well on its way to being a healthy secondary forest again.

The local people have been benefiting by growing and harvesting sustainable forest products including various fruits, woods, bamboo, flowers and flower essences, and medicinal and culinary herbs and spices such as vanilla, pepper, cinnamon, cardamom, turmeric and ginger. As productivity increases and more local farmers get involved, tangential jobs, such as packing and shipping for an international market, will serve to increasingly bolster the local economy.

The former owner of Cerro Nara from whom EcoEra's initial parcel of land was purchased has been hired as a caretaker of the land as have other locals who were formerly poachers. The people have also learned the direct benefit of protecting the watershed by the increased availability of clean, potable water.

Philosophy

EcoEra is an advocate of Deep Ecology, a philosophy that recognizes the ecosystem as a dynamic, living whole and that respects all life-forms on Earth in their own right, considering each to have intrinsic value in the unfolding of life's potential. Each fills a niche, in its respective community, that contributes to the well-being of the larger ecosystem and ultimately, to the healthy functioning of the entire global system.

Cultivating an awareness of our interconnectedness so that we relate to the world as an integrated, interdependent whole is of paramount importance if we are to stem the tide of environmental degradation that is occurring.

Recognizing the urgent need for a paradigm shift in attitude and values from an anthropocentric model to an ecocentric one that is oriented around a cooperative and sustainable approach to living on the earth, EcoEra was founded.

It is EcoEra’s intention to help foster greater understanding of the natural world and to engender enthusiasm for responsible stewardship at both the individual and community level so that the remarkable life forms present today, including ourselves, will be able to thrive into the future.