The reserve rises from the Naranjo River at 250 meters to a ridgeline above 1,100. Across that gradient are primary and secondary rainforest, headwater streams, waterfalls, and forest corridors within the Paso de la Danta and UNESCO's Savegre Biosphere Reserve.
Five communities drink water that starts in this watershed. Tree roots intercept rainfall, slow it down, filter sediment, and push it into the karst limestone aquifer. Clear the slopes and you lose that: faster runoff, more erosion, and degraded water quality for everyone downstream.
Without protection, old-growth trees are logged first and hunting spreads along boundaries and new routes. Roads split the forest into isolated patches, and cleared slopes give way in storms, as they did in 2008.
Roughly 80 percent of what it costs to run this work is earned by the retreat center on the river. Donations cover the rest, and pay for what the retreat cannot.
Fund boundary patrols, water and biodiversity monitoring, corridor agreements with neighboring landowners, and legal work toward permanent refuge status.
A retreat center along the Naranjo River, operating under Eco Era's fiscal umbrella. Time in the forest here helps fund the work of protecting it.
For foundations and major donors: climate, biodiversity, water and community funding, with 2025 financials and the earned-revenue model.
Yes. Eco Era is a U.S.-based 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization, EIN 68-0286784.
Eco Era is the fiscal umbrella for Posada Natura, the retreat center on the Naranjo River. The retreat earns roughly 80 percent of what the conservation work costs to run; donations cover the rest.
Boundary patrols and anti-poaching work, water quality and biodiversity monitoring, corridor agreements with neighboring landowners, and legal work toward permanent refuge status.
Cerro Nara, in Costa Rica's Central Pacific, rising from the Naranjo River at 250 meters to a ridge above 1,100. It sits within the Paso de la Danta corridor and UNESCO's Savegre Biosphere Reserve.
Yes, through Posada Natura, which hosts retreats, programs and guided time in the forest.
Something not covered here? Write to support@ecoera.org.
Biological surveys at the Eco Era reserve have documented more than 432 plant species, with one section of the study reporting a total of 452, alongside 54 mammals, 166 birds, 30 amphibians, and 35 reptiles.
The atlas is a working record of who has been found here, what role they play, and what they require from the landscape around them.
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Some species tower above the canopy. Some exist as orchids fixed to a single branch. Others live almost entirely underground.
Together, plants create the structure upon which nearly every other terrestrial species here depends.
Conservation begins with observation.
Biological surveys, water testing and field records are how Eco Era knows what is changing on this land.
The climb passes through primary and secondary rainforest, steep ravines, headwater streams, mature canopy, waterfalls, and a succession of habitats shaped by elevation and water.
Sandy banks and natural pools along the Naranjo. Otters, glass frogs and the amphibians that hold the streams together all depend on the riparian trees keeping this edge shaded and stable.
Ravines cut through and tributaries gather. Slopes pass 60 degrees in places, and mature root systems are the only thing holding them through a tropical storm.
Old growth, buttressed trunks, epiphytes, and a soil community built over centuries. This band carries the most carbon and the most structural complexity on the property.
Cooler and wetter, with different plant communities. Birds arrive here seasonally from lower ground, which only works while the whole gradient stays forested.
The beauty of Cerro Nara is inseparable from its geology. The country here is steep and structurally active, shaped by tectonic uplift, erosion, intense rainfall, and the constant movement of water downhill.
Roots bind the soil, leaf litter softens the force of rainfall, and understory growth slows water moving across the surface, while fallen branches, fungi, soil organisms and decaying matter keep building the porous ground beneath the canopy.
A standing forest is part of the watershed's infrastructure.
Leaves catch it and branches redirect it, so it travels slowly down trunks and through layers of vegetation before touching soil.
Belowground, roots open pathways through the earth. Organic matter acts like a sponge. Water soaks in instead of running straight downhill.
That delay reduces erosion, keeps sediment out of streams, recharges groundwater, and keeps streams running after the rain has passed.
Water is sampled and recorded at points across the property, from the ridge to the lower boundary. Scientific testing across the region found pH, nitrates, chlorides, and alkalinity all within healthy natural ranges and safely below drinking water limits.
More than half of the Llano Grande watershed lies within the Eco Era reserve forest. From these mountains, water flows into the Naranjo and Savegre river systems, two of the cleanest river networks in Central America. Tree roots slow rainfall, stabilize soil, and feed water deep into the limestone aquifer that supplies drinking water to communities including Londres, Naranjito, and Villanueva.
If these forests are cleared, the watershed changes immediately. Sediment increases, aquifers weaken, and water quality declines downstream.
Water is sampled at streams from the ridge down to the river. Three simple tests show whether anything upstream, such as farming, cattle or clearing, is changing it.
pH measures how acidic or alkaline water is. Every stream tested sits close to neutral, the same zone as healthy drinking water. Why it matters: fish, frogs and insects can only live in a narrow range, and runoff or pollution pushes pH out of it.
Nitrate comes mostly from fertilizer, animal waste and sewage. Levels here stayed low across the property.
Why it matters: high nitrate feeds algae that use up the oxygen streams need. Low readings mean little is draining in from farms or settlements.
Conductivity shows how many salts and minerals are dissolved in the water. Readings match a watershed nobody has disturbed.
Why it matters: it rises quickly when soil erodes or waste enters a stream, so it works as an early warning.
of the water in the Llano Grande stream begins on Eco Era land, along with three other streams on the property.
Why it matters: what happens on this land decides the quality of water that downstream communities drink.
Four streams begin on the property: the Llano Grande, El Maestro, Brujito and Salitrillo.
Species appear or disappear, populations shift, and change can be measured against what was here before. Eco Era works with academic researchers, including survey work associated with the University of Costa Rica.
Bats, at 62 percent of mammal diversity here, disperse thousands of seeds every night across distances up to 10 km. Frugivorous birds carry seeds that wind cannot move. Tapirs and primates do more of the same. Pull any part of this out and the forest loses its ability to regenerate.
Jaguars, pumas, and ocelots are documented in this corridor. When apex predators are present, every level of the food web below them is functioning. Herbivores are kept in check, so plant communities keep their structure all the way down the food web.
The orchid richness on this property, multiple miniature species and several endemic to the region, is a useful indicator. Orchids are among the most specialized plants in terms of their pollinator relationships. High orchid diversity means the pollinator community is genuinely complex and intact.
The property spans 250 to 1,100 meters, and that range matters. Three-wattled bellbirds, documented near Salitrillos, migrate vertically with the seasons, and other frugivores follow the fruiting season up and down the slope. They need intact forest at every elevation they pass through. This corridor gives them that.
Plants make up most of what has been recorded here, and they form the structure the other groups depend on.
Without connected habitat, forests become isolated islands where species lose their migration routes and populations shrink.
Established in 2000, the Paso de la Danta Biological Corridor stretches across more than 82,000 hectares of southern Costa Rica, linking coastal rainforest with mountain cloud forest. Named after the endangered Baird's tapir, the corridor exists to keep wildlife moving through an increasingly fragmented landscape. The Eco Era reserve sits within one of the corridor's most critical sections.
Since the corridor was established, forest cover across the region has significantly recovered, showing that protection works when land stays connected.
The primary forest on the Eco Era reserve property stores an estimated 4 million-plus tonnes of CO₂ at roughly 1,036.7 tonnes per hectare. For reference, the average American car emits about 4.6 tonnes a year, so the forest holds over 800,000 cars' annual emissions in wood, root systems, and decomposing matter.
The carbon is already stored in a standing forest, with no reforestation credit or promised future sequestration involved. If this land is cleared, that carbon is released.
Tree transpiration also recycles precipitation back into the atmosphere. Clearing the forest here reduces rainfall across the broader region.
Elevation data suggests where climate-sensitive species may move. Field observations send patrols to the edges under pressure.
What grows back in a decade, or even several, is a different ecological system from the one that was removed. The first task is often the least glamorous: keep what remains standing, through patrols, anti-poaching partnerships, and protection of Guanacaste, Manú, and Ocotea monteverdensis.
Eco Era protects forest in the upper watersheds of the Naranjo and Savegre and maintains the vegetation, soils, tributaries, and riparian areas that keep them functioning, working with downstream communities.
Direct land protection, partnerships with neighboring landowners, long-term species monitoring, anti-poaching efforts, and education that reduces conflict at the forest edge.
Conservation also needs people who know a place well enough to care what happens to it. Posada Natura is where many of them first get to know it.
One of Eco Era's most important priorities is strengthening the formal legal protection of the Eco Era reserve landscape through Costa Rica's conservation system and work with MINAE. Since 1991, the Caldarelli De Leon family has helped protect this landscape from the pressures that have fragmented tropical forests throughout the region.
Legal refuge status would protect the land regardless of who owns or manages it.
It also helps sustain the conservation work around it. Revenue from stays and retreats supports Eco Era's ongoing stewardship of the forest.
The connection runs both ways. The land offers people a place to return to themselves, and that experience can make people more willing to protect it.
Ceremonial programs draw from more than 15 years of facilitation and relationship with Colombian Indigenous traditions.
The work takes place within the living environment of Cerro Nara, where days are shaped by rain, the river and the dark, well away from ordinary routines.
For some guests, the most important part of a transformative experience begins after the ceremony ends. Longer immersion programs create room for rest, meditation, movement, nature therapy, and integration before or after deeper retreat work.
Forest bathing, river immersion, yoga, meditation, guided walks, and conservation education offer a quieter entry into the landscape.
Firefighters, veterans, healthcare workers, and other people whose lives have required sustained exposure to stress carry experiences that are difficult to leave behind in ordinary settings.
Dedicated programs combine structured support with extended time in a natural environment removed from the rhythms of institutional and urban life. The intention is to create room for nervous-system regulation and recovery.
Posada Natura also hosts outside teachers, facilitators, and organizations. A dedicated team handles accommodations, meals, cleaning, space preparation, and excursion logistics.
Host a retreat→Two yoga shalas accommodating groups of up to approximately 40 and 25 people.
An open gathering hall with dining for approximately 40 guests, lounge areas, and a tea bar.
Meals prepared three times daily from the property's food forest and local producers wherever possible.
A private stretch of river opening into sandy banks and natural pools.
Trails moving through gardens and forest, and a fire temple for ceremony and small-group practice.
When you give to Eco Era, you help protect the forest as a whole: its water, wildlife, old-growth trees, ecological corridors, and the people whose daily work keeps it standing.
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Roughly 80 percent of what it costs to run this work is earned by Posada Natura. Donations cover the rest, and pay for what the retreat cannot.
Every animal on Cerro Nara depends on habitat that holds together: forest to move through, clean water, and room to range. A species sponsorship puts your support behind one of them, and behind the land that keeps it alive.
An animal is only as safe as the land around it. Tap a point to see what your gift keeps in place.
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Each level is an annual gift to Eco Era, a 501(c)(3), and is tax-deductible in the U.S. Your first year is charged once at checkout. Nothing renews automatically; we'll be in touch personally before your sponsorship year ends.
The animal will never know your name. Its forest will still be standing because of you.
The trees standing at Cerro Nara today are here because people chose, again and again, to protect them. Your support lets Eco Era plan years ahead, and hand on a forest that still has wildlife moving through it and clean water leaving it.
DonateThe basics are already running: patrols, research partners, water work, and agreements with neighboring landowners. Posada Natura, the retreat on the property, pays for much of it.
That means a grant here doesn't keep the lights on. It pays for work that wouldn't happen otherwise.
Pick the area closest to your foundation's focus. Each one protects the same forest.
Old forest stores carbon in its trees, roots and soil, and it keeps the region cooler and wetter. Protecting it now avoids the cost of trying to rebuild it later.
A grant can pay for forest protection, patrols, and the work toward permanent legal protection.
This land holds an unusual number of species for its size, and it sits inside a corridor that lets jaguars, birds and other animals move between elevations.
A grant can pay for species surveys, anti-poaching work, research partnerships and corridor agreements with neighbors.
The reserve sits in the headwaters of two river systems that supply drinking water to towns downstream. Keeping the forest standing keeps that water clean.
A grant can pay for water testing, erosion control, protection of riverbanks, and work with downstream communities.
Communities below the forest depend on its water, and visitors to Posada Natura come to know the land firsthand. Both make protection last.
A grant can pay for environmental education, relationships with neighbors, living alongside wildlife, and access to time in nature.
Most of Eco Era's income comes from Posada Natura. Grants and gifts make up the rest, and that is the part that lets the work grow.
A U.S.-based 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization. Gifts to Eco Era fund conservation, science and legal protection at Cerro Nara.
1,100 acres of primary and secondary rainforest at Cerro Nara, Costa Rica, stewarded by Eco Era within a connected landscape of more than 10,000 acres.
A retreat center on the Naranjo River. Eco Era is the fiscal umbrella for Posada Natura, whose earnings help pay for protecting the forest.
A collective of families commits to keeping the Eco Era reserve property intact, at a point when clearing and fragmentation were moving through most of the surrounding Central Pacific. Nothing about keeping it was inevitable.
Neighboring landowners join the conservation landscape. What began as one property becomes part of a connected block of more than 10,000 acres, held together by a shared mission to protect these ecosystems.
Biological survey work starts recording what the forest contains, and water testing begins at the headwater streams. Repeated over years, those records become the baseline everything else is measured against.
The retreat center on the river now earns most of what protection costs. The remaining work is legal: moving the property toward permanent wildlife refuge status, so the forest outlasts the families who hold it.
The forest holds steep slopes in place, feeds the Naranjo and Savegre headwaters, stores carbon, and carries hundreds of documented species. Wildlife needs room to move, rivers need healthy headwaters, and forests need continuity across elevations as temperature and rainfall shift.
Fragment the landscape and those relationships start coming apart.
The complexity of an old forest is built over centuries out of soil, roots, fungi, water, canopy and the species working through all of it.
