Primary forest
01
Keep what remains standing: forest patrols, anti-poaching partnerships, and protection of high-value trees such as Guanacaste and Manú.
Eco EraCerro Nara, Costa Rica · Since 1991
This forest has stood for centuries, now its future rests with us.
For 35 years, Eco Era has helped protect more than 10,000 acres of protected and co-stewarded rainforest at Cerro Nara, preserving its extraordinary biodiversity and life-sustaining watershed while offering nature-based wellness programs for generations to come. Help support our mission.
Part of a wider protected landscape
- Paso de la Danta corridor
- UNESCO Savegre Biosphere Reserve
- Headwaters of Manuel Antonio National Park
About Eco Era
Ten thousand acres, still connected.
- 1,100
- acres stewarded directly by Eco Era
- 5,810
- acres in the legally protected zone
- 10,000+
- acres of connected landscape
Eco Era stewards 1,100 acres inside a protected landscape of more than ten thousand, all of it still one connected piece.
The reserve rises from the Naranjo River at 250 metres to a ridgeline above 1,100. Across that gradient are primary and secondary rainforest, headwater streams, waterfalls, and living corridors within the Paso de la Danta and UNESCO's Savegre Biosphere Reserve.
It stewards the watershed that feeds Manuel Antonio National Park, protecting the headwaters of rivers that flow into one of Costa Rica's most important coastal ecosystems.
For more than thirty years, a collective of families has chosen to keep this land intact. Eco Era was founded in 1991 around that commitment. Its continuity is the result of repeated decisions made across decades.
Life on this Land
Select a figure to see what it indicates
432+plant species
More than 432 species are documented, and one section of the study reports 452. Canopy trees, understory, orchids fixed to a single branch. Plants are the physical structure everything else feeds in, nests in and moves through, which is why the plant list is the first thing surveyed.
What we do
Four kinds of work, one forest.
Watershed
02Protect the headwaters of the Naranjo and Savegre, and test the water on a schedule so its condition is measured, not assumed.
Corridors
03
Keep routes open across the Paso de la Danta corridor through agreements with neighbouring landowners.
People
04
Bring people into the forest through Posada Natura, so they know it well enough to care what happens to it.
How it works
How a forest stays protected
- 01Ongoing
Know what is there
Biological surveys and water testing build the baseline that every later change is measured against.
- 02Every day
Protect it, year-round
Patrols, monitoring and corridor agreements keep the forest standing and connected. A collective of families has made this choice since 1991.
- 03In progress
Make it permanent
Legal work with MINAE toward permanent refuge status, so protection lasts beyond any one family or organization.
Why it matters
Protecting this forest and caring for the people who depend on it are the same task.
Five communities drink water filtered by these slopes, and the rainfall reaching farms downstream is recycled by this canopy. The people downstream live inside that system.
Eco Era
El Salto del Nara, in the heart of the reserve
Watershed
5
Communities whose drinking water starts in this watershed.
The Naranjo and the Savegre both originate inside this protected watershed, and they rank among the cleanest river systems in Central America.
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.
Londres
The first community downstream of the reserve slopes, closest to where rainfall first enters the aquifer.
- 2
- river systems begin here: the Naranjo and the Savegre
- 25
- years since a presidential decree protected the Savegre from dam construction
- 6.1–8.3
- pH across the property, with nitrates and conductivity of an undisturbed watershed
The pressure
The forest is being pushed from its edges
Without protection
- Old-growth trees are logged first
- Hunting spreads along boundaries and new routes
- Roads split the forest into isolated patches
- Cleared slopes give way in storms, as in 2008
- Wide-ranging species lose their routes
With Eco Era
- Mature trees kept standing
- Patrols along the boundaries year-round
- Corridor agreements with neighbours
- Deep roots holding slopes over 60 degrees
- Connected forest corridors
Wide-ranging species such as jaguars need connected forest; isolated fragments won't hold them.
Animals move between feeding and breeding grounds, between wet and dry seasons, and increasingly between cooler and warmer elevations. Cerro Nara's 850 metres of gradient gives them somewhere to go — as long as the routes stay open.
Two ways to support
One landscape. Two ways to support it.
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.
Eco Era is a U.S.-based 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization. It protects the Eco Era Rainforest Reserve at Cerro Nara and serves as the fiscal umbrella for Posada Natura.
Protect
Eco Era
The U.S. nonprofit behind the Eco Era Rainforest Reserve: land stewardship, conservation science, watershed protection, and year-round care across Cerro Nara.
Explore Eco Era
Experience
Posada Natura
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.
Visit Posada NaturaWhat a gift supports
Protection here is practical and ongoing. It pays for the people, tools and legal work that keep the forest standing.
- Boundary patrols and anti-poaching work
- Water quality and biodiversity monitoring
- Corridor agreements with neighbouring landowners
- Legal work toward permanent refuge status
Is Eco Era a nonprofit?
Yes. Eco Era is a U.S.-based 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization, EIN 68-0286784.
How are Eco Era and Posada Natura related?
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.
What does a gift pay for?
Boundary patrols and anti-poaching work, water quality and biodiversity monitoring, corridor agreements with neighbouring landowners, and legal work toward permanent refuge status.
Where exactly is the reserve?
Cerro Nara, in Costa Rica's Central Pacific, rising from the Naranjo River at 250 metres to a ridge above 1,100. It sits within the Paso de la Danta corridor and UNESCO's Savegre Biosphere Reserve.
Can I visit?
Yes, through Posada Natura, which hosts retreats, programs and guided time in the forest.