Forest Restoration and Ecological Connectivity

Published: 28 February 2022
Last edited: 26 April 2022

Bosque La Tigra owns 46 hectares of primary and secondary forests, as well as regeneration areas, as relicts of what used to be passion fruit plantations. Bosque La Tigra adjoins the Children Eternal Rainforest, Costa Rica’s biggest private reserve, with 23.000 hectares. For the Project, this location is a strategic element of the reserve work.

Bosque La Tigra has intended to foster the ecological connectivity of both reserves by conserving the forest and also, by actively restoring the regeneration areas of the reserve with native trees. For this purpose, the project designed a reforestation sequence for the regeneration areas. Eventually, the area will enter into an ecological succession process and foster ecological connectivity with the Children Eternal Rainforest.

At least 40 different species of native trees and bushes have been identified to plant in the regeneration areas. The Project has established a tree nursery that reproduces trees and seedlings from the same primary and secondary forests of the reserve and has a capacity for 700 seedlings and plants.

Between 2017 and 2020, a total of 4500 trees were planted. Every reforestation effort is supported by the voluntary work of students, companies’ employees, national and international tourists, and Bosque La Tigra staff.

Classifications

Category
Alliance and partnership development
Sustainable financing
Technical interventions and infrastructure
Scale of implementation
Local
Phase of solution
Implementation
Monitoring

Enabling factors

  • The presence of primary and secondary forests that harbors native flora, from which seeds can be reproduced, provides genetic material for the reforestation activities of Bosque La Tigra.
  • The proximity to a protected area such as the Children Eternal Rainforest favors the movement of local fauna to Bosque La Tigra.
  • Private commitment, represented by Travel to Nature, with a business model that relies on regeneration, operates within the boundaries of nature and is designed to work with and support it. 

Lessons learned

  • The anchoring of forest restoration in Bosque La Tigra's business model is a key element, as the trees are sold to companies, tourists, and visitors, and the income is used to cover the costs associated with the purchase of the property and the acquisition of new properties around the original property. In this sense, companies pay to compensate for their performance through reforestation and carbon fixation and Bosque La Tigra restores the forests as part of its environmental responsibility offer for companies. In this way, international companies sponsor planting lots of up to 500 trees and make them visible as part of their environmental strategies.

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