Rio Sol Bio Corridor, Maleku Reserve, Costa Rica

Thank you, muchas gracias, mercí and afepakian…those are the only first words appropriate for this final progress report for the “Rio Sol Bio Corridor, Maleku Reserve, Costa Rica”. It’s been the most gratifying project for LRFF to date and will remain in our memories as our first really massive planting. It was very challenging making it a  “seat of the pants” accomplishment in a huge way.

Not least the other projects that this project led to. Just last week we finished planting a three-project combo that used to be on Global Giving, a total of 10,000 trees of more than 150 species and ALL of them now in the ground.

The Rio Sol Bio Corridor was partially sponsored by Sole Technology, the makers of etnies© shoes. In March 2011 the CEO and founder, Pierre Andres Senizergues, came to Costa Rica to inaugurate the project with his team of champion surfers and skateboarders. When he returned to the U.S. he took a limousine home from the airport and the young man who drove him heard all about his AMAZING trip to Costa Rica and how he was helping to plant 35,000 trees with LRFF and the Maleku indigenous people. The driver was a young man named Matt Strack he had a new premier transportation company, Strack Premier Transportation, and using a green approach by including some hybrids in his fleet.

Two years later Matt called me…he was in Costa Rica for a visit and wanted to come see if he could do something similar to what etnies© had done now that his business had grown. He calculated the projected GHG emissions of the business for 2013 and discovered he’d be responsible for approximately 366 tons of emissions. To “offset” those emissions planting trees he’d need to plant almost 10,000. I got to thinking…we had three projects on GlobalGiving earning a few donations to date and by combining the there would be a total of 10,000 trees.

Matt agreed to completely fund the project (10,000 trees) via monthly installments. He planned to pay for the trees planting by asking his clients to voluntarily pay an extra $1.50/ride. He figured he could probably raise around $1000/month, depending on how much his clientele supported the initiative. They loved it and were happy to support it. Strack Transportation hasn’t missed a monthly installment and now all three projects are now planted and in maintenance mode.

I say onward and upward because whilst planting the last 6000 trees in Las Delicias de Upala last week (see photos in this report), @ the For The Monkeys project a neighbor and the local police approached because they have other projects they want us to develop and implement in the surrounding communities and with the local school kids. Onward, upward…

LET’S KEEP PLANTING!

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