The past week, Green Life Volunteer’s Intern Judi and me (Green Life Volunteers’ Country Manager), went on a trip to the Alexander Skutch Biological Corridor.
The main reasons for the trip were to pick up Miron and bring him to his new project – a Sustainable Farm in the Corridor, and to show Judi one of your project sites.
Judi has been helping as a Green Life Volunteers’ Intern for the past weeks, and Miron arrived a few weeks ago to study Spanish in San Isidro, and then to go on to the Sustainable Farming project. He will later in April come to Puerto Jimenez to teach English for an additional 3 weeks.
View onto the Alexander Skutch Biological Corridor
The research station in the Corridor where we stayed for one night is called La Escondida, and is administered by York University in Toronto, Canada. The station is in the middle of the Corridor, and is located in the middle of secondary forest.
There is a lot of wildlife and plant life to see – and Miron, Judi and I went on some hikes with a fellow Biologist friend who also stayed at the station. We went on hikes by day and night, and found some exciting animals (see the photos). Judi and Miron have never been exposed to wildlife in such a way, and for them it was a very interesting experience.
Volunteer Miron and Intern Judi relaxing at the research station in the Alexander Skutch Biological Corridor
After one night at the station, Miron moved to his host family and started his work at their sustainable farm. The sustainable farm in the Corridor doesn’t use chemicals and pesticides for their coffee and sugar cane plantation. During the project introduction, we asked the farmer why he doesn’t use pesticides and chemicals, and he said: “If the birds want to eat the coffee beans, they can eat them. We also want to eat them, but we should learn to share our food with the animals around us.” That’s what I call sustainable thinking.
A frog we found on one of our hikes in the Corridor
Furthermore, he explained that the produce goes to a Cooperation called “Coopeagri” which is very forward and famous in the area. Coopeagri buys the coffee from the growers and markets it internationally and nationally. They are ensuring that coffee is bought and sold according to the “fair trade” system, and that coffee is grown sustainably and organically. With parts of the profit, the cooperation funds conservation projects in the area, for example the protection of the green areas surrounding the Penas Blancas River which flows directly through the Biological Corridor.
Mingling in the common area of the research station
With volunteering on the project, Miron supports this positive forward thinking sustainable movements of the farms in the Corridor. Miron will also learn how the farmers grow their crops, and assist in everything that the farmers need help with.
After a couple of nights at the research station, me and Judi went back “home” to Puerto Jimenez. Pura Vida 🙂 !
