Hey everyone, it’s your friendly neighborhood Wildlife Biologist Marc here! I’d like to talk about a community need today that has many benefits for the community, and that is reforestation. Now, reforestation is not just for the birds (see what I did there?), but it also helps human communities as well by providing different benefits, helping to make life easier here for Ticos. The need for reforestation is high in Costa Rica, even though they have a lot of reserves and national parks. Much of the country that was farmland for cattle and forests were cleared in the 1920s through the 1980s. Since then, cattle farming still exists, but it isn’t as popular anymore. Now there are coffee, banana, sugar and dairy farms, and conservation and reforestation have been made a top priority. So, class: let’s get into it and learn about this community need.
As I said earlier, Costa Rica was a popular place to have cattle farms and much of the rainforest was cleared to make room for cattle. But, during the 1980s, the demand for beef faltered and many Ticos lost their farms because they couldn’t sell beef, and they were abandoned. Also, due to all the clear-cutting of the forests, Ticos inadvertently caused massive droughts to occur especially in the Guanacaste region.
