At 80 hectares, Finca Curré is one of our larger properties in Costa Rica. It includes a valuable piece of primary forest that we were able to acquire back in 1993. Unfortunately, even in designated protected areas in Costa Rica, illegal logging continues to take place without appropriate countermeasures. We therefore ensure that our areas and their boundaries are regularly checked and maintained. We work together with the Asociación Corredor Baja Talamanca Caribe (ACBTC) and our partner Thierry, who is responsible for the protection patrols, to monitor and control the Finca Curré. Proof of the relevance of Thierry’s work for achieving our goals in Costa Rica and on the Finca Curré reached us on December 28, 2018.
On this day, Thierry discovered two felled trees on the edge of the Finca Curré (10 and 50 meters inside the property) during his inspection tour. Their wood has even been cut in parts and prepared for transportation and subsequent storage. As you can see, the wood robbers mainly use the core of the trees. Another tree was worked on but not felled, as the trunk is hollow and the tree is therefore not very productive.
What do we do in such a case?
We first reported the incident to the authorities. As this was a crime, we called the police. It must be made clear – especially to our partners – that we in no way support or are responsible for these felling operations. Our forest ranger also called in a lawyer on our behalf. As we reported back in November, these measures were successful in relation to the illegal logging on a neighboring property in October 2018 and led to three arrests. The police suspected a larger trafficking ring behind the operation. It is not known whether the impacts detected in December at Finca Curré were carried out by the same trafficking ring.
After trees were illegally felled again in December, we have to realize that the arrests in November were only a small success in the fight for the safety of the remaining forests. This encourages us in a project that we have been pursuing since 2015: We want to better connect the individual properties and their owners with each other. Networking is of central importance so that those affected can inform each other quickly and easily about unusual incidents and support each other in responding. To this end, we drew up a “Convenio”, a neighborhood agreement, for the Finca Curré and the surrounding region. Roughly speaking, landowners who sign this agreement undertake to protect the forest, soil, water, animals and plants on their land to the best of their ability by monitoring and controlling them. Some neighbors of Finca Curré have already signed up. The missing ones are gradually sought out by us and accepted into the alliance, which calls itself “Los Guardianes del Bosque”, the guardians of the forest. An important part of this is the joint organization of protection patrols. As the region is one of the last remaining areas of coastal rainforest, there are usually hardly any people there – apart from the landowners. This makes it easy for wood thieves to go about their business under the cover of night and the loud rain. Protective patrols are essential to detect them and prevent felling. However, it can be quite dangerous to confront a group of wood thieves alone. Property owners must therefore also work together in terms of personal safety.
Today it is clear that the pressure is growing. We have serious concerns about the protection of forests. The inhibition threshold for timber theft is visibly falling. The urgency of admitting more people from the region to our Convenio is therefore greater than ever. In order to turn the setback suffered in December into something positive, we will now work even harder to achieve this. It is important to show presence and demonstrate our willingness as Guardianes del Bosque to take action against felling.
The more we are, the stronger we are!
