Costa Rica Bosque de las Madres Biological Corridor

Rainforest Concern´s working relationship with Fundación Cuencas de Limón (FCL) goes back two decades. We have supported many FCL-led conservation and research projects, including the studies that defined the best area for The Bosque de las Madres Biological Corridor.

Current Activities

Together we are working to consolidate the lower section Bosque de las Madres Biological Corridor through several complementary activities. These are designed to maintain and restore ecological connectivity and biodiversity whilst strengthening local communities and conservation-oriented land management initiatives.

There is an immediate urgency to secure/purchase land in the Bosque de las Madres Corridor. This is a priority to ensure proper protection of the remaining untouched areas of forest, preventing their degradation. The sooner we are able to do this, the more cost-efficient; land prices are steadily increasing as ranchers encroach.

Animal inhabitants

Jaguars, pumas, ocelots, jaguarundis, and margays are regularly documented by wildlife cameras at the Selva Bananito Reserve, in the upper area of the Bosque de las Madres Biological Corridor. Securing further forest within the corridor will protect habitat connectivity, allowing these felines to maintain their altitudinal ranges.

Bosque de las Madres is habitat for a vast diversity of amphibians, some of which are conservation priorities; both the critically endangered (CR - IUCN Red List) lemur leaf frog (Agalychnis lemur) and horned marsupial frog (CR)(Gastrotheca cornuta) have been documented in the corridor.

Bosque de las Madres and its adjacent protected areas are also habitat to the neotropical otter (Near Threatened), Baird's tapir (Endangered), the red-fronted parrotlet (Near Threatened), great curassow (Vulnerable), and the Critically Endangered great green macaw (Ara ambiguus). Native priority tree species include the Vulnerable (IUCN) cigar boxwood (Cedrela odorata) and the Endangered large-leaved mahogany (Swietenia humilis).
 

Ecosystem-level significance

1) Bird migration: The protected area network (of which the corridor is part) is one of the World's most important habitats for bird migration. La Amistad Biosphere Reserve hosts over 350 bird species, a third of which are North American migrants. The Talamanca lowlands constitute an important flyway for migrating raptors.

2) Coral reef integrity: The region's forest reduces the amount of sedimentation that the rivers carry to the sea, which is threatening the health of the unique coral reefs along Costa Rica's Atlantic coast.

FCL's award-winning education campaign is directed at 100,000 people, through which it increases awareness about the importance of local forests as a source of clean water for the region, and the importance of reducing illegal logging and poaching.

Currently, the programme is directed at adults and students and links scientific knowledge with activities that enhance memorable, personal connections with the forest, designed to increase participant´s willingness to change and take action. Workshops take place at schools and communities with at least one visit to the forest and educational centre at the higher region of the Bosque de las Madres Corridor. Special emphasis is given to the fact that humans depend on nature's ecosystem services.

Recently FCL has also started working with local police, focussing on improving officers' ability to recognise illegally logged timber. This will allow the police to track illegal logging to its origin and directly address the source.

The environmental education programme also includes larger scale activities, such as community fairs to raise local awareness and pride.

Illegal logging, poaching, and squatting in forested areas is a common problem in Costa Rica. One of FCL´s ongoing endeavours since its creation has been the surveillance of key protected areas by park rangers and with periodic fly-overs (air surveillance), with subsequent reporting to law enforcement agencies. This type of reporting has led to legal action against transgressors.

Strategically placed trail cameras have been instrumental in monitoring jaguars and other indicator species in the area since 2014. These species tell us that the forest ecosystem as a whole is in good health as they depend on balanced and productive habitat to survive. Starting 2024, sound monitoring has been used in addition to the cameras to also monitor amphibians and birds.

Visitors are welcome at our Costa Rican partner’s award-winning Selva Bananito eco-lodge, which is located in the Bosque de las Madres Corridor. Here one can abseil down waterfalls, ride through the forests and be taken on flights over the rainforest canopy in the lodge’s gyrocopter.

If you would like to support the project and arrange a visit, please email [email protected] for details.