GCS Costa Rica REDD Forestry trip log - Day 2 - Town Hall Meeting

12/2/08,  7am – The time of the year is the rainy season. They don’t call it a rainforest for nothing! This area of the country will receive 3-4 meters (this is 9 to 13 feet) of rain during this season which runs from June 1st to mid December. We routinely experienced 30 to 40 mph winds throughout our stay.

12/2/08,  8am – We have chosenHotel Tilawa for our base of operations during this trip.

12/2/08 , 9am – In working with LRFF we have called a town hall style meeting of all the land owners interested in participating in our REDD project. Not far from the hotel sits a restaurant next to this out of service COOCAFE coffee roasting facility. As you will see we have plenty of room.

12/2/08 – The trees are big in this part of the world. We were able to see this in the speaker’s podium, lounging woman and the entrance to the restaurant.

12/2/08 – 10am – This series of pictures show some of the meeting for the landowners to explain the program. I can say that we were very happy at the attendance. As the week wore on we became even more impressed as we saw what it actually took for some to make it to this event.

12/2/08 4pm – After a long meeting we have some down time at Hotel Tilawa

GCS Costa Rica REDD Forestry trip log - Day 1 - Getting there

Preamble - I will be posting information from our trip to Costa Rica during the beginning of December. The trip was 6 days total. I will be posting pictures and video of our journey. Enjoy!


For more background on GCS you can find us at http://www.globalclimatestrategies.com/

12/1/08, 3pm – So the journey begins. Barry seated here is looking over the latest changes to published documents from Voluntary Carbon Standard (VCS). They were released the week before the trip. The timing could not be better. The project that we are undertaking is REDD which stands for the Reduction of Emissions from Deforestation and Degradation. Discussion has been going on for years on how to curb this global problem. For the first time, there is the possibility for land owners to monetize their standing forests. To date the only way to obtain income from the land always ended in the land being cleared.

To get to this point, we have spent months working on documents and calculations. In partnership with a local NGO La Reserva Forest Foundation (LRFF) http://www.la-reserva.cog/ we will be meeting with the land owners and determine which ones will be interested in our program and eligible to participate.

12/1/08, 9pm – We have made it from Austin to Costa Rica and have stopped to get some dinner at La Pacifica right on the Interamerican Highway just north of Canãs. Seated in the picture are the main actors in this journey from left to right Dan, Jeff (mostly behind the camera), Roberta and Barry. Dan and Roberta started La Reserva Forest Foundation. They began by getting rid of all of their milk cows and reforesting their 40 hectares. They have a great story and we are very blessed to be working with them. I will probably do a backgrounder post on them throughout our journey. 5 more days of stuff, get ready. Prepare for a wet and bumpy ride.