Welcome to Team Cerro Nara

We are an Earth Stewardship nonprofit based in California, and operating in Costa Rica.

We are currently active in environmental work, education, and conservation/preservation.

Our current projects as of 2024 range from rainforest restoration and management, wildlife observation/research and poacher prevention, community building, and permaculture gardening. We are dedicated to comprehensive work regenerating the environment through many programs and projects.

These projects are multidisciplinary, ranging from active local park ranging, forest architecture through Analog Forestry, ecological activism, Permaculture, and optionally researching wildlife. With our grounds on Cerro Nara mountain, we receive volunteers and teach individuals how to become better earth stewards. We are experiencing our main rollout of these programs and projects this year, and are steadily gaining momentum.

We have set up a 4 hectare (10 acre) area for native and compliant non-native reforestation that was damaged heavily from a reported anomalous tornado in the area last year. This area had been reforested about 20-25 years ago with Analog Forestry. This is our current main project, however, we have projects all around to start, including a school in the countryside, Manuel Antonio, as well as other collaborators etc... We have extensive opportunities for volunteers, especially those who wish to be trained in our forest architecture programs to work in this field.

Link to Analog Forestry: www.analogforestry.org

Link to the programs document: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1iMfP1J7QQSRlW2UXtSj7Vn2l7KIXNdhD/edit?usp=sharing&ouid=109022289049703093118&rtpof=true&sd=true

Location: https://maps.app.goo.gl/M9DuQ8ZK8CyXguNz9

History and Contemporary Situation

In 2022 we adopted a massive project on Cerro Nara mountain from Bob Buckter, a longtime rainforest conservationist, who has been preserving Costa Rican land habitats for 30 years. Our property, located near Manuel Antonio Costa Rica, is approximately 1000 acres. This is our home base. At an 800 meters' elevation in a habitat overlap known as an ecotone, it is teeming with life in a wide range of biodiversity. We are told some species still have yet to be discovered here since most of the endemic species of Costa Rica make Cerro Nara their home. Our lands have two active local caretakers, and it has been that way for about 25 years already.

We are currently in charge of park ranging over 5000 acres of the Pro Nara association's land. Pro Nara is a local conservation association founded over a decade ago to organize likeminded individuals in the area. The full protected zone of Cerro Nara is just under 12,000 acres of land, to which we are working as closely as possible alongside the government of Costa Rica to protect since they struggle to reach this area adequately.

The operational grounds of Team Cerro Nara can house around 12 volunteers with some private living quarters, dorm area, kitchen, washer/dryer, refrigerator, and dining area. We are expanding dwelling spaces with a new dorm area and two more private quarters apart from the main building. New common areas are permitted and ready to be built along with observational research locations and plant/tree nurseries. We have off-grid solar and hydro-electric systems capable of powering everything year round. Locally, our partners in the Pro Nara Association are scheduled to complete a volunteer and wildlife research center, capable of housing 20 people on the south side of the mountain. Together, we will be fulfilling our mission in solidarity.

The plans we have in 2024-2029 are to teach up to 100 individuals on our land stewardship programs, build a journalism department, support the missions of key local environmental activists, further regenerate and enhance the protected zone with ecological developments, practice and collaborate more with analog forestry, and eventually expand to protect the entire coast to coast wildlife corridor with privatized park ranging and land regeneration projects.

We are currently working on implementing a new forest architectural plan that increases the amount of available food for wildlife, planting over 1500 trees, to which we have already planted several hundred. The goal is to have enough nutrition to support one or more troops of monkeys near our operational grounds year round. There are several building projects to help us take on an active community, to which we are seeking to make it an international Analog Forestry education center. Each year during summer time, we plan to bulk up our park ranging program to thwart poachers from damaging wildlife. We already protect the spring waters and lands; some of our stewards have worked alongside us for over 20 years, but we need your help! Every volunteer, collaborator, and bit of capital helps further us towards our goals.

We coordinate with local organizations involved in land and community projects and exchange hands of help with local indigenous peoples. Our constituency is local and international. Anyone who is willing to take up the mantle of earth stewardship along with our team is welcome to collaborate, regardless previous grievances on mother nature. We believe that everyone, no matter the actions or lack there of in the past, deserves an opportunity to experience making a real difference towards regenerating and strengthening our biodiversity, community, and each other.

Donations here will go to our general fund for projects, however, if a specific grant has been picked that leans in a particular direction inside our criteria, we will be honoring their requirements. Generally, we need to fund Nature and poacher observation cameras and infrastructure, our park rangers and their supporting programs, the local environmental activists we work with, and some for travel to important governmental and community meetings.