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We were one of the first companies in Costa Rica to work on reforestation projects.
Our original idea was to grow wood for lumber in a sustainable manner.
This worked well for several years and we were able to plant
up to 830 acres. However, when the Great Recession of 2008
hit, lumber prices in Costa Rica plummeted. Prices ever since
don't even cover costs and most people have replaced this activity.
Our project chrunk from 830 acres to about 113 acres in 2015.
However, today our planet needs forests more than ever and since my
family is passionate about growing trees, with a lot of work,
we managed to restart our reforestation efforts and continued to grow
our plantation and now it has grown to 170 acres and are planning to
add another 10 acres in 2021.
A new
paradigm is needed in order to grow trees:
However, the lumber industry in Costa Rica never recovered and
generating a viable economic activity from it does not seem a good
alternative in the long run. Our project is already 30 years
old which seems like a long time but, for a forest, that is a very
short life span. Yet, time has allowed us to try a lot of
different things and learn that a new paradigm is needed in order to
grow trees. If a tree is seen merely as a commodity,
when market prices change like they did in Costa Rica, this activity
quickly becomes
unsustainable. At the same time, planting and maintaining a
plantation is costly and there is a lot of pressure to
replace it with activities that are more monetarily attractive.
Many types of crops
like pinneaples, coffee, etc are very lucrative and have
made people that onced grew trees to turn to these others.
Additionally, with population growth, cities have grown
closer to farms making land more expensive and some tree plantations
have been sold to build
housing projects.
In summary, growing a forest is a daunting task and we believe that it
is impossible for any one company to do so alone. Yet, it is
also a task of utmost importance and this is why we came up with
the "Adopt a Tree" initiative. This initiative empowers each
and every person to become a part of the solution. With your
help we can grow many more trees and much more quickly than we could on our own and fight the different pressures that currently make growing trees so difficult. On our own we are struggling to add 10 acres to our plantation in 2021, with you the sky is the limit.
By adopting a tree, it is no longer a commodity and,
therefore, as long as you continue to support that tree, there is
considerable value to keep that tree alive and healthy, We
also believe that many other farm owners will see value in this
initiative and return to their reforestation efforts creating a domino effect that could truly be a game changer in the fight to reverse climate change.
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