Invest in your future, then invest in your world.TM
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How can we help you get involved in reforestation? Our special focus is on bringing back exquisite tropical hardwoods that are in danger of disappearing forever. We hope to create a
community of people and organizations who are either actively engaged in reforestation or
are interested in sharing ideas, research, and opportunities. If you have something to contribute, or if there are questions you would like to
ask, contact us directly or participate in
our Reforesting Forum where you can learn from people all over
the world. If you want to be added to
our mailing list, click here and you'll receive our newsletter three times a year. We encourage you
to spread information you find here, but we do ask that you contact us before using photos or information from this site. Our material is
from our own careful research and experience and may not apply to the soils and climates of other
locations. (Please be aware of this if you have seen any of our writing
elsewhere.) We want to make it possible for everyone to participate in turning the tide on deforestation.
We'll grow tropical hardwood trees for you, tell you what we know from our experiences
in buying land for reforestation,
or recommend ways you can help for example, contributing to the Tree Avalanche.
Our Belief Finca Leola S.A. believes that the conservation of tropical
hardwoods for future generations will be achieved through sustainable forestry
practices that are both a profitable investment and
beneficial to the communities and to the ecological biodiversity
surrounding tropical tree farms. We also believe that reducing the pressure
against deforestation of old-growth forest is best done by using an alternative
renewable source, plantation-grown hardwoods, to manufacture the products
traditionally taken from these forests. To this end, we are growing trees
for ourselves and others for sale as lumber and wood products. After all the trees
have been harvested, the land they have helped pay for will be turned over to
perpetual forest, forever protected from clear-cutting.
Why We Sell Trees, Not the Land The main reason for not selling you the land your tropical hardwood trees are
grown on is that it may run counter to our goal of returning the land to rain
forest. If you own land in a developing country, you generally must maintain the
roads that access it, you must patrol it against squatters and tree poachers,
and you must keep up with changes in that country's laws that could affect your
land ownership and your liability if someone should be injured on your property.
A failure to do any of these things can result in losing ownership, and the most
likely people to take over will be loggers. That's contrary to our purpose.
All of your costs are included in our tree prices: land
preparation, planting, intensive pruning if you own teak, patrolling the
property, paying the forestry engineer — all the way through finding buyers for
your tropical hardwoods. You pay nothing more during the years that we take care of your trees. We love people to
come see for themselves the care we give, but for those of you who can't visit us in Costa Rica,
you'll find lots of pictures on this website. The photo at the top right of this page shows rows of pruned teak, and here is a photo of one of our
young mahogany trees planted amid our teak, taken on Finca Leola in August 2004.
Overview of the Web Site
Here are some of the things you will find on this site.
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Reforestation — New information continues to be
added to this area as we grow. Also in this section are reforestation
projects and their offerings. If anyone would like to list their reforestation
project here, please contact us at
info
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Tree Information — One of the
motivations for creating this website was to create a library of useful information on
the tropical hardwood trees that are grown for reforestation. This section includes not only
characteristics of the different varieties of wood, but growth rates, current prices, and
information on propagating, planting, pruning, fertilizing, etc. as information becomes
available from our research.
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Profitable Reforestation — As you can see from our belief statement, we think that
making money in reforestation is a good thing. This section deals with
some of the approaches. Don't think that if you do not own land in Costa
Rica or some other tropical locale that you cannot make money growing tropical hardwood trees.
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Newsletter — The official Finca Leola S.A. newsletter, The Green
Advantage. We hope you will find it informative even if you don't own trees with us.
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Life in the Campo — What happens when a gringo and gringa impact (or more
likely are impacted by) Costa Rican country living? A series of lighthearted articles
discussing adventures in Costa Rica while trying to learn the culture while
doing business. We think you will enjoy them.
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Costa Rica — Hundreds of photos taken in our
part of Costa Rica and an assortment of links for those interested in
visiting here or learning more about the people, language, commerce, and
culture.
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Own Trees with Us — How we can grow tropical hardwood trees for you on our farms, so you don't have to own land in a foreign country to own tropical trees. |
Although extreme care is taken to ensure the accuracy of information in this
website, its owners, associated companies, and associated individuals accept no
responsibility for damage or loss of any kind suffered directly or indirectly as
a result of reliance upon information contained in this site. |
