If you already own land in Costa Rica that you want to reforest, or if profitability is not your primary concern, you should still do your research. The amount you will have to learn is considerably more than if you have someone grow trees for you. We found out that it is not as simple as digging a hole and dropping a tree in the ground, and that finding the right people to help is as essential as it is challenging from abroad (one of the reasons we moved to Costa Rica). 

One of the most important people you will hire — this is mandatory — is the forestry engineer. We can say that we were very fortunate to find a great one from the start, having seen others since then who were not so great. The forester's job is to create a plan for how to plant trees and grow them, including weeding, pruning, and watching out for disease and pests. The forestry engineer will get soil samples (make sure a probe is taken on each 1/2 hectare or so), send them off to be evaluated, and then advise you on what will have to be added to the soil to make it viable for growing trees.

Also, the forester should teach you or your manager how to plant trees, especially for the first planting. Expect that it will cost more than you estimated in labor and effort! After you have planted the first few thousand, you can start to experiment, but first learn how it is normally done.

Somewhere it has been said that land ownership in Costa Rica is an active process. If you do not watch over your plantings, who knows what could happen. Illegal loggers may decide your trees are easy pickings. We personally would never have entered into having our own trees on our own land before we came to live here, except that our first manager was willing to live on the plantation and supervise everything. Before you buy land for a plantation, make sure you know the squatter laws of the country. It's important that whoever lives on your property has the correct type of contract for that purpose so that they have no squatter's rights. If it's Costa Rica, know who is going to patrol your property at least every 3 months. In our case, we have a farm manager and his family living on each of our fincas in housing that we provide, and part of their job is to patrol the entire property at least once a week.

A few more words of advice: For preserving the quality of your wood, you will need to be constantly aware of what your neighbors upstream are doing with their land. To get the best price for your wood, you must find or become an expert at marketing lumber. For it to be cost-effective, be sure that you join forces with someone else if you plan to own fewer than 16,000 trees.