The Green Advantage

Invest in your future, then invest in your world.^TM

FORESTATION FORUM NOW OPEN

It's easy to join in, or you can just read what interests you. Our discussion forum is for anyone with input or questions about reforestation-related topics. Click here and go take a look.

SUSTAINABLE REFORESTATION

Growing teak from planting to harvest in Costa Rica takes 20 to 25 years. What happens to the land after that? This has been on our minds at Finca Leola for some time, and we have been doing research about how to make the most long-term beneficial impact. We formed the idea of letting our land return to natural forest after we harvest the trees. We want this second-growth forest to be a perpetual forest, maintained as a wildlife corridor (double-click on photo, right, to see one of the howler monkeys on our plantation). It will also produce some wood products as older trees need to be cut. There is  a lot more land around us that we would like to see secured and protected in the same way. We can preserve the Rio Caño Ciego all the way from its headwaters near our finca to where it joins the Rio Frio. We can do this by selling trees so that we can buy more land and by helping other people find and buy land adjacent to ours for reforestation. We met recently with some organizations that can help us plan the path to the future. First, we visited Hacienda Barú in Dominical to see how a forested property can be used. In their 36-year transformation from cattle-and-rice farm to national wildlife refuge, they went from providing three jobs to 25. Their efforts for the environment include the Path of the Tapir Biological Corridor project. We were impressed with how natural everything has been kept. You'd never know that upwards of 10,000 tourists pass through annually. Next, we met with CEDARENA Land Trust, a Costa Rican nonprofit organization that helps landowners in their conservation efforts. CLT will work with us to create a conservation easement that runs in perpetuity with the title to the property. They will provide the external oversight that ensures that no owner of the property —  including us — can ever use the land for purposes different from what we write into the easement. Follow this link to read an explanation of our goal that illustrates how the way we are planting now has already begun the process of returning our land to rain forest.

To read a more complete article about some of the reasons deforestation happens and how we are working to reverse the process, go to our Deforesting to Reforesting article on the EcoWorld website.

An IRA can own trees for your retirement. If you want to make a 2004 contribution, you have until April 15, 2005. Usually, you'll need to open a self-directed IRA to own trees, because the plan administrators of most other IRAs aren't prepared to buy the trees. Rollover of IRA funds you already have into a self-directed IRA, though a simple process, takes about a month, so February is a good time to get started.While we can't give you financial advice, we can send you step-by-step instructions for opening a self-directed IRA or education account and using it to buy trees. Contact us either by phone or e-mail, and we'll send you the information you need and help you through the process.

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COSTA RICA TO START IMPORTING WOOD BY 2010

The Costa Rican ministry of environment and energy, MINAE, was quoted recently in the newspaper Al Dia as saying that in only 5 more years, Costa Rica will not have enough wood for its needs. When we started our reforestation project, Costa Rica wasn't expected to have to start importing wood until 2015.Only 30 years ago, 70 percent of the country was forested, and now it is less than 25 percent forested, with most of that protected from harvesting.As Costa Rica shifts from a net exporter of wood to a net importer, just as with India, it will further drive up world wood prices.

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NEW STORIES AND PHOTOS

All Tied Up in Knots Fred dangles helplessly, and we don't mean while trying to make conversation in Spanish. Leather Goods Just a simple shopping trip to pick up a single item...

Photos: Pacific Ocean and howler monkeys