Here’s a video from our last week in Costa Rica, but I just got around to uploading it now…

This was by far the best thing we did in Costa Rica!!! We went to an eco-lodge called Selva Bananito (which is an environmentally friendly tourism business) for an all-day horsebackriding adventure through the rainforest. This lodge is doing reforestation, which means they are setting aside a portion of their farm to plant native trees in hopes to reverse the damage that illegal (and legal) logging has done to erode the rainforest.

Deforestation is a major problem in central/south america (and actually a huge problem in North America, in the south, although we don’t hear about it as much). I didn’t realize this, but clear-cutting just a small portion of forests puts out more CO2 into the atmosphere than all the cars in the world. All the legislation Congress can pass about carbon emission caps on cars is just a fraction of the solution to climate change – initiating reforestation and stopping clearcutting is the larger percentage of the problem.

Forests are CO2 sinks (they absorb CO2 – which is the stuff that depletes the ozone) in addition to outputting lots of oxygen, they hold drinking water supplies for millions of people in their root systems, they prevent soil erosion, and they keep bio-diversity in tact.

Why do people cut down forests? 

1) for valuable and rare wood. Lots of illegal cutting and trading of endangered species of trees happens in developing countries who are desperate for money. So something you can do is make sure you aren’t purchasing products made from wood that is on the endangered species list.

2) for more cattle-grazing land. Raising cattle is a prosperous business and cattle need a lot of land. You could feed many more people on earth by growing wheat or corn in large field than by raising cattle – but the demand for meat is up. Something you can do is lower your meat consumption. Cut meat out of one or two meals a week.

3) for consumer products. Another problem is companies introducing non-native tree species into a country to grow for mass production. For instance, in Chile, paper companies have planted thousands of pine trees (not native to Chile) which has thrown off their bio-systems, caused soil erosion, and endangered wildlife, not to mention the pollution these companies output into Chilean soil and water. Our consumption is unsustainable. The majority of forests are cut down so that WE can have STUFF – paper, furniture, fences, ect. Something you can do is try to use less STUFF in general. Switch to cloth napkins or cloth dishtowels instead of paper. Check out books from the library instead of buying everything new.

Alright so that’s my soapbox. Costa Rica really changed my outlook on the environment. Seeing the beauty of the rainforest firsthand and of land that is undeveloped (hard to come by in the US) has really lit a fire in me on the urgency of it all.