Eco Era
Summary
EcoEra Foundation is a non-profit environmental
and educational organization, founded in 1991, that manages
a 2,600 acre tropical rainforest reserve in the Cerro Nara
watershed of Costa Rica's Central Pacific Coast. The EcoEra
Rainforest Reserve is part of the 7,500 acre Zona Protectora
Cerro Nara, protected lands that are earmarked to be instated
as National Wildlife Refuge in the future.
EcoEra was created to help protect biodiversity
by ensuring that critical habitat is preserved in an intact
and pristine state and to educate people about the important
legacy the rainforest holds as well as how to contribute
to a sustainable future.
Background
Inspired by the profound beauty of the
plants and animals in Costa Rica's tropical rainforest and
aware of the peril they faced if deforestation were allowed
to continue at its present rate, in 1991 Gustavo Calderelli
took an active stand for the cause of nature preservation.
He collaborated with friends on the purchase of some large
tracts of primary rainforest land in the Cerro Nara mountain
region of Costa Rica's Central Pacific Coast with the intention
of preserving the land as a sanctuary. This marked the beginning
of EcoEra.
Since that time, EcoEra Foundation has
been devoted to securing adjacent tracts of rainforest land
to add to the preserve. The goal has been to reestablish
an unfragmented biological corridor by extending the reserve
to encompass the entire Cerro Nara watershed from the headwaters
of the Rio Naranjo to the river's mouth in the Pacific Ocean.
By utilizing Analog Forestry methods to reforest the degraded
sections of annexed land, this would completely restore
the biological corridor of the region.
In 2005, this dream was realized when the
2,600 acre EcoEra Rainforest Reserve was officially acknowledged
by the government of Costa Rica. The acreage of the Zona
Protectora Cerro Nara and the lands of the EcoEra Rainforest
Reserve were joined providing 7,500 acres of uninterrupted
rainforest habitat.
