Conservation - COSTA RICA Monthly Update for Conservation Programme

Costa Rica Conservation Update - April 2012 There is a lot for me to tell you about the past month! In the middle of April it started raining which was very surprising for us because we didn’t expect it to rain until the middle/end of May. The start of the rainy season so early is very unusual. Every year there is lots to do to prepare the camp and the roads down to the entrance of the park and up the hill for the rainy season and until now we didn’t need to start preparing the camp for the rainy season.

Costa Rica Conservation Update - March 2012 Here at Barra Honda there is a lot to tell you about this month! It was a very dry, windy and hot March with temperatures up to 40°C. because of that there have been a few forest-fires in Guanacaste and close to the park. At this time forest fires are perfectly normal and nothing to be scared of and we also have a lot of well trained and experienced fire-fighters who have protected the villages and the national park for years.

Costa Rica Conservation Update - February 2012 As each month passes we are gradually increasing the rhythm of the Macaw project so that eventually, when we reach April/May we are there 24 hours a day 7 days a week. This month we have been visiting twice a week at times and have even finished coordinating for night time visits as well.

Costa Rica Conservation Update - January 2012 In January 2012 we began one of the most exciting projects for Barra Honda National Park, the Scarlet Macaw protection program. The main problem that the Scarlet Macaws are facing in and around Barra Honda is the illegal poaching of the chicks when they are a few months old.

Costa Rica Conservation Update - December 2011 With the year coming to an end so quickly we are all sitting back and looking at what we have accomplished in 2011 and I think Barra Honda can honestly have its collective conscience wiped clean because we have accomplished A LOT!

Costa Rica Conservation Update - November 2011 As we get closer to the end of the year we start moving our focus and attention to 2012, the investigation projects, large maintenance work and what we are going to change in regards to how we work.

Costa Rica Conservation Update - October 2011 October is always a very interesting month in Costa Rica; there are several festivals and national holidays and it gives everyone the chance to learn or participate in celebrating the diversity of Costa Rica.

Costa Rica Conservation Update - June/July 2011 The last couple of months have been the busiest on record here in Barra Honda, we have had more people, more work, more projects and more people arriving and leaving than ever! This has been exciting and very entertaining!

Costa Rica Conservation Update - May 2011 We have been working hard as usual in Barra Honda this month and we have been having a great time doing it as well! This month has been one of the wettest on record, which you can see on the weather data section from our website. This shows that from the middle of May it has rained almost every day!

Costa Rica Conservation Update - April 2011 Mirador - Everyone who visits the Barra Honda National Park gets the chance to visit the Terciopelo Cave and also the Mirador Platform, one of the only points in the area where you can see an amazing 180 degree view of the landscape.

Costa Rica Conservation Update - February/March 2011 February has been so busy that by the time I sat down to write to you all I realised it was the middle of March! So we have combined the two months to give you a full information packed update this time round!

Costa Rica Conservation Update - January 2011 I was recently looking over the reports that I’ve written in the past and noticed January 2010, which was a good month for us, the start of the best year we’ve had, a good amount of interesting projects, some good fun maintenance work and a good group of volunteers.

Costa Rica Conservation Update - December 2010 December is always a month for finishing things off, I think that’s true for everyone around the world, we all want things to be done for one year so we can start the new year with no backlog of work still hanging over us from the year that has just passed.

Costa Rica Conservation Update - November 2010 As we near the end of the year we are getting increasingly busy working on details for next year’s projects and ensuring we get all the information we need for this year to complete the end of year reports.

Costa Rica Conservation Update - October 2010 The closer we get to the end of the year the more we are working to get things finished for this year and ready for 2011. Many of the investigation projects we will be continuing in one way or another next year and we will be starting a few new ones too!

Costa Rica Conservation Update - September 2010 As I mentioned last month we have been setting up and running a few new projects in Barra Honda over the last few months. Another of these projects is the Intensive Search Project, which is running along-side our three main projects – bat identification, mammal identification and butterfly identification projects.

Costa Rica Conservation Update - August 2010 August was another busy month for us here in Costa Rica with another big group of volunteers staying with us for half the month. With lots of work to do in general we kept everyone very busy!

Costa Rica Conservation Update - June/July 2010 I’d like to start this update by making a quick apology for not letting you know what we did during June. It has honestly been the busiest time ever here (we have never had so many volunteers). So we have all been super busy!

Costa Rica Conservation Update - May 2010 The crazy weather is still with us here in Barra Honda but now we know that it’s here we have adapted our routine slightly so that we aren’t getting soaked every 5 minutes.

Costa Rica Conservation Update – April 2010 April has been a very strange month for us at Barra Honda, the weather suddenly turned on us and for the first time in almost 30 years the wet season came in the last 2 weeks of the month and it hasn’t left yet, nor does is look like it will!

Costa Rica Conservation Update – March 2010 As with every month so far this year, March has been another brilliant time for us at Barra Honda, we’ve had many volunteers with us for the last couple of months and we couldn’t be happier with them, hard workers, good company and always asking good questions about our time together in Barra Honda, what more could we ask for?

Costa Rica Conservation Update – February 2010 Although I am slightly biased to everything that happens in the park, I have to admit that February has probably been the most exciting month ever in the Barra Honda national park. We have had new sightings, new reports, restarted old projects, started new projects and really made huge progress with old projects!

Costa Rica Conservation Update – January 2010 After a slow December, January has been such a change for us here at Barra Honda, that we have been rushed off our feet! We always planned that January 2010 would be big time for us, refining many of our investigation projects and starting many more projects around the area.

Conservation in Coasta Rica- Monthly Update November 2009 As the New Year approaches we are beginning preparations for an even better year than the one that is just passing. During November we focused a lot moving the butterfly project further forward getting ready for an even larger project next year.

Conservation in Coasta Rica- Monthly Update October 2009 October has been another very good month here in the park, although the rains have been falling harder than anyone expected we have been continuing many of our projects and have begun some very interesting phases of established projects.

Conservation in Coasta Rica- Monthly Update September 2009 September has been another hard month in Barra Honda, with the rains coming and going at random times we have been trying to avoid the heavy downpours but still get as much work done as possible.

Conservation in Coasta Rica- Monthly Update August 2009 Ever since the rains started a couple of months ago the forest in and around Barra Honda have sprung to life, even though we have what is locally called the wet season's summer (a period of 3-4 weeks where it doesn't rain at all) there has still been enough rain to change the forest around us.

Conservation in Coasta Rica- Monthly Update July 2009 July has been a very interesting month for us here in Costa Rica. Months of planning, meetings, modifications and phone calls all to organise the work, accommodation and trips for our busiest month of the year!

Conservation in Coasta Rica- Monthly Update June 2009 Although June hasn’t been the busiest time for us in terms of volunteers, we have still been incredibly busy continuing the work that has already been started, finishing certain projects around the park and setting up our butterfly project.

Conservation in Coasta Rica- Monthly Update May 2009 After such busy months since January we honestly expected May to be a time where we could all relax a little and take stock of the start of our first solid year here in the park, but even though we had times with only 1 volunteer we managed to keep pushing forward and managed to make some big break-throughs!

Conservation in Coasta Rica- Monthly Update April 2009 March and April have been such busy times here at the park that I honestly can’t remember where the time has gone!

Conservation in Coasta Rica- Monthly Update March 2009 As this is my first article since arriving in Costa Rica in November 2008 I thought a brief explanation would be necessary, not just about myself but about the park that Projects Abroad is working in.