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Our Conservation Projects in Costa RicaRecorded Wildlife at Barra Honda Barra Honda National Park This 2295 hectare park is renowned for its remarkable system of caves. To date, 42 separate caves have been discovered in the limestone ridge that makes up the Barra Honda formation. There is a large abundance of deciduous flora within the park as well as fauna ranging from armadillos and White-faced Capuchin monkeys, to parrots and coyotes. The park has a very interesting eco-system with a strong wet season and a strong dry season both having dramatic effects on the area. Obviously the rainy season brings long spells of heavy rains which are very important in the creation and development of the various cave systems, waterfalls and creeks and rivers in the area, which are all created through various types of mineral deposits. The dry season has an equally dramatic effect on the park, with virtually no rain falling. During these months most vegetation dies back and work to prevent forest fires becomes very important. Volunteer Role at Barra Honda National Park: Each conservation volunteer joins an ongoing effort to conserve the environment. Volunteers come and go but the work continues throughout the year. During your time in Costa Rica you will work with our local team in the park as well as visiting experts who will give you the opportunity to become involved and contribute to this important long-term project. At Barra Honda Tasks include:
Volunteers live within the park alongside the conservation manager. The rooms are basic but have showers, toilets and sinks along with fans to help keep you cool during the day and night, and shelves to put your things on. We also have a main dining room area with tables, TV, DVD player, Sky and several different board games. In fact many people are very surprised at the level of comfort here in Barra Honda. The park also has a fully equipped kitchen area with fridge, freezer, cookers, blenders and everything else you could possibly need! The camp's cook is very friendly and will always be happy to make special meals for people who don't eat certain things. Just outside the park's protection limits (about 5 minutes walk), although still on the park's land, there is a large football field which is free to use and there is a small bar with a swimming pool which volunteers can use for a small fee. Detailed Project InformationAutomatic Camera Project The Automatic cameras use infra-red sensors which activate the digital camera whenever there is movement in the sensor’s field of view. The information we have gathered since 2009 has been very useful in giving us background information about the park and has also updated our species list with several species that had been un-observed for a long period of time. During 2012 we will be investigating different areas of the park in much more detail, this will help us understand the interaction certain species have in the area during the year, we will be using 6 cameras during 7 day periods in each site and will be working in 4 different locations of the park. Each location contains 16 different areas to give us a highly detailed study of the area. This project will also use data collected from our climate study. Butterfly Project Using the same locations as the camera project we will be placing 12 butterfly traps each week to study the different interactions each species has on the area and the varying breeding seasons the park has. Butterflies are very good indicator species, they are very sensitive to climate change, pollution and habitat destruction which means we can use them to note the smallest changes in the area. We are also investigating butterflies because of their importance in pollinating hundreds of species of flora, many species rely on just 1 species of butterfly to breed. This project will also use data collected from our climate study. From 2012 onwards we will also be investigating the egg and lava cycle. We have found over the years that there is a lot of information on the actual butterflies but not so much on the egg, pupa, caterpillar cycle as well as the host plants of each cycle. Specimens will be taken of each and closely observed, photographed and noted so that we can build a complete Barra Honda natural history. Bat Project In 2011 the years of work with the bat project was officially recognised by the government in Costa Rica. The Chiroptera bats have been placed on a higher protection level. This means that our work is more important than ever and we must continue to explore the park and investigate how this group of mammals interacts with the forest. Using mist nets we will work in a systematic way through the park trying to identify the species that we have in the area and exactly where they are more abundant. Each week we will have the opportunity to work with this project, setting the nets up in the afternoon and collecting specimens during that night – taking photos and measurements and of course identifying each individual that we catch, and then taking the nets down again. As with all the projects we run we will do this during the wet season and the dry season to investigate the impact this has on each species. As with Butterflies, Bats are very important in the local ecosystem, controlling insect populations, pollinating flora and spreading seeds and fertilizer around the forest. This project will also use data collected from our climate study. Climate study Although not a very large study the results taken from the weather station in the park each day are very important for many of our projects and for us to monitor the climate change in the area. We are responsible for recording rain-fall, maximum and minimum temperature, wind-speed, air-pressure and humidity as well as sunrise, sunset and moon phase data for the park. This information is then used to help us interpret what causes changes in animal behavior and gives us clues to changes in population or movement as well as the main aim of showing how the climate is changing on a yearly basis. Scarlet Macaw Protection Program The scarlet macaw has been intensively hunted in Costa Rica for its brightly coloured feathers and its extreme beauty. In some areas it is even eaten as a rare delicacy! Although it is internationally protected under CITES 1, it still hasn’t stopped the relentless search for eggs and chicks to be sold as pets and a food source. In the park itself we need to work towards reforesting the area with food sources and nesting sites so that the macaws can eventually be encouraged to move into a much safer area. However the main project is to monitor and protect nesting sites located near the park. We have identified one area in particular that annually has 2 nesting pairs, but always gets attacked by poachers. We will be there every day from the time the adults begin nesting until the day the young chicks are old enough to defend themselves and fly away so that each year there are 2-4 new macaws in the wild! Bird Monitoring Project Over the course of a typical month volunteers will also be asked to join our bird monitoring program, this requires 2 separate activities. Once a month we will work from 5am until 5pm (Using two different groups) to capture bird species using the mist-nets, these birds will be identified, photographed, weighed and measured. We will also be doing 3 early morning walks each month, starting at around 5am we will walk around the trails to certain points to identify and register as many species as we can see. This is important because obviously birds play a huge role in every ecosystem and population studies are carried out internationally each year. Habitat Description Project This project is closely tied in with our other investigation projects. Each area that we work in with the Butterfly project, Automatic camera project and Bat project needs to be investigated and described in detail so we can understand why we get the results we do in that area. This means that we have to walk around these areas and measure trees, look for nests, animal tracks, insects and everything else we can see. All of this data is recorded and then using certain formulas we can work out a classification for the area which quickly tells us if we should catch lots of butterflies or see a few species on the cameras. Intensive Search Project The aim of this project is to investigate the area in more detail by splitting the trails into smaller transects and investigating 5m into the forest. We literally have to look for everything, so a good eye is very useful here! Mammal nests, bird nests, bat nests, insects, animal tracks, type of forest, species of plant, everything gets recorded and marked with the GPS so we can map with high detail what we have inside the park and use this data to not only have a record to monitor in the future but also to help us plan future projects. Park Mapping We have already collected a large amount of data on the trail network in the park, with around 75% of the trails mapped with the GPS and around 40% marked with 25m flags. The aim of the GPS mapping is to construct a fully detailed map of the area, trails, rivers, waterfalls, caves and other areas of interest so that this information can be used as a base for the GPS points collected from other projects (Butterflies, Cameras and Bats) Marking the trails every 25m is very important for the safety of volunteers, tourists and park staff in identifying areas without the use of GPS and of course to make sure nobody gets lost! Reforestation project One of the main ideas in conservation is planting trees to try and counteract the deforestation that occurs around the world. Here in Barra Honda we have a nursery garden that provides us with many species of native tree that we can then use to help reforest the area in local schools and farms. We also work alongside local farmers and children to reforest areas of importance to them. We will also have to work on maintaining and expanding our nursery garden. We currently have around 2000 saplings in the park but many of them are barely large enough to transplant at this time, so we must constantly be planting new seeds to be capable of making a larger impact in the following years. Las Delicias Investigation Camp Over the last few years we have focused most of our investigation and protection projects on the Barra Honda Hill. The entire park actually contains three different hills and due to distance and terrain accessing and investigating those areas is a little harder from the main camp. During 2012 we will be using a small, basic camp on the Corralillo hill where we will be able to investigate the area with much more ease. Each month for 1 week we will have different groups based at this camp and they will be responsible for investigating bats, butterflies, mammals, birds and anything that we can find. This area of the park has never been researched and it is completely different terrain from the area we are currently working on, so we expect some exciting finds! Restoration of the Terciopelo and Cuevita cave systems These are the two cave systems which are visited by volunteers and tourists on a regular basis, but due to bad management, lack of funds and resources the cave systems have lost some of their shine over the years with countless people walking in and out with muddy hands and shoes. Our cave restoration project has three stages, firstly we need to construct a pathway inside each cave, which is safe for people to walk on without the risk of slipping and falling, stage two is to close this path in with ropes so that tourists can see the impressive formations within the caves but not be able to move around freely and touch formations which have taken millions of years to form. Finally, stage three is going to removing the years of dirt from many of the formations to restore them to the beauty they once had. Constructing and Maintaining trail systems and fire breaks There are 10’s of kilometers of trails within Barra Honda and always new ones being created each year and due to the sheerness of the dry season in this area maintaining clear trails is very important in the prevention and control of fires. Each month we will travel to a different trail to machete and rake everything that is on the surface. This ensures that people can use these trails in full knowledge of where they are putting their feet and helps to slow or stop the passage of fire (Which until now has worked perfectly, preventing fires from coming close to the main area of the park) The fire breaks within the park are exactly the same as the trail systems except that they do not follow the easiest or most interesting route by instead go in a straight line. The breaks are normally wider than a normal trail and more suited in stopping large fires from spreading. Environmental education and information displays Volunteers with special skills or desire to work more in the education or display of information area are more than welcome to join us in the park. Much of our work is closely discussed with a spoke’s person from the government responsible for environmental education but like many government agencies she has a large area to cover and only a limited amount of time and resources. Many of the projects we are running can be used to help educate people in conservation of fauna, flora, and water or just to show them some of the amazing and unique things we have in the area we live. If you think you can help us design new displays or wish to help in environmental education then please do get in touch as we are always looking for extra help in this area. General Maintenance Not all of our work is investigation or education though, obviously such a large park has substantial installations as well, these buildings need to be maintained and repaired when necessary and as the volunteer program expands we also need to expand the services and installations we have. Exploration walks Barra Honda national park is a huge area with many amazing formations and processes occurring all of the time which result in new geological formations and amazingly beautiful areas being found all of the time. This can only be done if people walk around the park itself. We always try and make an activity at least once a month where we will go on a random walk (Which is not to say that the point of the walk is random, only the destination) Each time we walk a new area or an area at a different time of the year we stand the chance to see a new species of bird, mammal or reptile or finding a new geological or archeological formation within the park, all of this data is recorded in a separate book (Exploration walk sightings) which is processed at the end of the year for an individual report. |
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