The new addition to ACG, outlined in yellow. Photo by Luciano Capelli.
Thanks to generous donations from the BAND and Bobolink Foundations, we recently purchased 226 hectares of land on the northern boundary of ACG and abutting the northern slope of Volcán Orosi, the northernmost volcano in Costa Rica. This parcel was part of the Los Inocentes Ranch, one of the oldest ranches in all of Costa Rica, dating from the late 1500s. It contains mixed vegetation, including a block of scarce primary forest in the transition zone between Pacific dry forest and Atlantic/Caribbean rain forest. In addition, the parcel contains a high-quality stream, Rio Sabalo, which flows north from the headwaters of the volcano into the Lake Nicaragua-Caribbean drainage. The forest survived four centuries of European occupation only because of its distance from the Costa Rican centers of social and economic power and this purchase will now protect one of the region’s scarce intact freshwater ecosystems including 146 hectares (360 acres) of primary forest. We are thrilled to add this land to protected status. Conserving and restoring land is one way, as Dan Janzen says, that we can “be kind to the survivors.”