COPROT focuses on developing solutions to a number of environmental and social issues on the Osa Peninsula. We aim to provide training, education and employment opportunities to local people that would otherwise be undertaking environmentally damaging activities to survive (namely gold-mining, turtle nest poaching and hunting). Our conservation station is situated in the middle of 10km of sea turtle nesting beach that we monitor under permit from SINAC-MINAE, and we are registering between 4-7000 nests per season from the Olive Ridley, Pacific Green and Hawksbill species. This highly ecologically important nesting beach is also right on the doorstep of Corcovado National Park, which has been described as one of the most biodiverse locations on Earth (Costa Rica also holds 2.5% of the biodiversity of the entire planet). Local people that live in the area have very few employment opportunities available to them, and low levels of education and poor institutional support facilitates the need to depend on exploitation of natural resources to make a living. Based on these facts, COPROT is developing the connection between local people and the conservation of this amazing area. By providing paid work in the conservation sector, we are simultaneously protecting sea turtle nesting beaches, reducing the amount of damaged caused inside the National Park, and improving the quality of life and opportunities available for local people. We are additionally working on a number of side projects, which include waste management and recycling, management of semi-feral dog populations through castration clinics and workshops, and beginning climate change research topics to see how we can mitigate the effects of rising temperatures on our nesting sea turtle populations.
