Costa Rica

BECOMING CARBON NEUTRAL: A NEW REFORESTATION AND
CARBON SEQUESTRATION PROJECT IN COSTA RICA

Partners: Ocean Arks International and Remineralize the Earth
Project Director: William Turley
Tree Propagator: Angie Sanchez
Scientific Director, John Todd
Advisor: Joanna Campe of Remineralize The Earth
Location: Guanacaste Province, Costa Rica

Ocean Arks’ Carbon Sequestering Project:

Crafting a Forest in Costa Rica

by John Todd

Almost a year ago we embarked upon a long hoped for dream. Our resident colleagues and partners, long term New Alchemist William Turley and his green thumbed wife Angie Sanchez have begun to plant trees on their land on the deforested lower slopes of the Volcano Miravalles in Guanacaste. Our plan is to replace the once forested, overgrazed grasslands there with a working landscape of trees. The project is less than a year old. We have leased land for the new forest from William and Angie. Within the year we would like to make our first purchase of degraded lands nearby and dig in ourselves for the long haul. The new forest is comprised of three categories of trees, all of which will help heal the land and build its soils. The trees will remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and combat global climate change.

The first category of trees that have been planted are those that bear oil rich seed crops, useful for the production of biodiesel fuels for local energy use. The second category is trees that produce valuable foods, fruits and nuts, representing the agro-forest component of the landscape. The third is made up of native forest species, many of them now rare in the wild. Most of them are slow growing and valuable only after many decades. Still they represent the historic ecology of Guanacaste and are extraordinarily important ecologically.

We are trying to design an Earth-healing economic landscape with short and mid- term economic value. This will be followed by a slower maturing, long-term forests that will eventually be capable of supporting an economy decades and even centuries into the future. From the beginning all of the trees will remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and sequester carbon as physical entities as well as in the soils. We are trying to apply a new ecological theory of design described in my article “A New Theory of Ecological Design on page ?? to restore a devastated landscape.

In terms of scientific inquiry, we are also investigating the effectiveness of remineralization through adding finely crushed rock powders to the soil to assist the growth and health of the trees. We are using rock powders from local volcanic rock. Initial funding for the work has been from our colleague, Joanna Campe and her Remineralize The Earth Organization (www.remineralize.org) who are partners in the enterprise. The photos show how effective remineralization has been in some cases. A second scientific dimension to our project is to study the accumulation and long-term storage of organic carbon in forest soils. Agricultural soils around the world are losing organic carbon, fueling climate change. We hope to develop soil-building techniques that allow tropical trees to incorporate organic carbon in their soils.

We further want to be able to measure the accuracy of Ocean Arks’ carbon neutral program for its members. Those of you who have calculated your carbon footprint, and joined the program, will want to know how well we are sequesterin carbon and whether your support makes you truly carbon neutral.

Please consider joining our carbon neutral program. Check the website for updates (www.oceanarks.com).

For full photo page click below   

photos from costa Rica            

                                  Two Year Old Papaya

                              Tree Species Planted to Date: February 2008

                      Spanish Name                English Name                 Latin Name

                      Aguacate                        Avocado                        Persea americana

                      Cedro Amargo                Spanish Cedar               Cedrela odorata

                      Cenizaro                         Rain Tree                      Albizia samam

                      Espavel                          Wild Cashew                  Anacardium excelsum

                      Guanabana                     Soursop                        Annona muricata

                      Guayaba                         Guava                           Psidium guajava

                      Jacote                             Spanish Plum                Spandius purpurea

                      Jatropha                         Jatropha                       Jatropha curcas

                      Limon                            Lemon/Lime                 Citrus spp

                      Madero Negro                 Quick Stick Tree            Gliricidia sepium

                      Malinga                           Horseradish Tree          Moringa oleifera

                      Malinche                         Flamboyant Tree           Delanix regia

                      Mango                            Mango                          Mangifera indica

                      Nance                            Shoemaker’s Tree         Byrsonima crassifolia

                      Naranja                          Orange                         Citrus aurantium

                      Nispero                           Chicle                           Manilkara chicle

                      Noni                               Indian Mulberry            Morinda citrifolia

                      Papaya                           Papaya                         Carica papaya

                      Pomelo                           Grapefruit                     Citrus x paradisi

                      Suncoya                         Suncoya                       Annona purpurea   

                      Zapote                            Sapote                         Pouteria sapota

                     We have also planted the giant bamboo from Indonesia and Guadua

                     fromBrazil.