A Green Revolution is Happening in Costa Rica

One of the first questions that I often get from people when I tell them about the best-worst-kept secret in travel, wellness, and holistic living is "Why Costa Rica?"

The are many answers that spring to mind, but for me it comes down to a simple word, 'biodiversidad' (biodiversity). Costa Rica holds as much as 5% of the world's biodiversity in a tiny country, comparable to the size of West Virginia. Nearby in Costa Rica where I have been gifted by life with the opportunity to steward land, the Osa Peninsula:

Though it occupies less than a thousandth of a percent of the planet’s surface, it harbors 2.5 percent of its life-forms. The peninsula’s assortment of habitats—cloud forest, lowland rainforest, swamps, mangroves, freshwater and coastal lagoons—offers refuge to thousands of species, including boisterous populations of scarlet?macaws ,?spider monkeys , and other animals that have disappeared or are dwindling through most of their historic range. - National Geographic, Jan 2021

All this is to say, rainforests and tropical regions are extremely important to our health and the health of our planet. The mangroves serve as carbon capture and water filtration systems that purify water from streams and rivers and flush them back into our oceans. The forests, which previously were cut down for cattle ranching and grazing, today are prized because they harbor undiscovered plants, plant medicines, flowers, fruits, fungi, and life-forms critical to the well-being of animals and people everywhere.

There's a simple lesson in nature's complexity, she prizes biodiversity above all else.

I have always had a fascination with rainforests and tropical ecosystems. It started early on, when my sister took me to watch Jurassic Park as a kid. I was about 5 or 6, way too young to see a dramatic-horror film about a killer dinosaur park in Costa Rica; it was terrifying, loud, and I loved it. When I learned about reptiles and amphibians, I figured they were living and closer to me than old dinosaur bones, so I became an amateur herpetologist, frog catcher, and gecko steward in my early childhood years.

The seed that was planted all those years ago, has blossomed into a passion to serve as a champion and protector for these sacred places on earth. That's why I've chosen Costa Rica as much as it seems she picked me.

So, what's all this to do with me and a bunch of hippies pictured at the top of the page?

Well, for starters, I wouldn't consider them hippies; more like entrepreneurs, digital creators, engineers, educators, earth-healers, and self-described 'Regenerates'. I like that name a lot.

For the past couple of years, a new, primarily online startup organization called Ecoversity has created a hybrid curriculum for students to learn via an earth school about the art and science of regenerative practices. Ecoversity's mission is "education to accelerate a regenerative future."

I first learned about Ecoversity indirectly through Zach Efron's Netflix docuseries, "Down to Earth" in an episode where he meets one of Ecoversity's co-founders, Stephen Brooks, an American based in Costa Rica for the last 20 years. Stephen is an ethnobotanist, tropical plant expert, and permaculture designer for ecovillages like Alegria Village in San Mateo and Punta Mona on the Caribbean Coast. Boulder, CO based, Alexa Rosenthal is Ecoversity's CEO, Chief Ecosystem Organizer . They're now both my friends, teachers, and fellow earth champions.

Intrigued by what I learned and having just acquired 13 acres of pristine rainforest land in Costa Rica , I knew that I wanted to responsibly steward the place I would someday call home, so I signed up for Ecoversity's Permaculture Design Certification (PDC) course and never looked back.

What's permaculture?

There are many definitions, but it stands for 'permanent agriculture' and signifies the study of nature's patterns to enable harmonious living for the betterment of people and planet.

Permaculture is about working with nature versus against nature to achieve positive aims: earth care + people care.

Want to know the craziest thing? It works? Like really works, better than any chemically added, lab-grown, inorganic process because it replicates and uses nature's processes to live, grow, and thrive.

I strongly believe that Permaculture is one of many solutions needed to combat climate change and heal the environment from damage caused by negative human-influence for the last 150 years.

From Dec 2021 to May 2022, my weeks were an intensive online workshop with a chance for me to create a real-life permaculture design project using my own land as the backdrop to design. In short, we did, and it was awesome.

On my team, I had a Canadian real estate developer , one of Costa Rica's best architects , a first-generation college student, and a Gen-Z entrepreneur and businessman. I couldn't have asked for a better group to work with.

We spent those five months meeting multiple times weekly, whiteboarding, researching, and eventually came out to Costa Rica at the end of the curriculum in June 2022 for hands-on learning and applied practice to get our hands dirty.

We created our master-site plan with agroforestry (food forests with tropical fruit trees), rainwater harvesting and catchment, and other closed-loop systems that will give back more to the land over time, improve the soil quality, and enhance its biodiversity. A few slides from the final project are shown below:

Most excitingly, this experience was just the beginning.

We know what the numbers for deforestation and carbon drawdown rates are. Terrible. Not good enough. Our governments have failed to take any tangible steps toward reducing carbon emissions outside of non-binding agreements (Paris Accord & COP 24). The reality in our capitalist system is that companies will not take responsibility until they are demanded change by their consumers. There are steps that need to happen for a green future, and I believe it's already underway.

My intention for writing this today is to share with you a glimmer of hope in what often seems like an endless doomscroll of negative news: some real, a lot of fake stuff. But what really matters is the good stuff: what's real, green, and organic.

Nature's systems: solar, plants, soil, animals, light, water, and humans, (and dare I say, love?) are going to be what powers our futures because they are regenerative. They have the momentum to dismantle our present-day systems to rethink whom benefits from the land that we inhabit and how we can give back and make it better in our lifetimes?

There's something in the water in Costa Rica, and it's really good. Hope you enjoyed reading and send any feedback, questions, or comments my way via LinkedIn or here at: [email protected]

Adios y buenas ondas,

Juan Pablo (JP)