FROM A JUNGLE AT RISK, TO A JUNGLE SANCTUARY

The project began in 1990 when Marilyn Cole and Ozzie Teichner purchased a parcel of land situated in the rainforest of northeastern Costa Rica. She came upon the property while volunteering with a marine sea turtle research and monitoring program, which was situated out of a village called Tortuguero (Turtle Bog, or place of the turtle). The property was purchased from a Nicaraguan campesino named Marcos, who gained land title after having farmed a portion of the land for a number of years.

The Canadian Organization for Tropical Education and Rainforest Conservation (COTERC) was founded shortly afterwards in 1991, a registered non-profit organization to support and administer the operations of Caño Palma Biological Station (Estación Biológica Caño Palma) that was established on the property.

BRIEF HISTORY OF TORTUGUERO

The area surrounding the river mouth has been settled by indigenous people since pre-Columbian times, as evidenced by the presence of burial sites and middens. During the last 400 years, vast flotillas of green sea turtles have brought European sailors to this coast to provision ships with meat. The village, with its current population of 650, began as a packing plant for turtle soup and later prospered as a shipping port for coconuts and bananas from the early plantations. Later, a lumber industry sustained Tortuguero until the late 1970s.

Currently, the area is visited by over 50,000 tourists annually, who stay in lodges along the river on either side of the village. Most of the local people’s income is tied to tourism, yet this is an economically depressed part of Costa Rica, with most of the tourists staying in lodges outside of town. Although the lodges do provide employment for many of the local guides and hotel support staff, little money filters down into Tortuguero itself.