Sustainable Forest Management- FUNDECOR

Today we visited a sustainable logging operation site that is being managed by an organization called FUNDECOR.  This organization's goal is to help prevent deforestation of tropical rain forests, but they do that in a very specific way.  One way they help is by providing technical assistance to sustainable forest management and help landowners manage their forest in a way that can be sustainable while at the same time make them money.  Another way they help is to help with reforestation efforts as well as help with forest protection. 

To date FUNDECOR has worked with over 500 families and has helped preserve over 43,000 hectares.  They are a non for profit organization that act as a consulting group to assist landowners.  They also help enroll many families into Costa Rica's Payment for Ecosystem Services (PES).  This program gives landowners the opportunity to receive payments to keep the forests in tact.  They are paid about $60 per hectare per year.  For many landowners that money is not really enough to stop conversion to more profitable land uses such as cattle, bananas, and pineapple which is where FUNDECOR steps in. 

If it is seen that they can have a sustainable timber harvest on their property FUNDECOR does a complete inventory of the property to see how much marketable timber there is on the property which they consider anything 60 cm and above (DBH).  Of the marketable timber they mark only 50% of the possible timber that they actually allow to be harvested.  This can be seen with about 2-3 trees per hectare, and by the time the harvesting operation in complete 88% of the forested area has remained undisturbed.  After the harvest is complete FUNDECOR sends in an environmental impact crew to assess the forest and to make sure that it is up to standards.  This allows the landowner receive a substantial profit of about $300-800 per tree.  So the landowner can receive this money up front as well as the PES funding of $60/hectare which gives them an incentive to keep their property forested.  Since FUNDECOR is a non for profit they only charge $100/ hectare but that fee includes a complete forest inventory as well as the fact that FUNDECOR is the one that bids out the timber and works with the logger.  Since FUNDECOR is a widespread organization they are also able to get a premium for their harvested timber which puts more money in the landowners pocket.  With the way they are harvesting it is expected that landowners can then go in every fifteen years and harvest in the same way to have annual profits from PES as well as profits from the harvesting every year.   Below you can see some pictures and explanation of this process. 

 This is a load of logs that was leaving the site as we were coming in.  Each log will bring about $300-800 depending on the market at the time.

 This older man is sharpening his chain saw as he is waiting for the truck to come back.  When he was standing the chainsaw was about 2/3 the size of the man.

 This is one of the skidding trails that we walked on into the forest.   It was very muddy and we were pretty dirty when we were done but these trails take up less than 5% of the area which is a minimal amount and consider how much rain the area receives it was a nice skid trail to get the logs out of the woods.

 This is the stump of a tree that was recently cut down.  The wood is a beautiful color and the sap was coming out of the wood.  Also notice how the tree is hollow, which it is most of the way up it.

 This is one of the guys they call a forest engineer explaining the process of a Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) certification.  These tags are placed on all the logs leaving the site to show that these have met the FSC guidelines.  The wood that is harvested from their sites stay domestic, as they do not currently have an international market. 

 After the morning tour of the site we then stopped at a Soda or a roadside restaurant.  This turned out to be a very nice restaurant and I had fresh tilapia which was amazing!

This is me and Emma sitting at the soda while we were waiting for everyone else to finish their meal.  

Tomorrow morning we have a two hour bus ride followed by a two hour boat ride to arrive at Tortuguero, Costa Rica and we will be staying at Lagunda Lodge.  So I am very excited to be able to be on the beach and lagoon!