Costa Rica National Parks Volunteer - Central Pacific

National Park Manuel Antonio

Location:
On the Pacific coast, 157 km from San José and 7 km south of Quepos.

Area Information:
Established in 1972, this park has 693 hectares on land and 55,000 hectares on the sea. Ppart of the forest is in the process of regeneration, since in the past it had been used for wood extraction. It is a very wet tropical forest, protecting parts of primary and secondary forests, mangrove, beach and marine vegetation, islands, and a 14-hectare lagoon.

Volunteer Projects:

Customer care (guard-house at the beach)
Trail cleaning (take away undergrowth, trunks, leaves, etc.)
Signposting (make signs, paint them and put them up)
Installation painting and cleaning
Garbage pick-up along the beach
Beach patrol

Specific projects:

Classification of park's existing bibliographic material, for park library (individual project, must have some knowledge as librarian)
Collaboration in the environmental education program
Monitor the Lora turtle (between June and December), sector Playa del Rey

Refugio de Vida Silvestre Playa Hermosa

Location:
Between the counties of Parrita and Garabito.

Area Information:
volunteering costa rica Declared as a refuge in June 1998, this park possesses about 7km of beach and a marine are of 500 meters out to sea. Punta Judas, a 3 km strip of beach,is an important egg-laying zone for Lora turtles due to its estuary-like wetland and wide beach area that is inaccessible during high tide. Refugio de Vida Silvestre Playa Hermosa is not only a safe haven for Lora turtles, but has been of vital importance as a refuge to a variety of marine ecosystems.

Volunteer Projects:

Maintenance support work: cleaning and monitoring the beach
Creation and cleaning of a native-species tree nursery
Construct a vivarium for turtles (between May and June)
Protection when Lora turtle lays eggs (patrols during the day and the night, transference of the eggs to the vivarium, measurement and marking of the turtles, monitoring of the species), from May to December (individual or in groups of up to 15 people)