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The government of Costa Rica does not have enough resources to employ staff to maintain natural resources and to promote sustainability in Protected Wilderness Areas (ASP).
Costa Rica does not have enough resources that permit the Government the recruitment of staff to safeguard natural resources and promote sustainability of Protected Wilderness Areas (ASP). As a result of this situation, the Control and Protection Unit (by its Spanish acronym UCP) was created.
This unit supports the protected areas by collaborating with control and protection activities such as patrols to avoid illegal hunting, turtle nesting watching to prevent the robbing of eggs, forest fire management and suppression and they act as witnesses of illegal activities in protected areas among other things.
Some examples of what we have done:
In the last three years we helped the turtle conservation project in Playa Hermosa. The amount of manual labor needed for a turtle project is extremely demanding because it a 24 hour job. A normal working day may look like this: night patrols to collect eggs and bring them to the hatcheries to avoid animal predation and illegal collection by humans, during the day time it is important to build and maintain the hatcheries.
At Braulio Carrillo National Park as well as in Carara and Tapanti we help the protected area staff by going with them to illegal flora collection and illegal hunting patrols inside the forest. In Carara national Park the main problem is the collection of scarlet macaw eggs and babies.
We also assist the professional fire units all along the country, in the last few years we have been helping at: Tenorio, Palo Verde, Guanacaste, among others.
Education is an important tool to achieve our goals, therefore we receive training courses in a board area such as: first aid, forestry law, management and suppression of forest fires, environmental education, etc.
The two main activities of the PCU are:
Turtle´s Conservation Projects
- Construction, monitoring and maintenance of nurseries for the protection of the eggs.
- Night patrols to prevent looting and destruction of nests.
Wildlife Protected Areas of the Country
- Day and night patrols on foot, horseback, car or boat in order to prevent and control hunting, illegal fishing and collection of flora and fauna.
- Control activities are performed in observation towers.
- Tourism-control activities within Protected Areas.
The unit consists of people over 18 years living in Costa Rica interested in conservation actions in active form. Join us it is worth it …
Contact us
David Zárate Morales
Coordinator UCP
ucp@asvocr.org
Evelyn Solano
National Volunteer Coordination
esolano@asvocr.org
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