Carbon Farming and Carbon Sequestration

Many people have heard of carbon sequestration, the process of removing excess carbon from the atmosphere to counteract global warming, usually accomplished by planting trees to absorb carbon from the air.

Hacienda Rio Coté is proud to be advancing this movement through our use of cutting-edge carbon-farming techniques with the grazing animals in our pastureland.

Carbon farming seeks to move groups of grazing animals frequently—the way wild herds move to avoid predators—so grasses are not grazed beyond the point of natural recovery and plant cover remains to fertilize the land and sequester carbon. The science behind the process is this: The grass takes in carbon from the atmosphere; the animals trample the grass into the soil, where the carbon is absorbed; new grass sprouts; and the process is repeated, with the grass absorbing more carbon each time. And with each cycle, the layer of top soil increases in depth far faster than occurs naturally. In nature it takes at least a thousand years to build one inch of soil. Average soil gains with carbon farming are around 1 to 2 inches per year. Abe Collins, a pioneer of the carbon-farming movement and co-founder of Carbon Farmers of America, has documented 8 inches of soil depth gain in a single season using these techniques!

Coincidentally, Collins grew up in Rochester, Vermont, where the head offices of HRC’s sponsor, Inner Traditions, are located. In fact, Abe’s father was the building contractor who did the initial renovations on the Inner Traditions office building in the 1980s. We do, indeed, live on a very small planet!

Hacienda Rio Coté is proud to partner with several local nurseries in Costa Rica to obtain the thousands of saplings necessary to reforest our hundreds of acres of land.

When we began planting in 2007, our first saplings came from the Codeforsa Nursery and from La Reserva Nursery.

Beginning in 2008, we began working with the nurseries run by Instituto Costarricense de Electricidad (ICE), Costa Rica’s government-owned electric company who also oversees all renewable energy projects in Costa Rica. ICE runs the Institutional Program for Climate Change, of which one component is its nursery and forestry plantations. They run their own reforestation and wildlife protection projects as well as provide free trees for other local reforestation projects.

ICE was particularly happy to help with the HRC reforestation projects because we are reforesting watershed, one of their primary goals. The tree donations we’ve received from their inspiring 180,000-tree nursery have greatly accelerated our work at HRC.

Tree Species at Hacienda Rio Coté

Trees from Codeforsa Nursery
Almandero; Elan Elan; Cedar Amargo; Cortesa Amarillo; Pino; Danto Amarillo; Llama el Bosque; Cocoa; Pilon; Poro; Cebo; Cocbola; Camibar; Cacha; Sopa Caballo; Cirraca; Guanacaste; Eucalyptus; Roble Sabana

Trees from La Reserva Nursery
Burio – Hampea appendiculata (Doll’s Eyes); Cacao – Theobroma Cacao (Chocolate); Ceiba – Ceiba Pantandra (Kapok Tree); Chanco Blanco – Vochysia Guatemalensis; Cirri – Guatteria Tonduzii; Cirri Amarillo; Danto Espino o Amarillo-Sideroxylon Capiri (Tempisque); Escobillo; Gavilan – Pentaclethra Macroloba (Pentaclethra); Gavilancillo – Fabaceae/Mimosoidae – Pentaclethra; Guaba – Inga Golmanii (Guaba Amarillo); Guajiniquil – Inga; Guanacaste – Enterolobium Cyclocarpum; Guarumo – Cecropia; Hojancha – Cleidion Castaneifolium; Huevos de Caballo-Stemmadenia donnel-smithii (Bijarro); Jelinjoche – Pachira Aquatica (Provision Tree); Lagartillo; Laurel – Cordia Alliodora; Muneco – Cordia Erostigma; Murta; Ojoche – Brosimum (Breadnut); Pavillo; Uruca – Trichilia Havanensis; Vainillo – Tecoma Stans (Yellow Elder); Yos – Sapium Allenii; Zorillo

Trees from ICE Nursery
Cedio Amargo; Roble Sabana; Corteza Morado; Laurel; Cocobolo; Sota Caballo; Caua Fistula; Guanacaste; Guanacaste Blanco; Ceuizauo; Caoba; Lorito

By Vatsala Sperling, Ph.D., D.Hom.

Watching the men at work planting saplings was inspiring for our son, Mahar, who is a hard worker when it comes to playing in the dirt. Outdoor work gives him a venue for abandoning his sense of self and becoming a part of nature. His fascination with the reforestation work led to our visiting the local school in Cabanga in 2007. This is a two-room school, very neat and tidy, painted in blue, tiled, with a small front garden and a big soccer field, a must for every school in Costa Rica. Costa Rica is a country that has very wisely invested heavily in education. They have no army, and this peace-loving country gives compulsory and free education to all and has free health care easily available to its people.

Mr. Alexander Arguedas Garcia, the principal of the school, is a lean and thin man with three children and lives in a town nearby, commuting daily on his two-wheeler. He is also proud to tell us that his school has been awarded an Ecological flag for the past few years because the school has been involved in ecological preservation activities in the community. “Surely, our children would love to plant trees,” he said, and one morning we saw an open pickup truck roll in to the farm and thirteen children pile out.

Watching these children plant trees with such abandon was a joy. They knew how to have fun while they were working. You could hear waves of laughter emanating from wherever there were a few of them together. The girls giggled almost nonstop, throwing dirt balls at the boys who played their magical games waving spades and sticks as wands.

While these children were having fun and appeared mostly to be playing, they managed to plop over 500 trees into the ground in just about four hours that morning, a very good record in our view. “In a few years, you will not be able to recognize this land, the trees will be this tall,” said Maria, reaching out to touch the sky with her hands.

These wonderful children are going to have sustained contact with our reforestation project as they will be invited back for more planting and to check on the growth of the saplings they planted. We are also planning on inviting indigenous elders to accompany the children on tours of the rain forest and teach them about the native tree species and medicinal plants. In these tours they will collect saplings right off the forest floor and bring them to our “Primal Nurseries” where they will be nurtured until ready for planting. They will then be planted on other sites in our project as well as donated to people who want to reforest their farms. It is hoped that through this experience the children’s love for the forest will grow and they will see the forest as their ally and friend and not as an enemy to be chopped down and conquered. Enough of that has been done already. The involvement of these children in the reforestation program will also ensure that their school would continue to fly the Ecological banner with pride.

Our Partnership with Led2Serve

In February 2014, we had our first visit from Led2Serve, an organization dedicated to “equip, inspire, and mobilize” students to join Service Journeys to established partner communities in the USA, Costa Rica, and Europe. These educational trips always include meaningful community projects in the locations they visit, and our Hacienda Rio Cote reforestation project offered the opportunity for a perfect partnership.

The first Led2Serve team planted over 100 saplings. Six years later along with reforesting, Service Journey students assist in harvesting, planting, and distributing fruits and vegetables from our organic garden to local community members.

English Language Scholarships

Hacienda Rio Cote is proud to provide two local children each year with a year of free private English language instruction.