The Hacienda Rio Coté Project (HRC) was established in 2007 to restore and protect rainforest land adjacent to the Rio Coté National Protected Areas in Costa Rica.

HRC’s mission is to reforest and preserve land that is contiguous with existing protected areas of the Rio Coté National Forest and in effect increase the size of a pristine rainforest environment. HRC’s goal is to maintain and extend natural biodiversity, preserve watersheds, reduce erosion and river degradation, protect animal and insect habitats, and preserve the primordial beauty of the tropical rain forests for future generations.

The project does this in four ways:

• Through reforestation plantings on clear-cut farmland

• Through reorientation of local grazing and farming practices to reduce erosion of land and restore the watershed (carbon-sequestering/carbon-farming techniques)

• Through our contract with the Costa Rican government to preserve the primary uncut rain forest on the HRC lands in perpetuity

• Through collection from the primary rain forest of seeds and saplings for our “primal nurseries,” which will eventually supply the reforestation projects at HRC

The primary sponsor of HRC is Inner Traditions International (ITI), a book publisher based in Rochester, Vermont, USA. ITI has, since 1975, published the wisdom and practices of the world’s indigenous peoples and is pleased to support HRC as a way of contributing to the protection of ancient ways of life while offsetting both our carbon footprint and our use of tree fiber in producing books. For more on ITI’s active commitment to the environment, see our Green Policies page.