Costa Rica: Program Details

Part 1: Area de Conservación Guanacaste (ACG): Tropical Ecology, Conservation and Biodevelopment

The first unit of the program is based in the Northwestern corner of Costa Rica in Santa Rosa National Park within the larger ACG.  The ACG contains within its borders 80% of the biodiversity of Costa Rica, and is approximately as species diverse as the whole of the United States and Canada combined.  The ACG was designated as a UNESCO world heritage site based on both this staggering diversity and the innovative conservation, research, and education work that has been developed there.  

While in ACG, students learn about a range of issues in local conservation, from management of wildlife habitat, to extraction of natural resources, fire control, environmental policy and education.  We work to understand how to balance conservation goals with economic development in an economically disadvantaged region.

• The ACG is the only conservation area in Central America that encompasses such a diversity of habitats, including Coral Reef, Beaches, Mangroves, Tropical Dry Forest, Tropical Rainforest, and Cloud Forest.
• The ACG is critical habitat for many of Costa Rica's most endangered organisms, including a number of primates, big cats, and sea turtles.
• ACG conservation programs are widely admired. They are often visited and studied by delegations from elsewhere in the tropics when they want to implement programs in their own countries.
• We will encounter a staggering diversity of species, from orchids to oak trees, silk moths to monkeys, parrots to peccaries, and many more.
• Students will participate in directed research projects and get a feel for the life of a tropical biologist.
• We will tour and participate first hand in the ACGs forest restoration initiatives.
• We will participate in the operation of a local dairy, and ride horses on Costa Rica's continental divide.
• We will snorkel a shallow coral reef and mangrove where in the past students have observed sea turtles, dolphins, and eagle rays. We will definitely see reef fish such as puffers, porcupine fish, angel fish, butterfly fish, parrot fish and many many more.
• Throughout the course students will interact with the owners of local businesses who grew up as hunters, loggers, ranchers, or fisherman but who now dedicate themselves to sustainable activities.
• We will camp out at Playa Naranjo, one of Costa Rica's most beautiful and isolated beaches, and attempt to observe the sea turtles that build their nests there.
• In the Guanacaste highlands we will stay in an ecolodge in the heart of the rainforest (and its trail system just happens to wind around a natural hot spring and a waterfall or two).

Part 2: EARTH University: Guácimo, Limón Province.  Conservation and Sustainable Agriculture

The unit based at EARTH University gives students the chance to see a different side of Costa Rica.  EARTH’s campus is located on the more-humid, Caribbean side of the country, home to the prototypical tropical rainforest and a local culture with notable contrasts to that in the ACG region.

The mission of EARTH is to prepare leaders with ethical values to contribute to the sustainable development of the humid tropics and to construct a prosperous and just society.  In line with this mission, the course provides students with content knowledge of major areas such as energy, waste management and food production.  It also helps students go beyond simply understanding these issues by putting their knowledge into practice through workshops on campus and through direct engagement in projects with the local community.

The unit at EARTH offers students a unique opportunity to experience the reality of rural Latin America first-hand, as well as the University’s innovative approach to improving the quality of life in these communities.

While at EARTH, students:

• Construct and experiment with small-scale solar panels and wind turbines to understand the science behind these technologies, and see these systems working on a larger scale on campus.
• Learn in depth about biodigestors, a sustainable technology that converts waste into energy. 
• Construct a biodigestor on a local farm to learn exactly what it takes to put this system into action.
• Develop an understanding of innovative waste management systems, from compost to alternative landfills to gray-water treatment strategies.
• Learn and practice strategies for growing food organically and sustainably in an urban setting.
• Visit a large-scale banana plantation as well as EARTH’s own commercial zero-waste sustainable plantation.
• Learn about the political, social, economic and environmental issues related to banana production.

Homestay

Students have the opportunity to spend a few days living with a local family on a small farm.  These farms have implemented a variety of the technologies and sustainable practices that EARTH has developed and shared with the surrounding community.

On the farms, students participate in daily activities such as planting, weeding, and harvesting, caring for animals, or special projects (e.g. the owner of one farm organizes a women’s cooperative that makes soaps out of recycled oil and herbs grown on site).  This visit gives students a sense of the local culture and the ways that sustainable practices can be incorporated into lives of people in the community.

Your Action Plan

What happens after you leave Costa Rica? How will you respond to the needs of your neighbors, your community and the world?

We believe that it is not enough to understand complex social issues, the questions are, "What will we do with what we know? How will we serve others? How might we work for long-term social change?" 

We help our students define the issues that they are passionate about and construct an Action Plan to address them.  We work with you to set realistic goals, identify mentors and resource people and anticipate challenges.

We encourage you to think about some topics before you come to BELL, but most students don't actually know what their Action Plan will be until they start working on it in class. Your instructors will help you design an Action Plan that fits your interests and skills.

Below are examples of BELL Student Action Plans:

• Received a grant to install solar panels on a High School
• Developed composting systems or recycling programs
• Constructed a wind turbine at school
• Converted school buses to bio-diesel
• Converted light bulbs at school to CFLs
• Educated other students about alternative energy resources
• Eliminated Styrofoam in county buildings
• Planted vegetable garden at High School

Review students’ final reports on their plans in our digital Action Plan library.

Your program fee includes:

• Tuition fee for all courses
• All lodging as part of the course
• Breakfasts, lunches, and dinners
• All transportation, field trips and site visits as described in the program description
• Transfer from/to airport on day of arrival and departure

Your Program fee does not include:

• Air travel to/from Costa Rica
• Classroom materials (textbooks, notebooks, pens, etc…)
• Cell phone incoming/outgoing calls
• Items of a personal nature
• Pre/post-program accommodations