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Penjamo Community Wildlife Sanctuary
The Penjamo Community Wildlife Sanctuary is a project unique to the western hemisphere. As opposed to a private reserve or a government park, we are creating a park made up of a community of individual property owners. The idea is simple, but very powerful. We have distributed petitions, asking property owners to commit in writing to a set of three simple conservationist principles: 1. We will not hunt, poison, or kill any wild animals on our land. 2. To the best of our ability, we will attempt to keep poachers and hunters from using our land to hunt or kill animals. 3. We will report hunters or poachers using our land to the proper authorities. Despite Costa Rica's reputation as the eco-tourism capital of the world, there is still a large amount of hunting of wild animals. Some hunters shoot anything that moves. Hunters/poachers often trespass on private property or federal parkland, hunting at night with a flashlight. When an animal's eyes reflect back, they will shoot it without knowning the species. Many animals, including horses, cows, and housecats are being killed this way. In fact, Mary and Simon's favorite Stallion was killed by poachers several months ago. This animal was not only a great friend, but essential for their business giving jungle horse-tours to tourists. We are also creating the Penjamo Community Wildlife Sanctuary also so that we can prove to MINAE (the government organization in Costa Rica that's responsible for approving and regulating wildlife projects) that there is enough protected land for released animals to survive on. |
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