Abstract: The communities selected around the buffer zone at Diriá National Park are especially dedicated to small and medium-scale agriculture with products such as coffee, citrus, vegetables and other traditional products (beans and corn), which have a high potential for food conservation in the region of Santa Cruz and Nicoya. The proximity to the Diriá National Park largely guarantees the provision of ecosystem services, such as the pollination of their crops, but at the same time the impact produced by deforestation and the use of agrochemicals, as traditional agricultural practices on these four groups of fauna, is still unknown.
From thereon, the need to work with the communities arises, with the purpose of preserving species of fauna that contribute to their productive and economic activities as a form of sustainable management.
Due to the geographical isolation, these communities have difficulties to market their agricultural products; as a result, it is important to look for alternative uses of the area, as an agritourism route, which promotes tours within the area that are able to link the production and conservation of key fauna groups necessary for pollination and dispersal processes and their linkage with forest conservation and agricultural productivity.
The project will provide the necessary inputs so that the inhabitants of these communities know and understand the benefit of this type of fauna, as well as the potential represented by the proximity to a protected wilderness area, such as the Diriá National Park. The latter will allow the development of small business initiatives in the future, so that once thy are linked, they will be able to draw the interest of a target audience interested in learning about initiatives based on agritourism and consuming products that come from sustainable activities.
This project aims to contribute to the conservation of pollinating and seed-dispersing fauna through three components.
The first one is the creation of |