Costa Rica News – Today marked the fifth year of a project to replant trees in La Sabana, an urban park in San Jose.
The goal is to plant 5,000 native trees by the year 2017. There are only 2,400 trees needed to reach that goal.
The park is 64 hectares and had 6,498 trees in 2011. Most of these are eucalyptus, pine and cypress, none of which are native to Costa Rica.
The park lacks natural biodiversity because the animals do not know how to use these foreign trees.
La Sabana needs to have 213 native species to recover its ecological function. After planting the 5,000 native trees, it is expected that 130 species of birds and insects will be attracted and that they will live there rather than pass through.
This year many sick trees will be replaced and 683 new trees will be planted by volunteers on seven days from June to September. The trees are brought in from nurseries.
