About

Cocoterra is a farmland restoration project and permaculture education center, situated in the outskirts of the village of Los Planes de Osa, in the pulsating heart of the Osa Peninsula in Costa Rica. Here we steward 72-acres of beautiful tropical land, nestled in the mega-biodiverse rainforest of the Osa Peninsula. Cocoterra is divided by a beautiful 100-foot waterfall and includes 48 acres of primary rainforest with a vast trail network for biodiversity exploration. 24 acres are old pasture land where we are now devoting efforts to implementing a regenerative permaculture design.

The property, adjacent to Corcovado National Park on its northern border, is within a region of great biodiversity, second only to the rainforests of the Tropical Andes and upper Amazon. The region is at a critical point in time. Primary rainforest and abandoned pasture land now come’s face-to-face with the advancements of local development. Los Planes de Osa was connected to the electrical grid only two years ago and was recently made accessible by new bridges. The area surrounding Cocoterra Rainforest Permaculture is rapidly changing–locals who respect the exquisite biodiversity face newcomers, and increasing land development, and the high cost of food, coupled with the blows the tourism sector has been facing increases threats on wildlife from hunting.

At this critical point, old agricultural systems that rely on greater expanses of land no longer work and consequently have been abandoned and must be replaced with regenerative modalities. Community members faced with the high cost of living in Costa Rica are eager to learn new ways of regenerative agriculture. In order to educate people to act as stewards of nature, they must be well fed, and permaculture models become key tools in pivotal towards food security and sustainability, all the while supporting process’s that prevent further depletion on the rainforest and loss of biodiversity.

Cocoterra Rainforest Permaculture provides immersive, hands-on educational opportunities for community members, visitors, and volunteers to learn about permaculture, regenerative design models, rainforest and biodiversity conservation, sustainable food production, food security, ethnobotany and herbalism all while transforming pasture land into an abundant source of food, medicinal plants, and wildlife habitat. This project unites people from many walks of life under the common goal of regeneration, permaculture and the protection of the rainforest and her biodiversity, co-creating harmony with Mother Earth who sustains us.

About the founder ~ Jonathon Miller Weisberger

Thirty years ago, in the rainforest of Ecuador Jonathon served as English Spanish translator for the Permaculture Design Courses being taught by renown teachers Bill Mollison, Ali Sharif and Scott Pittman.Participating were people from many walks of life. Representatives from campesino and indigenous people’s communities, government and non-governmental organizations, educators and international participants, all coming together to learn Permaculture. The synergy born from these experiences in costal and Amazonian Ecuador, coupled with love for the Osa Peninsula and the everyday more evident need for permaculture and regenerative design examples, is the inspiration that drives the vision at Cocoterra.

Permaculture

Cocoterra Rainforest Permaculture Project features ancient and novel permaculture practices for optimal soil, plant, and ecosystem quality.

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