CONSERVATION AND REFORESTATION
CONSERVATION AND RESTORATION
RESTORING HABITAT
In collaboration with local landowners, Pro Eco Azuero is restoring habitat along a biological corridor 80km in length, with a 10km buffer on each side - nearly 25,000 hectares - made up of nearly 400 privately owned properties. The project aims to gradually restore the critically important tropical dry forest ecosystem and support sustainable land use practices in the Azuero.
The
Biological Corridor
GROWING PLANTS & TREES SUSTAINABLY
Pro Eco Azuero supports its sustainable land management and habitat restoration initiatives through three in-house programs.
Tree Nurseries
Each year we grow thousands of native, fruit and timber seedlings for planting out in the field during the June-July reforestation season.
Micro-Producers
We create micro-contracts with rural residents to grow saplings in home nurseries, which we then buy back from them for our reforestation season; their economic growth fuels habitat conservation.
Seed Bank
We collect seed from local plants and trees to exchange with other community members and local seed banks.
FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
What are the negative consequences of deforestation on the Azuero Peninsula?
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Increased soil erosion and nutrient runoff, decreasing water quality
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Decreased groundwater recharge and larger floods
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Drier conditions increase stress on livestock and exacerbate climate change impacts
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Reduced wildlife habitat and decreasing biodiversity
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Reduced access to non-timber forest products, including healthy fruit products
What are the benefits of reforestation?
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Lower soil erosion and nutrient runoff, resulting in more fertile soil and healthier livestock
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Higher groundwater recharge, helping to mitigate droughts
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Lower heat stress on livestock due to shade from trees
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Greater biodiversity, resulting in improved pollination, dissemination and other ecosystem services
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Economic diversification and food production, resulting in improved livelihoods
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Carbon capture helping to mitigate climate change
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Greater resilience to climate change impacts on the Azuero peninsula, which is identified as part of the FAO’s Central American dry corridor
How is our approach innovative?
Pro Eco Azuero operates an interconnected portfolio of programs designed to advance ecological restoration and rural well-being as mutually reinforcing goals. Across this portfolio, PEA follows an adaptive approach that combines scientific evidence with local knowledge and community priorities. Rather than applying predetermined solutions, we seek to understand both the landscape and the people who live within it, co-design responses, measure their impact, and adapt over time.
Understand → Listen → Learn → Co-design → Restore → Measure → Adapt
This approach connects research, community engagement, implementation, and monitoring in a continuous cycle of learning and adaptation.
"It's about shifting incentives on the ground for people who have been on that land and, through no fault of their own, engaged in practices that have degraded the land. Getting them to band together and restore the land..."
- Patrick Leung, Co-Founder and CTO of Earthshot Labs