Published on September 18th, 2008
A team of researchers in Costa Rica’s Alberto Manuel Brenes Reserve have been searching for plants that might help cure the mosquito-transmitted disease known as malaria. While not a common disease in Costa Rica, the country’s tropical rainforests have a wide diversity of plants that sometimes cannot be found elsewhere in the world– and some of these species might contain medicinal properties to help stop malaria and other diseases. An estimated 1-3 million people die each year from malaria. Read the rest of this entry »
Published on September 14th, 2008
A team of scientists on an expedition to study frogs has found the “rarest frog in the world” in Costa Rica. Thought to be extinct for over 20 years, last year hope was renewed when an individual male from the species was found by one of the team’s researchers. Last week the team found a pregnant female, suggesting that this species is still reproducing and has not been made extinct by a deadly skin fungus that is decimating amphibian populations. Read the rest of this entry »
Tags:
amphibians,
Andrew Gray,
Chester Zoo,
Chytrid fungus,
Costa Rica,
extinction,
frog,
global warming,
infrared reflection spectroscopy,
Isthomohyla Rivularis,
tree frog,
University of Manchester
Published on April 11th, 2008
Editor’s note: The Santa Fe Women’s Group in Costa Rica is empowering themselves by making biogas from manure. Written by guest author Thomas Carmona.
As if cooking, cleaning, and child-rearing were not enough, the women of Santa Fe also lead a powerful organization, the Santa Fe Women’s Group, which fulfills many vital roles for the community. One of the group’s biggest projects has been producing biogas.
The Project
The Santa Fe Biogas project, in its initial stages, was simply a concern communicated in Women’s Group meetings: “How can we avoid buying expensive tanks of gas and inhaling smoke in the kitchen?”
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