Gerald, a guide who protects what he loves
Written by: volunteer Claire Doisy from France
If you are about to stay at Adopt Rainforest in Costa Rica, you will definitely meet one of the project’s key people: Gerald. This smiling young man whose age no one really knows, will help you find your way in the jungle forest and will teach you how to use a machete. He knows just everything about trees and insects and if you’re lucky enough to be Dutch, he can even hold a conversation with you in your native language. Gerald is a discreet person who has made himself indispensable: in the garden, or in the jungle he always finds his way.
History teacher or nature guide?
Gerald was born in San Miguel, a little village of no more than 200 people, where the foundation is based. He studied History and wanted to become a history teacher, but life had a different plan and he joined the Adopt Rainforest foundation 5 years ago for the first reforestation project, with his brother. Then, 2 years later he became a guide to help the projectmanagers Maarten and Hanneke.
Gerald: “what I knew about biology before coming here, I learned at school. Since I live near the forest, I also learn about medicinal plants. I discovered a lot about plants from the local and indigenous people”.
According to Gerald, there is a kind of stinging fly in the area that causes a serious skin disease. To get rid of this disease, you have to go to the clinic where you get 2 injections every day until the parasite dies. The indigenous people know of a plant in the forest that kills this parasite after 2-3 days. Project coordinator Maarten decided to try the local cure after 20 injections at the clinic. With the result that the parasite was gone within two days.
Geralds motivation
More than anything, Gerald is motivated by the need to protect and help improve the village of San Miguel: My idea is to help evolving the new generation of children to be people open-minded to new ideas, in order to improve the town in general. This deeply rooted motivation stems in part from a touching story:
“When I was a little kid at school, we lived further away near the river. My mother came to bring me home from school. On the way back, we found a pigeon that had a broken leg. Maybe someone threw a stone at him or wanted to kill him with a weapon, I don’t know. We decided to take the pigeon to our house. We thought he was going to die, so we started to care for him and feed him. It was a baby and he needed to grow more, to have more feathers, and to learn how to fly. He was several days old and he was recovering little by little. Then he started to eat more, grow more and all of this process was very exciting for me because we saw that we could rescue him. When the wing healed little by little, I was teaching him to fly, and he reached a point where he could fly well. He flew to a tree that was near the house and slept in there. He flew two times a day to the house to look for food. Until one day about a month later he did not come back anymore. He had become an adult. At that time it was sad for me but afterwards inside of me I felt very happy. From that moment, I adopted the idea of wanting to help more nature conservation here in the village and within the forest. I always grew up with the motivation to create new ideas and generate awareness in people, so that they understand that conservation is important. “
We love what we admire
In telling this story, Gerald reminded me of a French quote: ‘’‘We love what we admire and we protect what we love’’. In healing the young pigeon, Gerald learned to love and protect him. I believe this is the same with the forest and the village of San Miguel. By meeting Hanneke and Maarten, it seems Gerald has achieved his goal:
‘’One day I was working with Maarten, it was the first reforestation of 2,000 trees. We were at the highest point near San Miguel where we had an overview of the whole forest and at that moment I remembered the story of the young pigeon, of what we had accomplished. I had been trying to do something for conservation for so long, but I felt alone in this, nobody listened to me and nobody cared. Then Maarten came up with the idea of the foundation, reforestation, and I felt very grateful for that. That day has been very special for me”.
Together with the local community
As with Gerald, by working hand-in-hand with the local people of San Miguel, Adopt Rainforest is building a local ecosystem to preserve the forest and its biodiversity. Even though the project is constantly evolving, establishing links with the local community remains incredibly important. In addition, it is also a perfect way to meet people who share the same passion and goals to protect the rainforest.
Would you like to contribute to this beautiful project? Become a donor of Adopt Rainforest.
on with Utrecht University. The foundation was ready for a new step to professionalize the research project and Utrecht University was looking for a stable and reliable partner in Central America to conduct solid research in the rainforest. So for both parties this is a wonderful collaboration! Because of this we will make a big step in professionalizing our current research on biodiversity in our reserve. Together with the visiting students we will focus on scientific research in which the diversity and development of nature in our reserve, with an emphasis on flora, is central.