The Rivers and Forests Alliance (RAFA) is a Costa Rican nonprofit organization dedicated to preserving, protecting, and regenerating Costa Rica’s Pacuare River Basin, its forests, and biodiversity together with our communities for a sustainable future.
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The Rivers and Forests Alliance (RAFA) is a Costa Rican nonprofit organization dedicated to preserving, protecting, and regenerating Costa Rica’s Pacuare River Basin, its forests, and biodiversity together with our communities for a sustainable future.
The Pacuare River flows 136.39 km (85 miles) from high in Costa Rica’s Talamanca Mountains, past indigenous Cabecar communities and through dense jungle populated with endangered species, to the Caribbean Sea. The entire river basin spans 914.11 km2 (353 square miles), forming a crucial connection in the network of biological corridors between national parks and private protected areas, namely the Jaguar Corridor. It is one of Costa Rica’s last large, free-flowing rivers, acclaimed for its scenic beauty and whitewater paddling sports.
Thanks largely to Rafael "Rafa" Gallo, a leading conservationist, environmental activist, and adventure and ecotourism pioneer in Costa Rica, the Pacuare River still flows free. Rafa passionately worked to preserve and regenerate the Pacuare River Basin for nearly four decades, from stopping dams to purchasing 2,500 acres of rainforest for protection, planting close to 31,000 trees, and rallying community members and national and international tourists and paddling sports athletes to save the river and rainforest.
Following Rafa’s long conservation legacy, the Rivers and Forests Alliance is taking actions toward:
We are committed to protecting the Pacuare River Basin from its headwaters to the river mouth at the Caribbean Sea so that it will always be wild and free-flowing. We join the National Alliance of Rivers and Watersheds of Costa Rica and other national and global conservation organizations in advocating for permanent legal rights and protection of the Pacuare River and watershed.
We are reforesting the Pacuare River Basin with native tree species and restoring wildlife habitats. For example, we plant mountain almond trees to restore the habitat for critically endangered Great Green Macaws and are partnering with the Macaw Recovery Network to reestablish the macaws’ migration corridor along the Pacuare. We plan to purchase land for conservation and assist private landowners with forest and watershed conservation practices.
We are working to preserve and regenerate wildlife populations by expanding and connecting biological corridors in and around the Pacuare River Basin and eradicating illegal hunting. We partner with organizations such as Panthera Costa Rica, the Barbilla-Destierro Biological Subcorridor Committee – Paso del Jaguar, and the Costa Rican National System of Conservation Areas (SINAC).
We promote scientific investigation in the Pacuare region, including water quality monitoring and mapping projects. We collaborate with researchers in ongoing studies to show the Pacuare River Basin’s importance in Costa Rica for conservation. Community Involvement: In all our endeavors, we seek to unite communities in the conservation of the Pacuare River Basin through environmental education, scientific research, conservation tourism, reforestation and land protection, regenerative farming, and other projects to ensure a sustainable future for all.
