La Amistad Association of Producers (ASOPROLA)

Address:

Altamira de Biolley, Buenos Aires,

Puntarenas, Costa Rica

Phone number:

+506/743-1184

Fax:

+506/743-1184

Email:

asoprola@racsa.co.cr

asoprola@yahoo.es  

Executive director:

Luis Enrique Monge Solís

Year founded:

1997

Mission statement:

Promote projects that guarantee sustainable development and the diversification of productive activities that protect the environment and the recovery of cultural values.

1. Asociación Alianza de Familias Productoras Orgánicas de Costa Rica

2. Asociación Coordinadora Indígena y campesina de Agroforestería Comunitaria Centroamericana (ACICAFOC)

3. Corporación Educativa para el Desarrollo Costarricense

4. Embajada de la República Federal de Alemania

5. Iglesias Presbiterianas  de Norteamérica

6. Instituto Nacional de Aprendizaje

7. Programa de Pequeñas Donaciones de Costa Rica

8. Programa de Voluntariado Reto Juvenil Internacional (RJI)

9. International Student Volunteers (ISV)

10. The Nature Conservancy (TNC)

• Generate income to improve the quality of life of the community members.
• Minimize impacts on La Amistad International Park.
• Develop alternative productive activities that are connected to agro-ecotourism such as building trails, preparing meals for visitors, and growing organic crops.
• Improve the coffee processing center.
• Implement a suitable, effective solid and liquid waste treatment system.
• Expand production areas using a sustainable system that is in harmony with nature.
• Form a COVIRENAS (Natural Resources Vigilance Committees) team to protect wildlife areas, biological corridors, and protected zones.
• Find fair trade market niches that value the efforts of the organization to conserve natural resources.

The Biolley district is located in Buenos Aires, in the province of Puntarenas, Costa Rica.  Half of its territory is located within La Amistad International Park (PILA).  Most of the thirteen communities located in the Biolley district are adjacent to PILA and the communities located the furthest away are about 7 miles (11 kilometers) by road from the park.  ASOPROLA headquarters and the administrative offices of PILA are located in Altamira. 

Number of members: 92

Projects:

1. La Amistad Organic Coffee

   Summary:  ASOPROLA produces, processes, and markets environmentally-friendly organic coffee to provide employment and income for the Biolley district of Puntarenas in Costa Rica. This project also promotes the development of agro-ecotourism, a sustainable activity carried out with local participation, and conserves the buffer zones of the La Amistad International Park.

2. Agro-Ecotourism Project in the Biolley District, Costa Rica

   Summary:  Rural community agro-ecotourism combines ecological community tourism and sustainable eco-friendly production, offering new alternatives such as the production, processing, and marketing of certified organic and fair trade coffee.

• Obtained organic and fair trade certification for the farms and coffee production.
• Set up a processing center for organic coffee.
• Diversified and improved the forest cover of rivers and streams on the farms with the support of property owners.
• Regenerated 173 acres (70 hectares) of polluted and degraded land.
• Provided administrative training to the association’s staff.
• Set up a training center for producers and youth interested in sustainable production and rural and community tourism.
• Helped families to produce coffee organically and sell their products to tourists.  The people are gradually starting to diversify by receiving training to become local tour guides, selling meals, growing organic crops for their own consumption and sale in the community.
• Reduced pressure on community ecosystems.
• Built a lodge that can accommodate up to 40 people, thanks to help from the Global Environment Facility – Small Grants Program of Costa Rica. 
• Purchased equipment to toast and grind coffee, providing an added value to the product.
• Carried out a project to place signs around the Biolley district.
• Became part of the Quercus Conservation Network that is dedicated to the conservation of La Amistad International Park. 
• Took steps to become part of the Rural Community Tourism Association (ACTUAR).

Groups or individual volunteers are housed in the association’s office building or with homestay families.

From September to January, volunteers can help with the coffee harvest by working in the processing center (an activity carried out at night) or in the solar drying area.  The drying of coffee is the most labor intensive activity because the coffee must be moved around constantly and needs to be placed in sacks and stored in the warehouse.

During the rest of the year, the volunteers can work on the coffee plantations in coordination with the homestay families by: treating the coffee shells with earthworm compost to produce fertilizer for the farms; cultivating crops and plants; taking care of cattle including cutting grass and placing it in the troughs, collecting dung to produce fertilizer and packing up the fertilizer.

If the volunteer work is arranged in advance, the work could include painting signs and walls with ceramic tiles and recycled pieces of glass.  As well, the volunteers could help with office work, teaching English or another language, cooking in the association’s restaurant, or collecting samples from the trails for the database of the organic farm.

Although volunteers can be involved in many activities, it does require coordinating the interests of the volunteers with the needs of ASOPROLA.