Costa Rica's green paradise

Project goal: Preserving natural habitats, regenerating ecosystems and protecting species threatened with extinction
Biodiversity: Costa Rica is home to 850 bird species, 1,200 butterfly species, 237 types of mammal species, 378 types of amphibian and reptiles, as well as 12,000 known plant types
Project scale: A total of 800 hectares of forest will be reforested

Costa Rica – the 'rich coast.' The very name says it all. The country is home to dry forests, cloud forests, mangrove belts and almost five percent of the world's known animal and plant species. But there is trouble in paradise. The forests are being destroyed, and with them, valuable natural habitats. A few decades ago, 70 percent of the country was covered in forest, while today the figure has shrunk to 40 percent. Environmental activists are trying to tackle the problem and boost the local population's quality of life with reforestation efforts.

A film by Manuela Kasper-Claridge