For over thirty years Costa Rica has preserved and conserved their natural lands, resources, and wildlife resulting in a healthy ecosystem. Nature is valuable but its status is fragile and threatened even in Costa Rica. Species like the jaguar are at risk. Justice for Nature with Alena Bendová

One of the main objectives of our projects is to

inspire people, to activate people, to bring them the awareness.

I really wish to inspire people because we are not not arrogant in this

thing that we can change the world and save all and save everything.

But we wanna be like an example for people that even if you're small, even

if you don't have much money you can do good things for nature and for the

future generations and for animals, for the wilderness, this is the main

value we should understand and accept.

And with the Goodwill, I think there might be magical, big things happening

Hello, this is Catherine, your host of the

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The declining state of affairs for our environment worldwide means

that we need to come together.

Work together with other people and other governments.

We cannot turn back time but we can move forward with

conservation and preservation.

My guest uses the word rewild to sometimes describe her initiative and that of

justice for nature forest for children.

Alena Bendová is from Czech Republic, which is where

Justice for Nature is rooted.

Their vision seeks a balance between human civilization and

nature through active preservation of the environment and animals.

Alena Bendová shares her positive imprints and the organization's international

vision which opens the door to the wide public to take responsibility

and also an active role in saving nature and animal species on the planet earth.

Hello, Alena back there in Czech Republic..

And we're back here with part two with Alena Bendová of Justice for Nature.

Last week we talked about Indonesia and the blue-green project , and

the work that Justice for Nature, Forest For Children is doing.

Welcome again.

Thank you.

Thank you.

I'm really happy to have this opportunity to talk more and spread the awareness

about our new project in Costa Rica,

it's just exciting and amazing thing.

The idea of Costa Rica started in 2019 when a founder of a Forest

for Children organization and a little group of representative from

Czech Republic and Czech Rangers.

They went to World Congress of International Ranger Federation in Nepal.

It was a huge thing for us because we do the job , and we admire

the job of Rangers and we were accepted in this world community.

And we had a chance, or my colleagues had a chance there to present

our activities and projects.

And this opened us this door to Costa Rica and into much more countries

because all our people arrangers there were really excited about

what we do and what our knowledge and skills and possibilities are.

One of the contacts, there was Leonel Alonso Delgado Pereira

who is a Costa Rican ranger.

And he's actually a director of the Association of Rangers for

middle America, for Latin America.

And they get a couple of beers.

He suggested them to come to Costa Rica and do this monitoring project,

Eye of Jaguar and it's this project we have it's called, the

eye of the earth, which is a big worldwide monitoring program we have.

It started with Sumatra.

Eye of Tiger program.

Now we are running Eye of Bear in Slovakia, our neighbor country,

and in several more countries.

We did filming in Uganda, or Eye of Rhino program in Uganda, and now

we're waiting to start a program

Eye of Gorilla in democratic Republic of Congo.

We provide field cameras, these photo trips to Rangers and national parks

and it's support for them material support so they can do their job better

and they provide us the footage, the data for creating big educational

program for children worldwide.

This program's going to be called Ethics of the Earth and should be

finished and presented on next or other international ranger Federation

Congress in Azure islands in 2026.

So that's why we are collecting all this data and beautiful footage.

And one of these project one program is Eye of Jaguar in Costa Rica.

The question was money, of course for this expedition and for

starting the monitoring program.

And luckily we have this one man, extraordinary man simple,

older guy from Czech Republic

who's in business with with stocks, market stocks and some realties.

And this guy saw us once on TV.

I don't know, a year or more ago, two years maybe.

This mental change happened and he decided he realizedhe has enough and he wants

to do some good change in the world.

He contacted us and donate us 40 hectares of reserve on Sumatra.

And after that huge, amazing act of kindness we went with him for

dinner, just, to thank him and tell him what's going on and everything.

And we mentioned that we are planning to start monitoring in Costa Rica.

And if there's a possibility that he has some friends to, to ask for some

additional money for this project and he asked how much do you need?

Let's say, 500,000 Czech Crowns.

We don't need to tell anyone.

I will.

I will give you those money.

Wow.

We were explaining, we are excited.

So we got this money for the start of this monitoring.

So we bought all the equipment camera, and field cameras, all the cards and

boxes for these cameras and even a new underwater camera for filming

because Milan the founder, he's a diver amazing diver very experienced.

So I was lucky to be one of the team and we went to Costa Rica in January, 2021,

We started this monitoring program with help of this Leonel who opened

us door to national parks, the most beautiful national park Corcovado and

Guanacaste in the north of the country.

So that's why we got to Costa Rica.

We were excited about the beauties of, and the biodiversity of the Costa

Rican forest and Marine life, we saw whales and dolphins and turtles

and all those beautiful creatures.

Unfortunately I'm not a diver

so they saw all of it and I was just picking trash on the beach.

Well, that's good to do.

Yeah.

It's my favorite activity.

My hobby actually.

So I was happy to at anyway, we were just looking on all this and we were super

excited about the situation in Costa Rica with the politics of environmental

protection and environmental politics

Being that it's positive down there, the politics of the environment

they are working towards sustainability.

Yes.

In eighties or early nineties, there have elected some enlightened

politicians who started this way of education and protecting and starting

the, this initiative for creating national parks and private reserves.

And these days it's a quarter of all Costa Rica.

It's a protected area on national park.

So imagine that, of course it's a small country, they say 26% of the country

is just forest and protected areas.

So, which is just amazing and

I know that Costa Rica, one of the things that they're very

proud of and they should be is that their literacy rate is very high.

So education is very important to not just the people, but to the government.

Yeah.

Yeah.

And they, they brought this this value of nature in the environmental

education or in education in general.

So even the economy transformed in sake of the natural protection, there is a

lot of eco touristic like companies and places and all those resorts and bungalows

and people are just having a, this profit from tourists, which is good because they,

they put it back into nature protection, partly but in, in education as well.

So there's this value of nature protection based on from school.

Of course, it's not a, it's not a perfect as, nowhere in the world is perfect.

And the nature protection there is facing so many problems too.

It's a.

Really happy to have us there.

And the fact that we can help somehow.

We brought 60 cameras and we gave them for use for Rangers in those two national

parks I mentioned the Corcovado and Guanacaste and Santa Rosa national park.

What was the outcome you wanted?

What were your goals with Eye of the Jaguar monitoring program?

Well, we only started this program and it's running.

Our goal was to see Jaguar which actually happened.

And we wanted to bring the materials, start the program, and the goal

for Rangers like in Indonesia, it's a prevention of illegal

activities, monitoring of animals.

You're not monitoring the animal just for data.

You're monitoring the animal for preservation.

Yeah.

Too, as well,

This big cats are moving around and, migrating through the big

areas and even across the countries.

So, I don't think that even, not even scientists know the right or

exact amounts number of, Jaguars.

We don't know how many Jaguars or animals we are losing.

No, this is hard.

Even when in Costa Rica, it's a prohibited all hunting or killing animals.

We have legal hunting here in Europe or in Czech Republic.

Costa Rica, through this evolving, they quit with all the killing, with the zoos

circuses and all the things using animals.

There is no such thing, like legal hunting game in this country.

So all killings is illegal.

Poachers are after Jaguars too.

Of course.

And it is because of this traditional Chinese medicine in the case of tigers.

So they are going after jaguars too.,

yeah.

Which is really too bad because we're losing the Jaguars, we're losing

the pangolin, we're losing all sorts of animals to medicinal practices.

And I understand culture, but times are different now.

And so that's a whole different topic, right?

Yeah.

So what feedback are you receiving from the Costa Rican Rangers?

Well, the feedback for cooperation is great and

we're have some first data or of some first footage of animals like

tapirs or jaguars and or Pumas.

And this is great.

Because we provided those cameras to scientists there in Costa Rica, the

university scientists from Costa Rican university who are running scientific

work in in those national parks.

So it's a mulit- cooperation of those institutions.

And I'm really happy.

It's a, again, it's worldwide.

We need cooperate across the professions

, one of the aims or use uses of the cameras.

It's not only to gain pictures of animals in the wild or catching

some illegal activities or people there, but as well, it's for research

For some strategies for conservation, which is great.

And if only Jaguars and other animals would stay put in the

safe areas and not travel out, but of course animals are wanderers.

And so they move about, so they go across government borders, political borders.

And unfortunately we lose a lot of animals, not just that way, because

obviously even Costa Rica is unfortunately seeing poaching within their country.

We saw unexpected openness to have people there

are open to all the kind of cooperations they were super happy.

And we have this comparison with Indonesia and Costa Rica.

It's like total opposite.

That could be changed and that's something that is not beyond

our control, because we can, it just takes more than just one organization.

That's true.

Yeah.

Yeah.

And okay.

And from all of this came up this idea to start the projects there

thanks great.

So now it's called Bosque...

Bosque para Los Niños, Forest for children,

Yes.

This this name justice for nature is a, it's like a umbrella name for all

the projects, because it's a, it's like the main idea and we are, as

we are driving more to the world, we want to transform a little bit more.

So, we are presenting this idea, this justice for nature.

So we started this, and again, we brought the, there is a green life blue life idea,

like a kind of a copy paste and thanks to our great extraordinary person, Karel.

We had this opportunity to start there again and he donate us Nice sum of money

for start for buying the first land.

So he's the savior of so many forests now.

We had these amazing luck for, and thanks to Leonel who's a really the

gate opener and door opener there.

He knew about a guy who worked all his life for conservation

and nature protection.

And he owned this area this land it's a 95 hectares.

And we met with him, and he decided to sell us this property, for

a really non-regular price,

so we have our new Costa Rican green life reserve which is 95

hectares with some basic camp.

They were building some new house with rooms for volunteers

and for scientists as well

because this reserve will be open to science, and children.

We want to take kids and children into the reserve, into the forest and even

on a sea to learn and to have this experience from nature, because this

is what's the most important thing.

I think a direct experience so then people can understand.

this is the story of green life reserve, which was just born.

With your ecotourism and the people that are going

to go visit, there's going to be a larger percentage of exposure

over in Costa Rica, I think because it's a country that's more

easily accessible to tourists.

There are people around the world who really want to get involved

and they want to do it on site.

A lot of people don't want to just take out their wallets and give a donation.

They want to be on site.

So how can they help you in Costa Rica or in Indonesia?

Well, a good thing is that we are open for volunteers from wherever.

Not only Czech volunteers so people can visit us, they can have

this experience by themselves.

The programs fully should be in November this year,

So the process to apply for volunteering it's going to be through

email, and there's going to be some email address on our website.

Okay.

And November is not that far away.

So if people want to volunteer, they need to start looking at their schedules and

what time they can provide, even, for them, they might be able to provide, a

long period of helping justice for nature.

So they can go to justicefornature.org and contact Alena Bendová yes, there

are people that listen to the show that do look for places where they

can activate their positive imprints.

So through our organization, we want to coordinate and

maybe help to get more volunteers for Rangers and national parks too, because

they need, they really need the help.

We got together with a, another NGO it's called for the oceans foundation.

It's Costa Rican NGO director Mr.

Jorge Serendero.

The name of our blue life project

it's going to be ambassadors for the oceans.

And the aim is to have expedition boat.

And for this, and this boat should be like a floating school for children,

place for Marine biologists and divers.

and help for Rangers as well.

For media, we wanna create a floating media office for for broadcasting

life, from the ocean to, to show people what's happening there.

And the main area where we want to operate it's between OSA peninsula,

which is Costa Rican peninsula, where is Corcovado Cocos island, which is a top

locality for Marine biodiversity and for divers, but it's really super expensive

to get there because it's so rare.

It's a huge, and extraordinary, amazing Marine biodiversity there, whales,

humpback whales, all kinds of turtles, whales, dolphins tunas, Everything

you can even imagine it's there, it's in this area, but the trouble is it's

not under protection of any state.

It's not it's not territorial waters, so it's open sea.

And again, there is this problem of massive illegal fishing and overfishing by

all the boats again mostly Chinese ships are getting there and then, over-fish all

the area and it's a sort of true danger.

So one of our goals is to be there, bring through this live broadcast

people, the information and pictures of what's going on there.

It's like a prevention and protection of the area and the Marine life.

And the bigger aim or the bigger goal, biggest goal is to put it under protection

of a United nations or wherever.

I think the United nations they got it on somewhere on a table, but for.

I don't know for some reasons it's just not happening, but

we, and we want to push it

We just signed this agreement on cooperation with the partner

organization, and now newly this for the oceans foundation signed

a memorandum on cooperation with ministry of environment in Costa Rica.

It's moving slowly and we need to start first, which we hope will be

the beginning of next year January.

But we will see depends on the money, on a condition of a boat.

I won't be the person talking to United nations.

So my role is to speak for Czech organization, mostly for our programs,

present our programs, but this lobbying activity, it's not going to be my task.

We'll keep our fingers crossed for the future of the protection of that

area, because it certainly sounds like it obviously will be needed, but Justice for

Nature, Forest For C hildren definitely does so much for our global society.

Yes.

We will be looking for specialized volunteers.

For diverse Marine photographers and people with all those skills

and of course, for maintaining the boat and all these things, so

all the services and activities.

So there's going to be a possibility to join us as a volunteer for this

Marine program to o but there'll be a little bit different conditions

for it because it's way more serious than, just have a walk in the forest

Well, Alena, thank you so much again for sharing your positive

imprint and everything that you are doing for justice for nature,

forest for children, and people can find you at justicefornature.org.

And also I have my eco tote bags at my store, yourpositiveimprint.com,

which actually has justice for nature and your name and the episode.

It's a way for people to journey with you by carrying the bag

around with justice, for nature

we truly wish companies organizations and institutions to

get in touch with us and cooperate.

And as I mentioned in last week episode, We are really creative.

We can use any help of time of services, of materials, of skills,

it's just about the goodwill to do something, to help, to join.

And we, are community justice for nature is a community.

So we are open to any ethical beings and ethically thinking people.

I wanna ask them to join us and go and start this green and blue life

amazing journey with us because it is hard, but it's just magic,

Alena, you've been working over in Indonesia with the Sumatran forests,

and now you're over in Costa Rica and of course you have your Czech forests.

So can you kind of help listeners get a visual of what these forests are like?

Well, people are asking me about the difference if there is

any difference between a Costa Rican rainforest and a Sumatran rainforest.

There is some, but the, it depends on the area, on the place, because

for example, this Corcovado national park, this forest was really hot

and we could see a lot of animals.

We, we, we saw tupirs,, we saw toucans,, sloths,

it's a fully and rich ecosystem, so they're all

representatives of all the life.

So yeah, they're frogs, they're snakes.

They're many more.

And walking for the first time we came to a stream or a little river

and we couldn't tell a difference.

It was just same..

It was just green life, no matter where, if it's Costa Rica or Sumatra,

you wouldn't tell where you are.

So this was a amazing moment.

The Guanacaste area in Costa Rica this national park Santa Rosa and Guanacaste.

And it's a totally different ecosystem.

It's this dry forest, which is half of the year it's totally dry.

And half of the year, it's a super green and full of life.

We were there in March and April, which we'll say somewhere in the middle,

we saw it dry, but slowly thriving.

So there are difference between all those forests and ecosystems,

but what they have in common

It's just the beauty of the wilderness.

It's something I can't describe or visualize.

I pulled here some pictures, so people might see, but it's not the same.

You need to have this experience so you can feel it.

You can gain the energy from the ecosystem.

And I think this is the most valuable

and exclusive thing in this world, because, you can

buy pretty much everything.

You can have expensive cars, expensive here and there, everything, but this is

something so fragile and so beautiful.

It's purity.

It's a pure life.

No, it's a, it's pure life there.

And if we destroy or let this destroy by our ignorance, we are just crude.

And those are such good words of wisdom and inspiring words to live by.

Alena Bendová,

thank you so much for sharing your positive imprints with us regarding

all of your journeys into nature.

And just a reminder, JusticeforNature.org.

Thank you again, Alena.

Thank you so much.

Thank you, Catherine.

Your positive imprint.