From the mountains to the sea
The Jesús María River Basin is located in Costa Rica’s Pacific region, and covers 35,280ha of a diverse landscape comprised of forests, coffee plantations and fruit trees, mangroves, pastures, cash crops, water bodies, and urban areas.
Descending from a maximum elevation of 1,400m through to the coastal zone, the basin also consists of several sub-basins that eventually drain into the Pacific Ocean via the Tivives wetland - a Wildlife Protected Area – with its mangrove and estuarine system.
Life Rekindled
Through an integrated landscape approach – including ecosystem restoration, watershed management, and forest restoration - farmers in the Jesús María River Basin are seeing more life return to the area.
They are seeing the natural habitats of the area restored. They are simultaneously fighting erosion, halting soil degradation and helping solve some of the sedimetation that flows downstream when soil is eroded upstream.
For the farmers in the Jesús María River Basin, as with farmers all over the world, the soil is the foundation for their economy.
The main economic activity in the region is agriculture, with coffee, rice, sugar cane, and fruit production of particular importance. In spite of its current productivity, there is concern that the environmental threats to the Jesús María River Basin will have adverse socioeconomic consequences in future, as parts of the surrounding landscape are undergoing a rapid cultural transition and urbanisation.
In particular, the watershed is experiencing declines in biodiversity, agricultural productivity, and water availability due to historical processes of unsustainable agricultural practices - especially on the steeper upper-basin slopes – as well as deforestation, poor rural road design, and land use changes.

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