Friends of the Osa is excited to announce the opening of the Osa Biodiversity Center, a research and education facility that will serve as a base of operations for tropical ecology research and environmental education programs on Costa Rica's Osa Peninsula. The OBC provides comfortable accommodations and research facilities for students, scientists, and conservation professionals working on the Osa.
The center currently houses up to 25 people in three cabin-style buildings, each of which has three bedrooms. The center provides a laboratory and secure storage room as well as dining facilities that can be used for group meals and meetings. The lab is spacious, with multiple sinks and benches for working with samples of all kinds. The OBC's greatest asset, however, is its close proximity to a tremendous diversity of ecosystems. The center, located on an 800-acre forested property, provides easy access to some of the most diverse old-growth rainforest in Central America. This property lies in the center of a forested corridor stretching from Corcovado National Park all the way to Cabo Matapalo at the southern tip of Osa. Cooperative use arrangements with owners of adjacent properties provide students and scientists based at the OBC with access to an additional 3,000 acres of intact habitat. Within walking distance are a variety of pristine and disturbed forest types that harbor some of the largest trees to be found in the neotropical rainforest, agro-ecological systems, freshwater streams, and coastal habitat. The forests surrounding the OBC are home to a diverse array of large mammals, including jaguars, tapirs, and peccaries. Cooperative use arrangements with owners of adjacent properties provide students and scientists based at the OBC with access to an additional 3,000 acres of intact habitat. Moreover, the OBC is located nearby to Corcovado National Park, the crown jewel of the Costa Rican park system. Within its borders, students and scientists can explore additional habitats, including extensive raffia palm swamps and lagoon systems. www.osaconservation.org
