Commitment to sustainability has always been important to Rancho Naturalista from the start. We have evolved from a working finca with coffee, sugar cane, Hawaiian pineapple, and black pepper, into a top notch birdwatching lodge with a private forest reserve. Areas that once were farmed are now secondary forest. This reforested land, along with a large area of primary rainforest provides a home for many species of birds and mammals as well as reptiles and amphibians! We have 6 basic principles of sustainability at Rancho Naturalista:

• We recycle at Rancho Naturalista and also participate in local community recycling projects where all glass and plastic as well as metal goes to help support the local project.
   
• We use local reforested renewable wood such as Pine, Laurel or salvaged wood for our building repairs at the lodge.
   
• Rancho Naturalista continually practices reforestation. We plant trees purchased at CATIE, a local agricultural tropical research center. We select trees that provide fruits and flowers for the birds and animals. If you would like to plant a tree please let us know as we do have trees available for our guests to plant so they can help out with our commitment to reforestation.
   
• We organically raise much of the food provided at Rancho Naturalista for our guests. For example organic kitchen leftovers help feed the pigs that are raised for meat at Rancho. We raise organic beef and chicken. We also buy all our supplies locally in order to help support our local community.
   
• Rancho Naturalista hosts students in the fields of biology, ornithology, and other tropical nature studies. We also host special days for school children at the lodge. Rancho Naturalista helps (however we can) the local area officials whose job it is to stop deforestation and the killing of wild animals.
   
• We support the local community by hiring and training local young people for guiding and other jobs at Rancho Naturalista. One hundred percent of our permanent staff come from nearby villages.