Program for the community
The sanctuary belongs to everyone who cares for it.
Villanueva, Bolívar · Sanctuary neighbors
Conservation is neighborhood.
Tropical dry forest isn't restored from outside: it's restored with the people who live in it. The foundation works with the Villanueva community not as an occasional visitor but as a neighbor. This program opens field days to anyone who wants to join, free of charge and without barriers.
Purpose
That Villanueva residents have an active link with the sanctuary — not as spectators of a project happening nearby, but as participants in its care. That knowledge about wildlife, plants, and territory flows in both directions.
How residents take part
We open community days throughout the year where neighbors join the team in real tasks: planting native trees, wildlife monitoring, trail maintenance, feeding birds. There's an open invitation and the work is done in guided subgroups.
We also welcome local initiatives: if a town school, a youth group, or a women's collective wants to coordinate their own day, we plan it together.
What you do, what you learn
Five practices rooted in territory
Walking the neighboring forest
Recognizing species by local names, listening to neighborhood birds, mapping sectors known but unnamed. The forest becomes familiar.
Planting for the children
Every tree stays in the territory. You plant it and it grows alongside the town's children.
Recording familiar wildlife
Learning to turn into data what the community already knows: when the guayacán blooms, when macaws arrive, where guans nest.
Caring for the sanctuary's animals
Helping prepare food and walk the aviary rounds. Getting to know up close the parrots the foundation rehabilitates and releases over Bolívar.
Maintaining the trails
Looking after the infrastructure biologists, volunteers, and the community itself use to enter the forest. It's invisible work, but critical.
The forest isn't cared for alone. It's cared for with its neighbors.
Logistics
Community days are free and run between half a day and a full day. They're announced in advance through WhatsApp, local networks, and around town. The foundation provides tools, water, and snacks. Participants only need comfortable clothes, a hat, and willingness to work.
Contribution
What gets built with the community is social fabric: neighbors meeting each other in the forest, young people discovering trades, elders sharing traditional knowledge. The foundation can't care for tropical dry forest alone; with its neighbors, it can.
Want to join the next community day?
Message us on WhatsApp and we'll let you know when we organize the next one.