Tag: Nosara community involvement
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Nosara Social Science Study Report to the Community: Four Perspectives on a Sustainable Future in Nosara, Costa Rica
Dr. Alvaro Salas Castro is a frequent quest on the Nosara Podcast. You may remember him as the leader of the community round table event at El Local last July 29th. This event was hosted to share & gather information for the Nosara Social Science Study.
A team of high level social scientists including Dr. Alvaro Salas, Tina Nabatchi, Christian Freitag, and Greg Munno are conducting the study focusing on Nosara’s ability to become a model community for the world, or just another standard beach town.
There are many different levels to the study which evolves around the sustainable future of Nosara. After the event they have been working hard on processing the data further with the first results now coming out.
We just received the publication of the research which we’ll include here below as a downloadable PDF as well as the Abstract from the publication:
The town of Nosara on Costa Rica’s Nicoya peninsula is home to a vibrant community of diverse residents and is adjacent to an important turtle nesting site. However, tensions between lifelong residents, more recent transplants, visitors, and developers have increased as more of the
world discovers this once-isolated haven. Climate change, income inequality, and alienation from a
distant government apparatus have further complicated effective land-use planning and fractured
social cohesion. Using a mixed-method approach of in-depth interviews (n = 67), Q methodology
(n = 79), and public deliberation (n = 88), we explored residents’ priorities for the future of their
town. The results indicate four different perspectives on Nosara’s future. Despite the tensions among
those four perspectives, they show consensus on one overarching community issue: the need for
a sustainable development plan. The case also shows how Q-methodology can assist scholars and
practitioners who embrace participatory approaches to policy development and conflict resolution in
the environmental arena.For more background on this also include below is one of the earlier Dr. Salas episodes if you haven’t heard about this research before. More news and updates about the next steps and process will follow soon, so keep an eye out for any new updates!
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NP #130: Beverly Kitson’s presentation about Nosara and the Biblioteca David Kitson for Middleburry is awesome; Enjoy this one 🙂
Please enjoy Beverly Kitson sharing 50 years of Nosara’s history and the origination of the Biblioteca David Kitson and what it is doing for the community. Locals appear in this episode who share their experiences while Beverly navigates us through an entertaining and enlightening history with pictures of Nosara in past decades. Beverly invites everyone to become a patreon of the Biblioteca.
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NP #120: Nick Mcalpin shares serious water knowledge & personal opinions in this 38 minute Nosara Podcast episode
Nick Mcalpin joins Rich for this new episode of the Nosara Podcast to talk about wastewater, storm water and soil management. He explains the problems Nosara has with these three topics and the possible ways we can all start to contribute to the solution. He also shares his own way of living in his property which can inspire many of us to live life differently and in a more ecological way.
Here are some links of interest:
https://www.instagram.com/plain.surf/ (Nick’s instagram where he posts a lot about his property and alternative ways of living)
https://www.harvestingrainwater.com/ (a book Nick mentions)
https://www.instagram.com/nosarapodcast/
https://www.facebook.com/NosaraPodcast -
NP #112: Guardians of Nature is on a mission… And it is working! In 23 minutes Jessica Sheffield updates how Nosara is turning into an ‘innovation lab’ and ‘faith, hope, and strategy can change anything’
In this Nosara Podcast episode Jessica Sheffield updates us about Guardians of Nature and shares her vision of increasing eco literacy throughout Latin America and beyond. The program is working already in Nosara and quickly expanding in Latin America and beyond.
Here’s my notes:
- Intro… GoN ‘Mom’ and DMA cofounder
- Nosara is an innovation lab for public schools
- Importance of trajectories
- Trees in CR almost all gone by the 1980’s yet CR changed trajectory and is now inventor of ecotourism (will put in map photos)
- DMA was not intended to ever be an island
- Local schools in Nosara having impact and ripple effect
- Step by step… Not 1 huge one
- Covid, floods, strikes, etc. Really hurt kids
- Enriching English very important
- How can people get involved?
- Can donate time, financially, or preferably both
- Could Nosara’s public school be model for the world?
- Faith, hope, and strategy can change anything
- Local businesses adopted local schools and now composting, recycling, English enrichment, etc.
- Bram recommendation of book Rocket Man
- GoN using bottom up approach, not top down
- Working with government much better in accomplishing greater reach
- Check site also 501c3 available via Amigos site
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NP #107: Mary Smathers; Being an author in Nosara, tennis updates, getting people involved in the community, Nosara pros & cons, restaurants, Ostional’s recent increase in activity in 16 minutes
Mary Smathers is an author and active community member who shares her background and recent book launch, provides tennis info and updates, explains how new people can and should get involved in the community right away, what her Nosara likes and dislikes are and updates on Ostional’s recent growth increase.
*Stay tuned to my YouTube channel for several brief segments with Mary by subjects
Here’s notes from this 16 minute version with Mary:
Appreciates me providing info from somewhere besides social media
I complain about social media not actually advancing our issues.
Mary used to write for La Voz for years when it’s focus was on Nosara. In recent years she’s been working on her novels and her 2nd novel is now released:
Mary’s new book background
Bio info, where her stories originate from, fascination with California history, the story or journey behind the main characters
Tennis brief history and Nosara Tennis Club and most recent tennis tournament.
Shout out to 94 year old Ed Kornbluth and the kids… Lots of friends available from all kinds of various areas in the world and good people to know and ways to learn the community
Mary wants new people to get involved and meet people and interact. Tennis club, Biblioteca, Bomberos, wildlife refuges, etc. Get involved!
Beverly Kitson reference and library history and what library is doing today. Over 25 years with private funds, over 15,000 books in many languages, how library is community center, etc.
Ostional-Guiones seems different worlds. No big growth in Ostional but that’s starting to change. Osti struggles with jobs and that part Of growing is good to help locals. New houses and progress in developments near where she lives.
I ask favorite and least favorite things about Nosara. Pros: Community closeness in helping, amazing restaurants. Negatives: Growth is uncontrolled, safety in traffic, not living pura vida way.
Not leaving Nosara loves writing here and living in other home too.
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NP #18: February 2019 Nosara Security Association Update: Call To Action On Private Security Throughout Playas de Nosara
All of Central America, including Nosara, has problems with petty theft. The Nosara Security Association is trying to deter and prevent house break in’s as well as all other types of crime we experience. Private Security is the only real solution we have for this.
In this breakdown Rich shows how the Beaches of Nosara could feasibly link up to drastically decrease crime in our community.
We’ve heard every objection and tried loads of different ways… Private Security is THE only method which works 99% of the time.
Your neighborhood should have a WhatsApp group to link into. Send me a message if you need the info.
If you have a location we can utilize security cameras, please let us know.
These new security cameras like Ring are working extremely well and we appreciate the photos of ‘creepers’ and attempted break-ins. We’ve identified several people already with these so thank you.
Main point: If we have private security in each neighborhood we can eliminate most of the crime we experience.
Please get with your property manager or myself ASAP so connect about linking up your neighborhood.
*I am willing to do a personalized webinar for your neighborhood until November 2019.
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NP #14: Gerardo from Costas Verdes wants to bring the forest back to the sea
BarriGuiones is an organization improving Playa Guiones and Nosara. Gerardo is the Project Director and is the ideal person to lead this project. He stopped by to speak with Rich for a 2019 update about what they’ve accomplished and where he is looking to go. Along the way there’s lots of discussion about development in Nosara and likes and dislikes or our area.
We hope you enjoy this discussion. The first version is a short one and later on we will release the full discussion.
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NP #11: The Guardians of Nature: How Jessica Sheffield plans to change the world
Jessica Sheffield is on the short list as one of the ‘Saints of Nosara’ as I like to say. She is an extremely hard worker and dedicated to making the world a better place while leading by example. Jessica doesn’t tolerate laziness and encourages everyone to get involved with what matters most in their communities. There are countless projects she serves with such as President of Nosara Recicla for about a decade (she is currently the vice president), a founder of Del Mar Academy, and way too many more to mention.
Her newest project, The Guardians of Nature, is what she deems as her ‘passion project’ and her goals for it are highly aggressive. This time she is not just aiming only to help Nosara and the country of Costa Rica… She is trying to change the world. And it is working!
I hope you enjoy this discussion and choose to support Jessica’s vision in becoming a reality. One way of doing so is supporting the upcoming event for Guardians of Nature at Olo Alaia in January. Please come if you can… You won’t regret it.
Learn more at: www.movimientoguardianes.org
Or on Facebook: La Guardiana de la Naturaleza
