This machete grows trees!

I’m writing you today to ask you to send in a gift to restore and protect a forest.

Here’s what’s happening. The Central American tropical dry forest is a unique ecosystem, but it almost disappeared decades ago after being logged for its fine hardwoods and cleared for ranching. 

Today, there are hardly any tropical dry forest areas left, and those that survive become more damaged without protection.

Small forests are prone to man-made wildfires, and wildlife have trouble finding quality food there. And without enough nutrients, endangered animals like spider monkeys cannot survive, nor can they help rebuild the forest by dispersing seeds or fertilizing the soil. 

Will you please send a in a gift via GlobalGiving to help restore and protect a forest?

           Your gift will help a forest by planting trees and protecting them on private lands in Central America, especially in the dry forests of Costa Rica, Nicaragua, and El Salvador.

Your gift will also help rangers patrol the forest to protect wildlife, build fire breaks, repair fences and trails, and clear weeds that otherwise choke young trees. Your gift will help local children visit forest areas to learn about its wondrous diversity of life, from bright blue morpho butterflies to the playful tayra badgers. With your support, the wildlife in the forests will rejoice in their safe habitat.

If the forest areas we protect do not receive the help it needs in time, then the community rangers will be laid off and will no longer be able to protect the animals there. If our rangers do not continue their work, the reforestation areas that have young trees will be covered in weeds, and only a portion of the tree seedlings will survive. And if the fences collapse and the fire breaks disappear, neighboring cattle will invade and damage the forest, and wildfires will creep over the boundary. I don’t want that to happen, and neither do you.

You care about the tropical dry forest.  And you know it’s not right that dry tropical forests get logged and their wildlife is hunted down.

Your gift will restore and protect a tropical dry forest!  And your gift will support all the work of Paso Pacifico.

Please make a gift to help the forest today!

For the trees,

Dear Friend,

We are deeply grateful for your support of Paso Pacifico’s reforestation efforts under the Machete Project. Thanks to your generosity, we have reached an important milestone: the minimum viable product (MVP) of our digital platform is now complete. This platform is designed to connect tech-savvy young people with experienced rural farmers, fostering knowledge exchange around vegetational management and forest restoration, and producing a broader social movement for reforestation in the tropics.

Our executive director, Sarah Otterstrom, recently traveled to Rio de Janeiro to meet with local changemakers at the Centre for Exponential Change’s Exchange summit. These conversations have opened doors for strategic collaborations with environmental groups that work closely with youth. By partnering with these organizations, we are preparing to launch the platform in phases: first, by organizing events and workshops where young participants can meet directly with farmers, learn time-tested reforestation techniques, and explore how the Machete Project app will support and compensate their efforts. These partnerships lay the groundwork for a robust pilot, ensuring that when we deploy the app, there is already enthusiasm and readiness among youth networks and farmer communities.

On the ground, we welcomed two university groups to Mono Bayo Reserve, inviting them to observe reforestation plots at various stages, from recent plantings to more established growth. 

As we enter the rainy season, timing is critical. We plan to enroll up to 1,000 farmers in the coming months, pairing them with youth groups to begin planting, monitoring survival rates, and sharing learnings via the app. We are finalizing the training videos to accompany the app and the compensation structures that fairly recognize farmers’ expertise and ensure sustained engagement.

Your continued investment is vital at this juncture. Funds will support field visits, translation and illustration of the training manual, technical refinements to the platform, and outreach to expand participation beyond our initial region. By standing with us now, you help validate and scale a model that empowers rural communities, engages youth meaningfully, and accelerates forest restoration across Central America.

Thank you for your partnership and belief in this work. We look forward to sharing pilot results and advancing together toward a larger-scale impact.

Sincerely,

The Paso Pacifico Team