Ramirez stares ahead, a look of resignation on his face. The Osa Peninsula is one of the largest expanses of lowland tropical forest left in Central America. Down here, jaguars still come out on the beach to hunt. Scarlet macaws and toucans are as common as sparrows. And on the Osa, the forest canopy rises taller than anywhere else in Costa Rica owing to the abundant rainfall.
Consumers certainly benefit from the giant hardwoods waiting their turn at the sawmill.
In the hands of artisans, they become doors, credenzas, banisters, and floorboards. But environmentalists on the Osa rarely see the end product. They see what is left behind. He is looking at a muddy torrent that drains an upland region that has been heavily logged recently. It is dying because of the sedimentation.