Though the refuge is protected to some degree it does not have adequate patrol to ensure no logging, hunting, or other illegal activity is taking place. The major issues facing the local community besides pervasive deforestation and wildlife extinction, include lack of healthy food, lack of initiative, lack of access to education, lack of jobs, lack of funding for locally generated projects, addiction and general toxemia. The land is subdivided by private property, but is mostly not being used. Owners generally express interest in improving the land, but don't always know how or what to do. Through a community permaculture project, we really have the opportunity to demonstrate a viable alternative before economic and social factors push this land into use for grazing, timber, pavement, and commercial development.
Every challenge has an opportunity to learn new lessons and evolve to a greater potential.
The Gandoca-Manzanillo Permaculture Trail Project promises to find solutions and fulfill these opportunities. This project aims to inspire stewardship of this wildlife refuge within the local community while providing education, jobs, and organic yields towards a sustainable future. Income opportunities from ecotourism, educational programming, and trade could provide for a surplus fund to assist in organizing and equipping community monitoring and protection efforts of the forest reserves, as well as to aid local initiatives for ecologically sustainable development. Successive phases lead to a climax ecosystem and works for itself while providing permanent sustenance for generations to come. This eliminates the need to constantly have to clear land to replant annual crops, which besides being unnecessarily labor-intensive, is destructive to the soil and wildlife.