One of the things we strive for in our plantations is to retain, and hopefully increase, the biodiversity that may have been lost from the original razing of the forest.  Most plantations in Central America are/have been established on pastureland; that is land that was deforested for the establishment of cattle pasture.  Usually the process goes something like this; loggers extract precious hardwoods, opening extraction roads, campesinos (or small farmers) move in and some small-scale cultivation takes place.  These small parcels are sold legally or Illegally to larger land owners that see no value in the forest, and raze it and its biodiversity for pastureland.  In the tropics it’s almost universal that the economics of cattle operations fail and eventually these sell to large agro-industrial operations (Teak, Pine, Palm, Sugar cane, etc).  By this time these soils are severely degraded.

Responsible land-use is something that we’re passionate about.  In the end it’s about respecting the land’s potential as a refuge and as a provider, equally.  We fully recognize that a plantation of any type, even with an emphasis towards biodiversity will never fully replace the flora and fauna of a natural forest, but we do hope to greatly increase the figures (10x+) when compared to standard plantations.

All images below were taken on or near IAF plantations.