Sustainability and the Environment: "Sadia's Internship Report"

For the past month, I have been interning as a Marketing Assistant for the Children’s Eternal Rainforest and the Bajo del Tigre reserve. The Children’s Eternal Rainforest (Bosque Eterno de los Niños; BEN) is the largest private reserve in Costa Rica, with over 23,000 hectares of forest. This reserve is present today because of the generosity of children who raised funds to purchase the original land, and donations from schools, organizations, and governments in over 44 countries. Bajo del Tigre represents a small portion of the BEN and is easily accessible for visitors and includes a visitor’s center, children’s house, green house and native garden, lookout platform, and several maintained walking trails.

The Monteverde Conservation League (MCL) is a non-profit organization devoted to protecting the tropical biodiversity of Costa Rica. For 30 years the MCL has been the soul steward of the BEN. The small fee that international visitor pay at Bajo del Tigre goes directly into funds that help protect the BEN including: infrastructure, maintenance, Ranger salaries, etc. My internship has focused on the marketing strategy in place for Bajo del Tigre. Along with my partner, Chandler Condon, we developed five surveys that targeted specific stakeholders of Bajo del Tigre, allowing us to gain a better understanding about their interests and the current profile of international visitors. Over 80 surveys were completed and the results were statistically analyzed and compiled into a written market research report. With this information, the MCL will be able to better understand their target visitor audience at Bajo del Tigre and understand how to best reach these visitors with their available resources, including social media.

Personally, I have always believed that conservation is extremely important and this project has given me the ability to work towards improving conservation at the largest private reserve in Costa Rica. It is also rewarding to know that my research will help the MCL works towards a financially sustainable future. Learning about the relationships between ecotourism and conservation has also been a topic of great interest for me, professionally. Working alongside the MCL has given me insight on both the pros and cons of using ecotourism to promote and fund conservation. Prior to this project, I had no marketing experience, and after stepping outside my comfort zone and working with my partner and mentors, I can now say that I have a greater understanding of the marketing field and strategies.

Besides the written market research report, I also created an Instagram account for the BEN. Part of my results concluded that the reserve needed to have a larger social media presence, and in my opinion, the creation of an Instagram was one of the greatest accomplishments of the project because the MCL will be able to reach a greater audience. I also included a library of original photographs taken at the Bajo del Tigre reserve that can be used for social media and other promotional materials at the reserve. Overall, I am extremely grateful for the opportunity and look forward to seeing how my research is used by the MCL to improve the conservation of the BEN.