The first field visit to the Cuajiniquil and Térraba-Sierpe sites took place in August 2018. It was an opportunity to inspect the reference sites and areas to be restored prior to installing field monitoring equipment.

A second visit to the sites was made at the end of November/early December 2018 to install Thalimedes sensors to determine the behaviour over the hydro-electric period and the soil topography. Soil samples were taken from the restoration area, especially in Térraba-Sierpe. A visit was also made to the Pitahaya region to identify a potential site for restoration.

20 December 2018: the project’s first steering committee meeting in Costa Rica

The first phases of the restoration work include an assessment of the local environment:
• Selection of restoration areas and a reference area for data calibration
• Analysis of the restoration and reference areas’ environmental conditions
• Monitoring of the physicochemical conditions of interstitial water
• Analysis of the physicochemical parameters of the sediment
• Analysis of the forest structure and physiognomic types of the reference forests
• Primary productivity (leaf-litter production and phenological behaviour)
• Biomass and carbon in reference forests (quantification of carbon accumulated in the soil)
• Methane concentration in the restoration area and in a forest dominated by Rhizophora mangle.