Sustainable Living In Costa Rica
Living at Osa Mountain Village
Are you interested in living a more sustainable life? Become part of the growing number of people that are calling Osa Mountain Village home by purchasing a villa or lot within our community. You can find out more information at our community & properties-for-sale website OMVCostaRica.info. Stay with us in a vacation villa and take our eco tour of sustainable living!
The development is been created using sustainable principles that will allow our community members to live abundantly and with modern conveniences without leaving a negative impact on the surroundings. Only former pasture land has been used for the construction footprint and the majority of our 750 acres of primary forest will remain undeveloped so that our residents will always have the jungle experience in their backyard.
Our goal is to conserve energy and use sustainable/renewable energy resources to reduce our dependency on the public power system. The primary focus will be in the resort community common areas. Many individual homes also may employ solar electrical or solar thermal solutions.
All of the villas and community buildings at Osa Mountain Village Resort use the latest in sustainable building concepts for a tropical zone. Large overhangs to reduce direct sunlight, natural shade and modern insulation and materials will reduce interior temperature swings and save energy. And with abundant water sources located on the property we may use micro hydro plants for electrical generation to meet a portion of our community power requirements in the future. This method uses the existing water and gravity to push water through a small turbine to produce electricity.
We have planted thousands of different trees such as avocados, almonds, and 60 varieties of tropical fruits including mangos, papayas, and 5 kinds of oranges. To promote tree growth, swales were created to conserve the plentiful rainfall during the wet season for use during the dry season. The swales were built along the contour of hillsides by digging up compacted soil, aerating it and then using the soil to create down slope berms that act as sponges. Instead of the water flowing along the contour of the hill it now percolates into the soil forming underground reservoirs of water. Many of the fruit trees were planted on top of the swales and no irrigation is necessary.
Green houses that use vertical growing systems allow us to grow medicinal plants and herbs that are more fragile and can be damaged by heavy rainfall. With more than 1,000 growing sites in a 2,000 square foot green house one can grow the equivalent amount that 2.5 acres of fertile farm land would grow using conventional methods. The hydroponic, vertical-growing system will provide healthy, organic produce; everything from leafy greens to herbs medicinal plants. A beneficial fungus is used as a natural insecticide, further eliminating harmful chemicals that are commonly used in commercial food production.
Our other sustainable food sources include fish farming and animal husbandry. These enhance the overall ecosystem with their by-products and secondary benefits such as insect and weed control.