Selva Negra Eco Lodge and Coffee Estate is an eco-resort, nature reserve, fine-dining restaurant, coffee plantation, organic farm, scientific research station, wedding chapel and conference center, all joined together by a philosophy of living in harmony with nature.
Impact in our tourism operations
- Cultural Heritage preservation - we strive to educate visitors to Selva Negra about our beautiful homeland. Located throughout the estate are many educational murals depicting indigenous history, language and art.
- Minimize Environmental Impact - we patrol the estate and rain forest and enforce rules against hunting, deforestation, logging, burning, trash-dumping and damage to the flora and fauna.
- Bio Diversity Conservation - with the assistance of local and international organizations we continuously monitor our flora and fauna and use them to measure biodiversity conservation.
- Rainforest Alliance Network - our participation in the Rainforest Alliance Network further supports our efforts to meet stringent environmental, social and economic sustainability standards.
- Carbon Footprint - We produce about 201.819 tonnes of CO2 per year. We offset our output with removal of 580 tonnes of CO2 per year. We have available 380 tonnes of credits.
- Wastewater Sanitation Management - - an intensive sanitation process is in place to ensure the proper wastewater sanitation. The process cleans the wastewater, generating methane gas in the process and irrigating fields with fertilizer-rich water.
- Alternative Energy Sources and Energy Conservation - We generate our own power with a hydroelectric turbine sourced from a man-made lake to ease the burden on commercially- generated energy and take significant steps to conserve energy, including research on energy-efficient lighting, use of solar water heaters and careful monitoring of energy usage.
- Reduce, Reuse, Recycle - all three values are central to the culture of Selva Negra. Our entire estate, including the 400 people, the farm, and the resort's visitors generates less than one 55-gallon drum of trash a week. The rest is all reused and recycled.
Impact in our agricultural operations
The agriculture sector worldwide has a huge impact on the environment. It is here that we make our biggest and most important efforts to achieve sustainability.
- Self-sufficiency -- We are strongly committed to self-sufficiency. We produce most of what we consume and strive to acquire the rest from our nearest neighbours.
- Diversity - Diversity is the foundation of our model for environmental and financial sustainability. There are more than ten distinct operations under the Selva Negra umbrella, including tourism, coffee, cacao, cheese and sausage production. Diversity allows one operation to survive hard times while others flourish. It also provides our staff with a broader range of occupational training and job opportunities.
- Pasture-raised cattle - Our unique approach to cattle grazing increases the sustainability of pasture lands and improves the quality of the meat and dairy. We move our cattle quickly between a series of small plots. They spend less than one day on each plot, and in some cases only a few hours. This provides the pasture land with enough time to rejuvenate the soil and vegetation, and the cattle feed continuously on fresh pasture.
- Alternative energy generation - We generate most of the energy needs at the farm with our own hydropower electric plant, and augment the hydropower supply with solar-powered water heaters. We schedule work tasks based on the need to undertake energy-dependent activities within the constraints of limited energy. For example, the welders only weld between 9 to 11 a.m. in the morning, and ironing is done between 11 and 12 a.m.
- Water conservation and wastewater management - We have installed water conservation controls in all bathrooms, toilets, laundry faucets and kitchen facilities. In addition, we have implemented an intensive wastewater management system which generates methane gas as a by product for further fuel conservation.
- Compost generation - we generate over seven million pounds of compost every year thereby recycling all organic waste generated in the farm and tourism operations.
- Eco Latrines - an innovative latrine system is used within the farm. The system includes water conservation methods as well as bio gas digesters producing methane gas for use in the farm kitchen.
- Organic & recycling waste baskets - waste baskets are located throughout the farm with higher concentration around the workers lodging area. The wastebaskets separate organic from non organic waste. The non-organic waste is further separated and used in a variety of ways in the farm.