Project Centinela: Climate Corridors for the Osa Peninsula

In Costa Rica’s extraordinary Osa Peninsula, Osa Conservation is building ecological and social resilience. They’re on the ground working with local communities, government officials, and global leaders to build a climate-adaptive mega-corridor where people and nature can thrive together.

One project, known as the “climate lifeboat,” has a mission to map and validate environmental conditions, habitat integrity, and wildlife connectivity. This helps identify high-priority locations for habitat restoration and interventions that improve connectivity—such as arboreal bridges and overpasses. To do this, they’re using multiple data streams and modeling efforts that rely on Planet data.

Sierpe wetlands, Osa, Costa Rica. Date captured: April 2, 2024

Osa Conservation wants to uncover how climate change and habitat fragmentation are affecting species and ecosystems in an area renowned for biodiversity in the southern Pacific region of Costa Rica. This mountains-to-sea landscape has the potential to provide climate resilience for wildlife populations in Central America.

The connected vision for the wider Corcovado to La Amistad landscape, with functional connectivity between protected areas established by active restoration and land protection of corridors. Source: Osa Conservation

To design the right pathways, the team maps potential corridors for wildlife, modeling landscape conditions and change over time, and then prioritizes corridors based on their ecological condition and current use by local wildlife.

Planet imagery and Planetary Variables are combined with information from camera traps, GPS animal tracking devices, and traditional biodiversity surveys. Access to Planet’s remote sensing data and analytics support many related landscape connectivity and habitat restoration initiatives.

Osa Conservation is using PlanetScope mosaics and Forest Carbon Diligence to analyze connectivity between protected areas in the region and characterize the ecological state of candidate wildlife corridors.

Forest Carbon Diligence helps Osa Conservation track spatial and temporal dynamics in forest cover throughout the Osa Peninsula, particularly in areas undergoing experiments in habitat restoration.

Osa Conservation is particularly excited to combine Land Surface Temperature with empirical observations of wildlife presence and behavior, providing insight into how species respond to climate change and the location of potential refugia.

Source: Osa Conservation

Working together with Planet, Osa Conservation can successfully identify high-priority locations for habitat restoration, protection, and interventions to enhance connectivity.

The integration of high-resolution remote sensing and boots-on-the-ground fieldwork can generate long-term protection in biodiversity hotspots like the Osa Peninsula. Over the course of Project Centinela’s three-year biodiversity subscription, Osa Conservation will apply Planet data in a range of planning, assessment, monitoring, and reporting activities that underpin climate-resilient wildlife corridors and community engagement for the future.

Carrying seedlings for the restoration of climate corridors in the southern Pacific region of Costa Rica.
Source: Ian Rock / Osa Conservation