ABSTRACT
The Santa Elena Rainforest Reserve (SERR) project is an ongoing community-based project that seeks to addresses the critical problematic between development and conservation in attempting to foster economic self-sufficiency and natural resource conservation among a lowincome community. The project served to provide a diversification of the Santa Elena community’s economic basis in providing an alternative to traditional industry bases like agriculture and forestry which had significant negative impacts on natural areas and the communities associated with these areas. This project was established with the objective of enabling the Santa Elena community, who are living in a marginal or environmentally threatened area, to take an active interest in the preservation of their natural resources by providing local incentives through direct and perceivable benefits.
