Land Intelligence Report
Telire, Talamanca, Limón Province
1,429 ha · 9.4712, -83.4791 · The capacity is present; the work is regeneration.
The reading in full
This 1,429-hectare parcel near Telire, Talamanca, Limón Province is land with sound foundations and clear regenerative upside. It scores 69 out of 100 on the Dear Wise Earth Land Score.
The risks that most shape a decision here: The terrain is steep, which constrains construction and raises erosion risk. Steep slopes increase building and road costs, limit machinery access, and make the land more prone to erosion and landslides. This area is highly exposed to projected climate change by 2050. Large shifts in temperature and rainfall can change what the land can support, so any plan should be built around the projected conditions, not current ones.
Where the upside lies: A watercourse runs through the parcel. On-site water supports irrigation, livestock, and habitat and can lower water-supply costs — though it may carry buffer or setback rules worth checking.
The wider readings: Rainfall is very high. Abundant water supports productive growth but raises the risk of flooding, waterlogging, and nutrient leaching, so drainage and slope matter. Rainfall has also been rising, which can bring more intense wet seasons; plan drainage accordingly. The area has a rich record of documented wildlife. High biodiversity adds conservation value, may bring species-protection rules, and can support eco-tourism or habitat-credit programs. No satellite soil data is available for this parcel. Soil quality cannot be assessed remotely here, so a ground survey is needed before any agricultural or restoration decision. Official Costa Rican record places this in Telire, Talamanca, Limón. National cadastral and administrative data ground the parcel in the legal record — the basis for title, permitting, and tax diligence.
What the land is telling us: Read across the record, the land reads as stable: the canopy history shows no meaningful loss in a generation and the water signal is holding, which means the work is to build on a sound base rather than to reverse a decline. Of the land's core processes, the water cycle reads as adequate to abundant, so the question is less supply than how well the land captures and holds what falls and community dynamics look rich, with a deep record of documented life nearby. What orbit cannot see is what happens below the surface — soil biology, structure, and the carbon held in the ground — so treat those as the first things to confirm underfoot. Taken together, this is land with sound foundations and clear regenerative upside. Its clearest strength to build from is that a watercourse runs through the parcel.
The verdict
The capacity is present; the work is regeneration.
Telire, Talamanca, Limón Province
Corridor tier · 78 conservation priority
Four of five readings
Weakest: EcologyNot read: Soil
All five read on one axis: higher is better. Pressure scores calm, so a high number means little human pressure on this land. The unread pillars had their weight redistributed across the rest — reweighted, never guessed.
Standing
Not yet ranked — the wall is still too small for a fair cohort. It sharpens as readings land.
Coverage
11 of 16 layers answered
Nearly complete — gaps reweighted, not guessed.
Silent: Sentinel-2, the radar, the soil survey +2.
Where the capital goes
Corridorhospitality fit 65
Best-fit model
Upper-watershed research station
Fit from published rules over the indicators.
The land in numbers
Headline figures. The Why tab carries each reading in full, with its source and its date. “Not read” means the source had nothing for this parcel: a gap is named, never filled with a guess.
How this land works
About 3,322 mm of rain falls here in a year. 29% of the parcel is under tree cover, and the ground slopes 10.3° on average, enough to move water without tearing soil where roots hold it. 46 mapped watercourses cross the land (Río Skú, Río Chirripó Pacífico). By 2050 the models expect +1.8 °C and -7% rain, so every flow above runs a little differently than it does today.
Regenerating — almost no tree cover lost since 2000; rainfall up 15% over twenty years.
To help: plant along the watercourses and the ridge: canopy there returns the most water to the rest.
The score is the footnote. What matters is the pattern above it: what arrives, what the ground does with it, what leaves, and which way that is moving.
This place
1,429 hectares at Telire of strongly rising land around 3,482 m. The ground reads 29% under canopy. Water shapes it — 3,322 mm of rain a year, 46 traced watercourses.
Guard the headwaters; study what they hold. At 3,482 m with 29% tree cover, this reads as intact montane headwater forest — high-value habitat whose biodiversity and water function justify guarding it and studying what it holds.
This is an outsider's reading, assembled from instruments and public records. It is where understanding begins, not where it ends — the land, its neighbours, and the people who know it hold the rest.
The parcel from orbit
Finding the latest clear satellite pass…
Reading the land's record…
Relationships
A parcel is a node in living systems, not an island. Each line below is derived from this reading itself.
Each line is tagged with how it is known: observed, measured from satellite or map data · official, from a public or state record.
- observed
This parcel is crossed by Río Skú
- observed
This parcel is within reach of Río Chirripó Pacífico
- official
This parcel sits beside Corredor Biológico Paso de la Danta1.3 km away— PNCB screening extent — confirm against SINAC
- official
Corredor Biológico Paso de la Danta is designed to connect Fila Costeña / Talamanca foothills— PNCB screening extent — confirm against SINAC
- official
Corredor Biológico Paso de la Danta is designed to connect Parque Nacional Marino Ballena— PNCB screening extent — confirm against SINAC
Where it sits
A living system does not stop at the fence. The parcel is a node in each of these, and it plays a different part at each scale.
- 1
parcel
1,429 ha inside the boundary
forest and open ground, mixed
29% tree cover
- 2
corridor
Corredor Biológico Paso de la Danta
a gap the corridor needs closed
1.3 km to the corridor
The threads
Where the readings connect. Each thread follows one chain of cause and consequence across the instruments, and ends in what it means for what you do.
Each line is tagged with how it is known: recorded, from the historical archive · derived, reasoned from other readings on this page · observed, measured from satellite or map data · official, from a public or state record · estimated, from a model, not a measurement.
The forest here has held for a generation.
- recordedThis canopy has held: 34% cover in 2000, 0.1% lost since, none of it recent.
What to doThe work here is keeping, not fixing — and the first walk should confirm the stand is as intact up close as it reads from orbit.
Bears on the land's living value · high confidence
The calm here is partly unmeasured.
- derivedThe pressure reading is near-perfect, but 3 of its instruments did not answer (roads, settlements, or fire).
- derivedQuiet data is not proven quiet land — near a town, an unread road is more often a data gap than true remoteness.
What to doVerify access and neighbours on the ground before banking the calm.
Bears on how much to trust the calm · medium confidence
More water is arriving — and arriving harder.
- observedThe twenty-year rain record moved +15.2% — this is a place whose water is changing, not holding.
- observedOn 10.3° average slope, pulsed rain becomes runoff energy — erosion and flash flow, not just supply.
- derivedNote the disagreement: the observed archive moved +15.2%, while the 2050 model says -7%. Neither cancels the other — the archive is what happened, the model is one projection. Design for the envelope: drainage for the wet record, storage for the dry projection.
What to doKeep or restore cover on the slopes and size drainage for pulses, not averages; verify culverts and crossings in the wet season.
Bears on this land and the people downstream · medium confidence
Abundant water is also a legal shape on this land.
- observed46 watercourses are traced on and around this parcel.
- officialCosta Rica's Ley Forestal 7575 (art. 33) protects riparian strips — roughly 10–15 m along rivers in rural land, up to 50 m on steep banks and around springs.
- derivedMultiply the strips by the watercourses and a material share of the parcel is likely untouchable by law — which is a constraint for building and a gift for conservation.
What to doMap the statutory buffer zones before pricing or siting anything — the buildable area is smaller than the deed.
Bears on how much of the land is actually usable · medium confidence
Height is this land's climate insurance.
- observedAt 3,482 m, today's mean sits at 7.6°C.
- estimatedThe +1.8°C projected by 2050 arrives on that cool baseline — roughly 0 hot days a year here while lowland sites cross heat thresholds this parcel never reaches.
- derivedAs the lowlands warm, land that stays temperate does double work: livable for people, refuge for species moving uphill.
What to doTreat elevation as an appreciating part of the asset — and design for the species arriving from below, not only the ones here now.
Bears on the decades ahead · medium confidence
The loops that govern it
Regeneration is not a feature added to land; it is a loop changing direction. These are the ones the readings can see, which way each is running, and where a hand changes it.
Forest and water
canopy → cloud and rain held → streams and soil moisture → canopy
running toward regeneration
29% tree cover on 3,322 mm of rain; 0.1% of the tree cover lost since 2000, last in 2018.
Plant along the watercourses and the ridge: canopy there returns the most water to the rest.
Open ground and soil
bare or grazed ground → compaction → runoff → thinner soil
holding
71% open ground on a 10.3° average slope.
Keep the ground covered through the dry season; rested pasture and cover crops turn this loop around on gentle slopes.
Reading the place
This 1,429-hectare parcel near Telire, Talamanca, Limón Province is land with sound foundations and clear regenerative upside, scoring 69 out of 100. The reading that most shapes the work here is that the terrain is steep, which constrains construction and raises erosion risk. Its main strength is that a watercourse runs through the parcel. The first move: design roads and structures to the contour, and get a geotechnical and erosion assessment before any earthworks.
The terrain is steep, which constrains construction and raises erosion risk.
Steep slopes increase building and road costs, limit machinery access, and make the land more prone to erosion and landslides.
Mean slope 10°, with 932 m of elevation change across the parcel.
This area is highly exposed to projected climate change by 2050.
Large shifts in temperature and rainfall can change what the land can support, so any plan should be built around the projected conditions, not current ones.
Projected change by 2050: +1.8 °C mean temperature, -7% rainfall. Exposure rated High.
A watercourse runs through the parcel.
On-site water supports irrigation, livestock, and habitat and can lower water-supply costs — though it may carry buffer or setback rules worth checking.
A mapped river or stream crosses the parcel (Río Skú).
Rainfall is very high.
Abundant water supports productive growth but raises the risk of flooding, waterlogging, and nutrient leaching, so drainage and slope matter. Rainfall has also been rising, which can bring more intense wet seasons; plan drainage accordingly.
3,322 mm of rain per year. A watercourse crosses the parcel. Up about 15% over 20 years.
The area has a rich record of documented wildlife.
High biodiversity adds conservation value, may bring species-protection rules, and can support eco-tourism or habitat-credit programs.
4,320 biodiversity records nearby, including Junco vulcani and Turdus nigrescens (GBIF, the global species-record archive).
No satellite soil data is available for this parcel.
Soil quality cannot be assessed remotely here, so a ground survey is needed before any agricultural or restoration decision.
The SoilGrids survey returned no data for this location.
Official Costa Rican record places this in Telire, Talamanca, Limón.
National cadastral and administrative data ground the parcel in the legal record — the basis for title, permitting, and tax diligence.
Jurisdiction: Telire, Talamanca, Limón. Source: SNIT.
Confidence reflects the data behind each reading: high when clear passes or strong sources agree, medium on a partial or single-source signal, low where the data is sparse or indirect. A low-confidence reading usually needs one more clear pass, or a check on the ground.
What the land is telling us
Read across the record, the land reads as stable: the canopy history shows no meaningful loss in a generation and the water signal is holding, which means the work is to build on a sound base rather than to reverse a decline.
Of the land's core processes, the water cycle reads as adequate to abundant, so the question is less supply than how well the land captures and holds what falls and community dynamics look rich, with a deep record of documented life nearby. What orbit cannot see is what happens below the surface — soil biology, structure, and the carbon held in the ground — so treat those as the first things to confirm underfoot.
Taken together, this is land with sound foundations and clear regenerative upside. Its clearest strength to build from is that a watercourse runs through the parcel.
Where the capital goes · corridor & deployment
Inside the corridor network, with restoration upside.
inside the network, with restoration upside
Two lenses, two numbers: the Land Score reads this land's own body; conservation priority reads its position in the network. When they disagree, the gap itself is the finding.
Nearest declared corridor: Corredor Biológico Paso de la Danta, about 1 km · Área de Conservación Pacífico Central / Osa (ACOPAC / ACOSA)
This reads as a break in the corridor to close, scoring 78 out of 100 for conservation priority. It sits in the corridor network, where capital spent on restoration compounds into connectivity. A small, low-footprint operation (fit 65/100) could fund the work from the already-worked ground.
The funding layer: a small, low-footprint operation sited on the already-worked ground, sized to carry the restoration — never spending the habitat it depends on.
The nearest declared corridor is the Corredor Biológico Paso de la Danta, about 1 km away (screening).
The parcel reads as outside the mapped network, so its connectivity value comes from what it holds and what protected land sits beside it rather than a corridor mandate. That corridor links Fila Costeña / Talamanca foothills, Parque Nacional Marino Ballena, Costa Ballena.
Nearest PNCB screening extent ~1 km. Extents are approximate — confirm against SINAC/PNCB.
This reads as a gap in the corridor — restoring cover here closes a break in connectivity.
A cleared or thin stretch inside the network is the highest-leverage place to restore: replanting or assisted regeneration here reconnects habitat that is otherwise cut, which a stand of forest outside the corridor cannot do.
29% tree cover.
A small hospitality operation could carry the conservation here.
In the regenerative model the lodging is a means, not the end: a low-footprint operation sited on the already-worked ground earns the revenue that funds the restoration and stewardship, while the core is left to recover. Kept small, it also gives the corridor local guardians with a reason to hold it.
Hospitality fit 65/100, drawing on relief for views, water on site. Site any building on the already-worked ground, not the habitat.
Capital moves
- 01
Tie up the land before restoring it — purchase or an easement that holds through a sale.
Before committingRestoration is a multi-year investment; without secure tenure the connectivity it builds can be undone by the next owner.
Confirm on the ground · Trace the title with a local lawyer and pull the cadastral record; check eligibility for FONAFIFO's PSA payment (Pago por Servicios Ambientales — Costa Rica pays landowners to keep or restore forest) for reforestation or regeneration on the parcel.
- 02
Close the gap: replant the cleared ground and let the neighbouring forest seed back in.
First yearThis parcel is where the corridor is broken, so restoring cover here reconnects habitat — the single highest-leverage ecological move on the land.
Confirm on the ground · Walk the parcel with a restoration ecologist to map what to plant and where natural regeneration will do the work on its own; confirm the seed sources in the adjacent forest.
- 03
Site a small, low-footprint hospitality operation on the already-worked ground to fund the stewardship.
Once the land is securedA modest operation on the already-worked ground earns the revenue that pays for the restoration and the guardians, without spending the habitat it depends on.
Confirm on the ground · Model the operation at a size the land can carry, keep it off the habitat, and check the Certificado de Sostenibilidad Turística (CST) and local zoning before designing anything.
- 04
Set a connectivity baseline and re-read it — camera traps aimed at the movement the corridor was declared to carry.
OngoingFunders and partners judge a corridor by whether wildlife actually moves through it; a repeatable baseline is what turns the thesis into evidence and steers the next round of capital.
Confirm on the ground · Run camera traps and species counts on a fixed schedule, aimed at the connectivity this corridor was declared for — baird's-tapir connectivity from the coastal ridge down to the Ballena coast at Uvita and Dominical.
The deployment reading is a screening lens layered on the Land Score — it points capital at the land where it builds the most connectivity, and each move is paired with the ground-truth step that confirms it. Corridor extents are approximate PNCB screening footprints; confirm a parcel against the official SINAC/PNCB record.
The physical frame
Climate, water, soil, and shape — what the land is made of and what moves across it.
Climate · to 2050
Annual rainfall, 2004–2024 · mm
Exposure · High
2050 sits within a single planning horizon — about 24 years out. The models expect seasons here about 1.8°C warmer than today's, with 7% less rain. Expect is the honest verb: this is the middle of a range of futures, not a certainty — so design to the range, not to today.
Water
Río Skú · Río Chirripó Pacífico · Río Chirripó · Río Talari
Soil · 0–30 cm
Source unavailable for this parcel.
Terrain & cover
The living surface
What grows here, what is being lost, and what presses on it.
Ecology
Junco vulcani · Turdus nigrescens · Selasphorus flammula · Zonotrichia capensis
Pressure
Forest history · since 2000
Hansen Global Forest Change GFC-2023-v1.11
Record & context
What the state and its institutions say about this ground.
Costa Rica ecological corridor
Corredor Biológico Paso de la Danta
Baird's-tapir connectivity from the coastal ridge down to the Ballena coast at Uvita and Dominical.
Connects · Fila Costeña / Talamanca foothills · Parque Nacional Marino Ballena · Costa Ballena
PNCB / SINAC — Corredores Biológicos (screening reference) · approximate screening extent — confirm against the official SINAC / PNCB record
See the corridor network →Costa Rica land record
SNIT Costa Rica (IGN / IDECORI) · official national data — verify title & permits locally
Below the surface
The fungal networks that move water and nutrients between roots.
Underground fungal networks
SPUN Underground Atlas (Van Nuland et al. 2025) · 1 km model of underground fungal biodiversity · hotspots = global top decile of predicted richness
Future · the horizons the engine has read
Now
- Mean temperature
- 7.6 °C
- Rain, latest year (2024)
- 3,654 mm
- Hot days (≥32 °C) / yr
- 0
- Longest dry spell
- 11 days
- Mean elevation
- 3,482 m
The rain row is one year alone — the Water panel's 3,322 mm is the long mean, and with the record up 15% in twenty years, recent years sit above it by design.
2050
- Temperature shift
- +1.8 °C
- Rainfall shift
- -7 %
- Hot days (≥32 °C) / yr
- 0
- Longest dry spell
- 10 days (-1)
- Exposure
- High — a hard projected shift — plan around it
- Resilience reading
- 60 / 100
The resilience reading is the climate pillar from the five dials above — one number, shown here beside the horizon it scores.
The headline projection is one model family (CMIP6 · MPI-ESM1-2-XR via Open-Meteo). The 2045–2049 window stands in for 2050, and expect is the honest word. Intermediate horizons (2030 · 2040) and 2100 are not shown because the engine has not read them — TERRA does not interpolate between measurements.
Best-fit regenerative model
Upper-watershed research station
67 / 100 fitGuard the headwaters; study what they hold.
At 3,482 m with 29% tree cover, this reads as intact montane headwater forest — high-value habitat whose biodiversity and water function justify guarding it and studying what it holds.
Intact montane forest at the top of a watershed, rich enough to justify a small research-and-education presence that funds protection of the water tower below.
Also consider · Watershed protection (53) · Ecolodge / retreat (37)
A published, rules-based suggestion read from the parcel's own indicators — forest, water, slope, access, and its place in the network. It names the shape of project the land is already set up to carry; confirm it against tenure, soils, and what you know from the ground. These fit numbers rank whole project models against each other; the deployment lens's hospitality fit (65/100) is a different scale that asks only whether a small lodge could fund the stewardship here — the two need not match.
What to do
- 01
Design roads and structures to the contour, and get a geotechnical and erosion assessment before any earthworks.
Before committingSteep ground raises building and access costs and erosion risk; the terrain sets the layout, not the other way round.
Confirm on the ground · Have a geotechnical engineer assess slope stability and cut-and-fill on the ground before a road line is committed.
- 02
Design to the 2050 climate projections rather than today's conditions.
First yearThe land is strongly exposed to projected change, so species, water storage, and infrastructure should be chosen for the conditions ahead.
Confirm on the ground · Cross-check the projections against the memory of long-time residents on how the seasons have already shifted here.
- 03
Commission a ground soil survey before any agricultural or restoration decision.
Before committingSatellites cannot read soil biology, structure, or below-ground carbon — the very things that decide what will grow — and no survey data is available here.
Confirm on the ground · Take samples across the parcel for a lab test of organic carbon, texture, and pH, and dig a pit to read the profile and rooting depth.
- 04
Walk the land to scope the regenerative work before committing capital.
First visitThe foundations are present and the upside is real, but sequencing the work well is what realises it.
Confirm on the ground · Read the water, soil, and cover on the ground, then plan the work from the most permanent layer down.
Questions to sit with
- If the seasons here shift as the models expect, which of your intentions for the land still hold — and which need rethinking now?
- Are you here to hold this land as it is, to work it, or to help it change — and does the reading above serve that intention?
- If the work succeeds, what do the water, the canopy, and the people around this land look like a generation from now — and what is the first condition that has to change for that to begin?
- Where does this reading disagree with what you have seen walking the land? That disagreement is the first thing to check on the ground.
These are not data gaps — they are the questions the data cannot answer.
Ask the analyst
Answers are grounded in this parcel's reading and tagged by basis — observed is measured, derived is reasoned from measurements, estimated is model-based, and unknown is said plainly. The conversation stays in your browser.
Talk it through with us
This reading is built from satellite and open data. It cannot see soil biology, legal tenure, or what you already know from walking the land — a 30-minute call tests the reading against the ground and sequences the work. No cost, no obligation.
Sources & method · 11 layers→
Overpass (waterways, highways, places, protected areas)
Occurrence records (count + top species)
Administrative units, cadastral parcels, agrological land-capability, protected areas, Holdridge life zones (WFS)
Declared biological corridors (bundled screening reference of official corridors; approximate extents — confirm against SINAC/PNCB)
Nominatim reverse geocode
Terrarium elevation tiles
Archive 2004–2024 + MPI-ESM1-2-XR to 2050
WorldCover 2021 v200
Global Surface Water v1.4 — occurrence & seasonality
Global Forest Change (tree cover 2000 + annual loss)
Top-decile hotspots of predicted AM + ECM fungal richness (Van Nuland et al. 2025, Nature; Zenodo 10.5281/zenodo.14871588)
Every number above is public, open data — named, dated, and licensed. What TERRA does not publish is the lens: the weights, curves, and verdict thresholds that turn these layers into a Land Score. That judgment is calibrated from land walked on the ground, and it stays proprietary.
Unavailable for this parcel: Sentinel-2, the radar, the soil survey, the governance record, the thermal read — the affected pillars were reweighted, not guessed.
Generated Sun, 23 Aug 2026 19:44:26 GMT · 3.5s · synthesized by TERRA.
Generated Sun, 23 Aug 2026 19:44:26 GMT · synthesized by TERRA · Dear Wise Earth.