Land Intelligence Report
Puerto Jiménez, Puntarenas Province, 61301
1,355 ha · 8.3938, -83.2972 · Worth restoring — and worth the patience.
The reading in full
This 1,355-hectare parcel near Puerto Jiménez, Puntarenas Province, 61301 is land with sound foundations and clear regenerative upside. It scores 58 out of 100 on the Dear Wise Earth Land Score.
The risks that most shape a decision here: The rainfall archive shows an unusually steep drying signal — verify before relying on it. A swing this large more often reflects a data artifact or measurement change than real climate; water planning should wait on local records rather than build on this number. 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: Most of the parcel reads as tree cover. Tree cover can carry real conservation and carbon value, but satellite land-cover cannot tell natural forest from a monoculture plantation (oil palm, rubber, teak). Confirm which it is before assuming biodiversity or carbon value. 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. 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. A count this size also reflects heavy survey effort — this is a well-watched landscape, so read it as well-documented rather than proportionally richer than its quieter neighbours. Soil organic carbon is moderate. The soil is workable but will benefit from cover cropping and organic inputs to build fertility before intensive use. Road and town access are close. Good access lowers development and logistics costs but can raise encroachment pressure and land prices. Official Costa Rican record places this in Puerto Jiménez, Puerto Jiménez, Puntarenas. 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: The land reads as holding rather than actively regenerating: the standing cover is intact, but the water or vegetation signal is under strain, so the trajectory turns on how the coming dry years are managed. 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 most of the parcel reads as tree cover.
The verdict
Worth restoring — and worth the patience.
Puerto Jiménez, Puntarenas Province, 61301
Frontier tier · 65 conservation priority
Five readings
Weakest: Climate
All five read on one axis: higher is better. Pressure scores calm, so a high number means little human pressure on this land.
Standing
Not yet ranked — the wall is still too small for a fair cohort. It sharpens as readings land.
Coverage
12 of 16 layers answered
Every pillar read from live data.
Silent: Sentinel-2, the radar, the governance record +1.
Where the capital goes
Frontierhospitality fit 77
Best-fit model
Ecolodge / retreat
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 4,506 mm of rain falls here in a year. 99% of the parcel is under tree cover, and the ground is nearly flat (4.8° on average), so water lingers rather than runs. 10 mapped watercourses cross the land (Río Piro, Río Tamales). A road runs against the boundary, which is the pressure the edge lives with. By 2050 the models expect +1.3 °C and +47% rain, so every flow above runs a little differently than it does today.
Holding — almost no tree cover lost since 2000; rainfall down 40% over twenty years.
To help: keep the canopy whole; the loop is running the right way on its own.
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
1,355 hectares at Puerto Jiménez of strongly rising land around 189 m. The ground reads 99% under canopy. Water shapes it — 4,506 mm of rain a year, 10 traced watercourses.
Fund conservation through low-footprint hospitality. Accessible and scenic beside standing habitat, with a hospitality fit of 77/100, this land can carry a small, low-footprint operation whose revenue funds the conservation.
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 Piro
- observed
This parcel is within reach of Río Tamales
- official
This parcel sits beside Corredor Biológico Osa9.6 km away— PNCB screening extent — confirm against SINAC
- official
Corredor Biológico Osa is designed to connect Parque Nacional Corcovado— PNCB screening extent — confirm against SINAC
- official
Corredor Biológico Osa is designed to connect Parque Nacional Piedras Blancas— 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
1,355 ha inside the boundary
a standing block of forest
99% tree cover
- 2
corridor
Corredor Biológico Osa
core of the corridor
9.6 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 · observed, measured from satellite or map data · estimated, from a model, not a measurement · derived, reasoned from other readings on this page · official, from a public or state record.
The forest here has held for a generation.
- recordedThis canopy has held: 91% cover in 2000, 0.7% 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 water here is thinning.
- observedThe twenty-year rain record moved -39.5% — this is a place whose water is changing, not holding.
- estimatedDry spells head toward ~24 days by 2050 — water security, storage, and drought-tolerant planting become the design constraints here.
- derivedNote the disagreement: the observed archive moved -39.5%, while the 2050 model says +47%. Neither cancels the other — the archive is what happened, the model is one projection. Design for the envelope: storage for the dry record, drainage for the wet projection.
What to doPrice water storage into any plan and verify the dry-season sources on the ground.
Bears on any plan that needs water · medium confidence
Abundant water is also a legal shape on this land.
- observed10 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
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
holding
99% tree cover on 4,506 mm of rain; 0.7% of the tree cover lost since 2000, last in 2021.
Keep the canopy whole; the loop is running the right way on its own.
The edge and the road
access → clearing at the edge → more edge → more access
holding
road 0.4 km; 0.7% tree cover lost since 2000.
Decide what the road is for before anything else: a gate, a planted edge and a written access rule are the cheapest interventions on this land.
Reading the place
This 1,355-hectare parcel near Puerto Jiménez, Puntarenas Province, 61301 is land with sound foundations and clear regenerative upside, scoring 58 out of 100. The reading that most shapes the work here is that the rainfall archive shows an unusually steep drying signal — verify before relying on it. Its main strength is that most of the parcel reads as tree cover. The first move: build a water budget sized to the projected dry spell, not the annual average.
The rainfall archive shows an unusually steep drying signal — verify before relying on it.
A swing this large more often reflects a data artifact or measurement change than real climate; water planning should wait on local records rather than build on this number.
The archive's linear trend reads about 39% lower over 20 years (2004–2024) — outside the range the engine treats as dependable.
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 5°, with 311 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: +1.3 °C mean temperature, +47% rainfall. Exposure rated High.
Most of the parcel reads as tree cover.
Tree cover can carry real conservation and carbon value, but satellite land-cover cannot tell natural forest from a monoculture plantation (oil palm, rubber, teak). Confirm which it is before assuming biodiversity or carbon value.
99% of the parcel reads as tree cover (satellite land-cover mapping). Naturalness is not verified.
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 Piro).
Rainfall is very high.
Abundant water supports productive growth but raises the risk of flooding, waterlogging, and nutrient leaching, so drainage and slope matter.
4,506 mm of rain per year. A watercourse crosses the parcel.
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. A count this size also reflects heavy survey effort — this is a well-watched landscape, so read it as well-documented rather than proportionally richer than its quieter neighbours.
79,692 biodiversity records nearby, including Ara macao and Ramphastos ambiguus (GBIF, the global species-record archive).
Soil organic carbon is moderate.
The soil is workable but will benefit from cover cropping and organic inputs to build fertility before intensive use.
32.5 g/kg soil organic carbon in the top 30 cm, clay loam texture, pH 5.4 (ISRIC SoilGrids).
Road and town access are close.
Good access lowers development and logistics costs but can raise encroachment pressure and land prices.
About 0.4 km to the nearest road.
Official Costa Rican record places this in Puerto Jiménez, Puerto Jiménez, Puntarenas.
National cadastral and administrative data ground the parcel in the legal record — the basis for title, permitting, and tax diligence.
Jurisdiction: Puerto Jiménez, Puerto Jiménez, Puntarenas. 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
The land reads as holding rather than actively regenerating: the standing cover is intact, but the water or vegetation signal is under strain, so the trajectory turns on how the coming dry years are managed.
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 most of the parcel reads as tree cover.
Where the capital goes · corridor & deployment
Standalone conservation value, outside the mapped network.
standalone value, outside the mapped network
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 Osa, about 10 km · Área de Conservación Osa (ACOSA)
This reads as intact habitat to secure, scoring 65 out of 100 for conservation priority. It carries standalone value outside the mapped network — worth holding on its own terms. A small, low-footprint operation (fit 77/100) 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 Osa, about 10 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 Parque Nacional Corcovado, Parque Nacional Piedras Blancas, Humedal Térraba-Sierpe.
Nearest PNCB screening extent ~10 km. Extents are approximate — confirm against SINAC/PNCB.
This reads as intact habitat — the priority is to secure it, not rebuild it.
Standing natural forest is far cheaper to protect than to restore, and holding it inside a corridor keeps the connection open. Securing tenure and legal protection is where capital does the most here.
99% 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 77/100, drawing on standing forest, relief for views, water on site. Site any building on the already-worked ground, not the habitat.
Capital moves
- 01
Secure this land first — through purchase, or a conservation easement that survives a change of owner.
Before committingIntact corridor habitat holds its value only while it stays intact; locking in protection before the land turns over is the move capital cannot undo.
Confirm on the ground · Confirm title and boundaries with a local lawyer, then scope a servidumbre ecológica (ecological easement) and FONAFIFO's PSA forest-protection payment (Pago por Servicios Ambientales — Costa Rica's national payment for keeping forest standing) against the parcel.
- 02
Protect the standing forest and remove the active threats to it.
First visitThe habitat is already here; the work is to keep it — stopping clearing, fire, and hunting pressure holds far more value than any planting would add.
Confirm on the ground · Walk the boundary for signs of encroachment, fire, and hunting; agree the protection terms with neighbours who share the edge.
- 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 — the peninsular corridor holding Corcovado's lowland rainforest in contact with Piedras Blancas across the Osa.
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 1.3°C warmer than today's, with 47% more 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 Piro · Río Tamales · Río Sombrerillo · Quebrada Sambos
Soil · 0–30 cm
Clay loam
Terrain & cover
The living surface
What grows here, what is being lost, and what presses on it.
Ecology
Ara macao · Ramphastos ambiguus · Coragyps atratus · Amazona autumnalis
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 Osa
The peninsular corridor holding Corcovado's lowland rainforest in contact with Piedras Blancas across the Osa.
Connects · Parque Nacional Corcovado · Parque Nacional Piedras Blancas · Humedal Térraba-Sierpe
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
- 24.7 °C
- Rain, latest year (2024)
- 4,651 mm
- Hot days (≥32 °C) / yr
- 0
- Longest dry spell
- 7 days
- Mean elevation
- 189 m
The rain row is one year alone — the Water panel's 4,506 mm is the long mean, and with the record down 39% in twenty years, recent years sit below it by design.
2050
- Temperature shift
- +1.3 °C
- Rainfall shift
- +47 %
- Hot days (≥32 °C) / yr
- 12 (+12)
- Longest dry spell
- 24 days (+17)
- Exposure
- High — a hard projected shift — plan around it
- Resilience reading
- 10 / 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
Ecolodge / retreat
61 / 100 fitFund conservation through low-footprint hospitality.
Accessible and scenic beside standing habitat, with a hospitality fit of 77/100, this land can carry a small, low-footprint operation whose revenue funds the conservation.
Accessible, scenic land beside standing habitat. A small, low-footprint operation on the worked ground earns the revenue that pays for the restoration.
Also consider · Watershed protection (58) · Corridor anchor reserve (57)
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 (77/100) 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
Build a water budget sized to the projected dry spell, not the annual average.
First dry seasonWater, not the yearly total, is the limiting factor here; storage and drought-tolerant choices decide what the land can carry.
Confirm on the ground · Measure the springs, wells, and watercourses at the end of the dry season, when supply is at its lowest — that is the number to plan against.
- 02
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.
- 03
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.
- 04
Ground-truth what the canopy actually is before assuming forest value.
First visitSatellite land-cover cannot separate natural forest from a monoculture plantation, and the difference decides the conservation and carbon value.
Confirm on the ground · Walk the stand: one species in rows is plantation; mixed ages and species with natural regeneration is forest. A botanist can confirm.
- 05
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
- At the end of the dry season, where does water still hold on this land — and what would keep it there a month longer?
- Standing under the canopy, is it one species or many — and which parts would you protect rather than replant?
- 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 · 12 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
SoilGrids v2.0 (SOC, pH, sand, clay; 0–30 cm)
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 governance record, the thermal read — the affected pillars were reweighted, not guessed.
Generated Sun, 23 Aug 2026 05:47:38 GMT · 7.4s · synthesized by TERRA.
Generated Sun, 23 Aug 2026 05:47:38 GMT · synthesized by TERRA · Dear Wise Earth.