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Shaded-relief view of the land around Valle La Estrella, Limón, Limón Province, the parcel boundary drawn in gold

583 ha inside the gold line

2.5 km

Shaded relief · AWS Terrain Tiles

Valle La Estrella, Limón, Limón Province

583 ha · 9.527, -83.481 · Costa Rica

76out of 100 · Land ScoreAnchor

Little to fix. Much to keep.

90th percentile for like land · Corridor tier · 67 conservation priority

Water: 100
Soil: 100
Ecology: 24
Climate: 61
Pressure: 93

11 of 15 sources answered · higher is better on every pillar; pressure reads calm · silent: sentinel2_ndvi, sentinel1_rtc, worldbank_wgi…

The reading in full

This 583-hectare parcel near Valle La Estrella, Limón, Limón Province is ecologically strong land whose work is stewardship, not repair. It scores 76 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: The soil is rich in organic carbon, a strong base for farming and restoration. Carbon-rich soil holds water and nutrients well, supports higher yields and faster regrowth, and may qualify for soil-carbon programs. 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. Little wildlife has been formally recorded here. A low record count usually reflects limited survey effort rather than low biodiversity, so a ground survey is needed before drawing conclusions. 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 are barely recorded here — an absence of data, not necessarily of life. 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 ecologically strong land whose work is stewardship, not repair. Its clearest strength to build from is that the soil is rich in organic carbon, a strong base for farming and restoration.

The ground and its cover

Terrain · shaded relief — Valle La Estrella, Limón, Limón Province — Terrain · shaded relief · AWS Terrain Tiles

Land cover · ESA WorldCover 2021 — Valle La Estrella, Limón, Limón Province — Land cover · ESA WorldCover 2021 · ESA / Copernicus

The verdict, the five pillar readings, how much of the land was read, and the headline figures.

The verdict

76out of 100 · Land ScoreAnchor

Little to fix. Much to keep.

Valle La Estrella, Limón, Limón Province

ReclaimCultivateRestoreAnchor

90th percentile for like land · Corridor tier · 67 conservation priority

Five readings

Water100

Soil100

Ecology24

Climate61

Pressure93

Weakest: Ecology

All five read on one axis: higher is better. Pressure scores calm, so a high number means little human pressure on this land.

Standing

90thpercentile

Neotropic · against 93 readings · 91st of all 100

Coverage

100%

weight read

11 of 15 layers answered

Every pillar read from live data.

Silent: Sentinel-2, the radar, the governance record +1.

Where the capital goes

67/ 100 priority

Corridorhospitality fit 61

Best-fit model

Upper-watershed research station

62 / 100

Fit from published rules over the indicators.

The land in numbers

Area

583ha

Elevation

3,386m

3,040–3,580 m

Slope

11.7°

Buildable bench

not read

Forest cover

43%

Canopy height

not read

Rainfall

3,305mm/yr

+13% over 20 yr

Warming to 2050

+1.8°C

rain -7%

Soil carbon

90.7g/kg

pH 5.4

Nearest road

not read

Species records

10records

GBIF, the global species archive

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 3,305 mm of rain falls here in a year. 43% of the parcel is under tree cover, and the ground slopes 11.7° on average, enough to move water without tearing soil where roots hold it. 45 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 13% 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

583 hectares at Valle La Estrella of strongly rising land around 3,386 m. The ground reads 43% under canopy. Water shapes it — 3,305 mm of rain a year, 45 traced watercourses.

Its vocationresearch

Guard the headwaters; study what they hold. At 3,386 m with 43% 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.

3,386 m elevation43% forest11.7° slope3,305 mm rain/yrCorridor tier — restoration compounds here

Its trajectoryholding— the canopy record shows no meaningful loss in a generation.

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 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: 57% 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 +13.4% — this is a place whose water is changing, not holding.
observedOn 11.7° average slope, pulsed rain becomes runoff energy — erosion and flash flow, not just supply.
derivedNote the disagreement: the observed archive moved +13.4%, 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.

observed45 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

For its kind of land, its ecology is unusually weak.

derivedAgainst 93 readings of like land (Neotropic), this parcel's ecology ranks in the bottom 12%.
derivedAn unusual weakness is rarely bad luck — something specific happened or is happening here that its peers escaped.

What to doMake ecology the first diligence question on the ground: find the cause before pricing the land.

Bears on what this land is, relative to its kind · medium confidence

Height is this land's climate insurance.

observedAt 3,386 m, today's mean sits at 8.1°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

43% tree cover on 3,305 mm of rain; 0.1% of the tree cover lost since 2000, last in 2012.

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

57% open ground on a 11.7° 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 583-hectare parcel near Valle La Estrella, Limón, Limón Province is ecologically strong land whose work is stewardship, not repair, scoring 76 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 the soil is rich in organic carbon, a strong base for farming and restoration. The first move: design roads and structures to the contour, and get a geotechnical and erosion assessment before any earthworks.

Riskhigh confidence

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 12°, with 540 m of elevation change across the parcel.

Riskmedium confidence

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.

Opportunitymedium confidence

The soil is rich in organic carbon, a strong base for farming and restoration.

Carbon-rich soil holds water and nutrients well, supports higher yields and faster regrowth, and may qualify for soil-carbon programs.

90.7 g/kg soil organic carbon in the top 30 cm, loam texture, pH 5.4 (ISRIC SoilGrids).

Opportunityhigh confidence

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).

Waterhigh confidence

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.

3,305 mm of rain per year. A watercourse crosses the parcel. Up about 13% over 20 years.

Biodiversitylow confidence

Little wildlife has been formally recorded here.

A low record count usually reflects limited survey effort rather than low biodiversity, so a ground survey is needed before drawing conclusions.

Only 10 biodiversity records nearby (GBIF, the global species-record archive).

Accessmedium confidence

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 are barely recorded here — an absence of data, not necessarily of life. 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 ecologically strong land whose work is stewardship, not repair. Its clearest strength to build from is that the soil is rich in organic carbon, a strong base for farming and restoration.

Where the capital goes · corridor & deployment

67Conservation priority

CorridorStepping stone

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 Alexander Skutch, about 2 km · Área de Conservación La Amistad-Pacífico (ACLAP)

This reads as a partial patch that extends the network's reach, scoring 67 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 61/100) could fund the work from the already-worked ground.

61/100

Hospitality fit

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.

Corridorlow confidence

The nearest declared corridor is the Corredor Biológico Alexander Skutch, about 2 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 Reserva Los Cusingos, Cordillera de Talamanca, Río General.

Nearest PNCB screening extent ~2 km. Extents are approximate — confirm against SINAC/PNCB.

Conservationmedium confidence

This reads as a partial patch — enhancing it extends the network's reach.

A partly-forested parcel beside the corridor works as a stepping stone: thickening its cover and connecting it to the neighbours widens the habitat that species can actually move through.

43% tree cover.

Hospitalitymedium confidence

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 61/100, drawing on standing forest, relief for views, water on site. Site any building on the already-worked ground, not the habitat.

Capital moves

01
Tie up the land before restoring it — purchase or an easement that holds through a sale.
Before committing
Restoration 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
Thicken cover along the parcel's edges and watercourses to widen what species can move through.
First year
As a stepping stone or buffer, the parcel's contribution is its edges and riparian strips — the parts that link to the habitat next door.
Confirm on the ground · With an ecologist, identify the connecting strips worth planting first; confirm which watercourses cross the land at the end of the dry season.
03
Site a small, low-footprint hospitality operation on the already-worked ground to fund the stewardship.
Once the land is secured
A 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.
Ongoing
Funders 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 — a General-valley corridor around the naturalist's Los Cusingos reserve, reconnecting Talamanca's foothills to the river.

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.

How it compares

90thpercentile · Neotropic

Ranked against 93 readings · same region

91st percentile against all 100 readings so far — the cohort rank above is the fairer one; this is the wider one.

Stronger land than 90% of the 93 readings logged in Neotropic. Soil is its strongest signal here (96th percentile), ecology its weakest (12th). Rainfall is declining across the landscape to the south-west.

Percentile by reading · higher is better land

Water

76th

Soil

96th

Ecology

12th

Climate

63rd

Low pressure

87th

Landscape · 5 readings within 53 km

·Rainfall is declining across the landscape to the south-west
·Land reads weaker toward the south-west

Percentiles compare this reading against the growing corpus of public TERRA readings in like land — not all land on Earth. They sharpen as the wall grows.

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

8.1°C

Mean temp

+1.8°C

2050 Δ temp

-7%

2050 Δ rain

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

3,305mm/yr

Rainfall

+13.4%

20-yr trend

On site

To watercourse

Río Skú · Río Chirripó Pacífico · Río Chirripó · Río Talari

Soil · 0–30 cm

90.7g/kg

Org. carbon

5.4

46%

Sand

21%

Clay

Loam

Terrain & cover

3,386m

Elevation

11.7°

Mean slope

43%

Forest

Built

Grassland 57%Tree cover 43%

The living surface

What grows here, what is being lost, and what presses on it.

Ecology

Recorded wildlife observations

GBIF · the global species-record archive

Bolitoglossa pesrubra · Pepper golden mosaic virus · Cathartes aura · Rhacocarpus purpurascens

Pressure

—km

To road

—km

To settlement

Forest history · since 2000

57%

Tree cover 2000

0.1%

Cover lost

2012

Latest loss

Hansen Global Forest Change GFC-2023-v1.11

Record & context

What the state and its institutions say about this ground.

Costa Rica ecological corridor

Nearby

Corridor

~2 km away

Área de Conservación La Amistad-Pacífico (ACLAP)

Conservation area

Corredor Biológico Alexander Skutch

A General-valley corridor around the naturalist's Los Cusingos reserve, reconnecting Talamanca's foothills to the river.

Connects · Reserva Los Cusingos · Cordillera de Talamanca · Río General

PNCB / SINAC — Corredores Biológicos (screening reference) · approximate screening extent — confirm against the official SINAC / PNCB record

See the corridor network →

Costa Rica land record

Telire, Talamanca, Limón

Jurisdiction

SNIT Costa Rica (IGN / IDECORI) · official national data — verify title & permits locally

Best-fit regenerative model

Upper-watershed research station

62 / 100 fit

Guard the headwaters; study what they hold.

At 3,386 m with 43% 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.

3,386 m elevation43% forest11.7° slope3,305 mm rain/yrcorridor ~2 km

Also consider · Watershed protection (58) · Ecolodge / retreat (34)

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 (61/100) 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 committing
Steep 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 year
The 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
Carry out a field biodiversity survey to see what the records miss.
First year
A thin record here usually reflects little survey effort, not little life; what actually lives on the parcel shapes both its value and its constraints.
Confirm on the ground · Have an ecologist survey across seasons; local naturalists and birders often already know the site.
04
Visit the land to confirm the reading and protect what already works.
First visit
The core systems read as sound; the priority is to keep them that way and avoid degrading them.
Confirm on the ground · Walk the parcel with the reading in hand and note where the ground agrees and disagrees with it.

Questions to sit with

The soil is a real asset here — what use would build it further rather than spend it down?
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.

Reading this land to

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.

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Sources & method · 11 layers→

Water, roads & protected areas — OpenStreetMap

Overpass (waterways, highways, places, protected areas)

vector · live

ODbL 1.0

Biodiversity — GBIF

Occurrence records (count + top species)

point · live

Mixed CC0 / CC-BY / CC-BY-NC (per dataset)

Costa Rica territorial record — SNIT

Administrative units, cadastral parcels, agrological land-capability, protected areas, Holdridge life zones (WFS)

vector (1:5 000 base) · national SDI (rolling)

SNIT Condiciones Generales de Uso (attribution)

Ecological corridors — PNCB / SINAC (Costa Rica)

Declared biological corridors (bundled screening reference of official corridors; approximate extents — confirm against SINAC/PNCB)

screening extent · PNCB (rolling)

Public programme (SINAC); reference compiled for screening

Place — OpenStreetMap / Nominatim

Nominatim reverse geocode

settlement · live

ODbL 1.0

Terrain — AWS Terrarium (Mapzen)

Terrarium elevation tiles

~10 m (z12) · 2017

Open (attribution)

Climate — Open-Meteo

Archive 2004–2024 + MPI-ESM1-2-XR to 2050

~9 km · 2004–2024 / 2045–2049

CC-BY 4.0 (data); non-commercial API tier

Soil — ISRIC SoilGrids v2

SoilGrids v2.0 (SOC, pH, sand, clay; 0–30 cm)

250 m · 2020

CC-BY 4.0

Land cover — ESA WorldCover

WorldCover 2021 v200

10 m · 2021

CC-BY 4.0 (commercial promotion: notify due@esa.int)

Surface water — JRC Global Surface Water

Global Surface Water v1.4 — occurrence & seasonality

30 m · 1984–2021

Copernicus / open (attribution)

Forest loss — Hansen Global Forest Change

Global Forest Change (tree cover 2000 + annual loss)

~30 m · 2000–2023

CC-BY 4.0

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 Thu, 23 Jul 2026 07:51:15 GMT · 5.1s · synthesized by TERRA.