Public reading

Export full report →Open on the board →Read another →

Shaded-relief view of the land around Bahía Ballena, Osa, Puntarenas Province, the parcel boundary drawn in gold

371 ha inside the gold line

2 km

Shaded relief · AWS Terrain Tiles

Bahía Ballena, Osa, Puntarenas Province

371 ha · 9.238, -83.830 · Costa Rica

59out of 100 · Land ScoreRestore

Good bones. The rest is work.

53rd percentile for like land · Keystone tier · 93 conservation priority

Water: 59
Soil: not read
Ecology: 73
Climate: 62
Pressure: 57

8 of 12 sources answered · higher is better on every pillar; pressure reads calm · silent: sentinel2_ndvi, sentinel1_rtc, soilgrids…

The reading in full

This 371-hectare parcel near Bahía Ballena, Osa, Puntarenas Province is land with sound foundations and clear regenerative upside. It scores 59 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: 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 lies close to the parcel. Nearby surface water improves access to irrigation and supply and adds habitat value, though rights and distance still affect how usable it is.

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. 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 parcel is relatively remote. Distance from roads and towns means lower encroachment pressure and more privacy, but higher transport and operating costs.

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 most of the parcel reads as tree cover.

The ground and its cover

Terrain · shaded relief — Bahía Ballena, Osa, Puntarenas Province — Terrain · shaded relief · AWS Terrain Tiles

Land cover · ESA WorldCover 2021 — Bahía Ballena, Osa, Puntarenas 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

59out of 100 · Land ScoreRestore

Good bones. The rest is work.

Bahía Ballena, Osa, Puntarenas Province

ReclaimCultivateRestoreAnchor

53rd percentile for like land · Keystone tier · 93 conservation priority

Four of five readings

Water59

Soil—

Ecology73

Climate62

Pressure57

Weakest: PressureNot 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

53rdpercentile

Tropical · Neotropic · against 46 readings · 47th of all 100

Coverage

80%

weight read

8 of 12 layers answered

Nearly complete — gaps reweighted, not guessed.

Silent: Sentinel-2, the radar, the soil survey +1.

Where the capital goes

93/ 100 priority

Keystonehospitality fit 78

Best-fit model

Corridor anchor reserve

90 / 100

Fit from published rules over the indicators.

The land in numbers

Area

371ha

Elevation

150m

37–349 m

Slope

6.0°

Buildable bench

not read

Forest cover

99%

Canopy height

not read

Rainfall

7,550mm/yr

+4% over 20 yr

Warming to 2050

+0.9°C

rain -13%

Soil carbon

not read

Nearest road

1.3km

Species records

1,675records

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 7,550 mm of rain falls here in a year. 99% of the parcel is under tree cover, and the ground slopes 6° on average, enough to move water without tearing soil where roots hold it. 24 mapped watercourses cross the land (Quebrada Poza Azul, Río Guabo). The nearest road is 1.3 km off, and the nearest settlement is 6.1 km away, which is the pressure the edge lives with. By 2050 the models expect +0.9 °C and -13% rain, so every flow above runs a little differently than it does today.

Holding — 1.8% of the tree cover lost since 2000.

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

371 hectares at Bahía Ballena of strongly rising land around 150 m. The ground reads 99% under canopy. Water shapes it — 7,550 mm of rain a year, 24 traced watercourses. The nearest settlement is Platanillo, 6.14 km away. It stands inside the Corredor Biológico Paso de la Danta connectivity network (screening extent — confirm against SINAC, the national conservation agency).

Its vocationprotect

Protect the keystone; hold the connection open. With 99% tree cover inside a declared biological corridor and a conservation priority of 93, the leverage here is protection: secure the core so the connection it anchors stays open.

150 m elevation99% forest6.0° slope7,550 mm rain/yrKeystone tier — secure now

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 · 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: 93% cover in 2000, 1.8% 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 rain record and the rain model point in different directions.

observedThe twenty-year archive moved +3.5% — a mild observed wetting.
estimatedThe 2050 projection says -13% — a strongly drier future.
derivedNeither cancels the other: the archive is what happened, the model is one projection. Design for the envelope — drainage for the wetting record, storage for the dry projection.

What to doSize water systems for both ends of the envelope: weight the archive for the next decade, the model for the 2040s, and verify against local records.

Bears on any plan that depends on rain · medium confidence

The network needs this land more than its own body suggests.

derivedThe Land Score reads 59, but conservation priority reads 93 — a 34-point gap.
officialIts position in the corridor network does work its standalone condition does not show.

What to doValue this land by what it connects, not only what it contains — the leverage is in its position.

Bears on the corridor network · medium confidence

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

derivedAgainst 46 readings of like land (Tropical · Neotropic), this parcel's water ranks in the bottom 8%.
derivedAn unusual weakness is rarely bad luck — something specific happened or is happening here that its peers escaped.

What to doMake water 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

The road that serves this land also exposes it.

observedA road passes 1.28 km from the parcel — access is cheap.
officialThe parcel does connectivity work inside Corredor Biológico Paso de la Danta — and roads are where corridor edges fray first.
derivedWhatever makes this land easy for you makes it easy for extraction: the road is both your driveway and the pressure vector.

What to doControl the access early — gates, a present caretaker, and (in Costa Rica) enrolment in the PSA forest-protection payment turn the road back into an asset.

Bears on the boundary line · 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 7,550 mm of rain; 1.8% of the tree cover lost since 2000, last in 2020.

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 1.3 km, settlement 6.1 km; 1.8% tree cover lost since 2000.

Distance is doing the work here; keep it, and do not build the road that would end it.

Reading the place

This 371-hectare parcel near Bahía Ballena, Osa, Puntarenas Province is land with sound foundations and clear regenerative upside, scoring 59 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 most of the parcel reads as tree cover. 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 6°, with 312 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: +0.9 °C mean temperature, -13% rainfall. Exposure rated High.

Opportunitylow confidence

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.

Opportunityhigh confidence

A watercourse lies close to the parcel.

Nearby surface water improves access to irrigation and supply and adds habitat value, though rights and distance still affect how usable it is.

Nearest mapped watercourse is about 0.84 km away (Quebrada Poza Azul).

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.

7,550 mm of rain per year. Nearest mapped watercourse is about 0.84 km away.

Biodiversityhigh confidence

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.

1,675 biodiversity records nearby, including Ramphastos ambiguus and Ramphocelus passerinii (GBIF, the global species-record archive).

Soillow confidence

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.

Accesshigh confidence

The parcel is relatively remote.

Distance from roads and towns means lower encroachment pressure and more privacy, but higher transport and operating costs.

About 1.28 km to the nearest road, 6.14 km to Platanillo.

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 most of the parcel reads as tree cover.

Where the capital goes · corridor & deployment

93Conservation priority

KeystoneCore habitat

High-value corridor land to secure before it is lost.

high-value connectivity land to secure now

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.

Within the Corredor Biológico Paso de la Danta (screening) · Área de Conservación Pacífico Central / Osa (ACOPAC / ACOSA)

Inside the Corredor Biológico Paso de la Danta, this reads as intact habitat to secure, scoring 93 out of 100 for conservation priority. It is a keystone: high-value connectivity land to secure now, before it turns over. A small, low-footprint operation (fit 78/100) could fund the work from the already-worked ground.

78/100

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.

Corridormedium confidence

The parcel falls within the Corredor Biológico Paso de la Danta (screening).

This is a declared biological corridor in Área de Conservación Pacífico Central / Osa (ACOPAC / ACOSA) — land inside it carries a national connectivity mandate and is where conservation capital compounds, joining protected areas rather than standing alone. The corridor links Fila Costeña / Talamanca foothills, Parque Nacional Marino Ballena, Costa Ballena.

Centroid inside the PNCB screening extent for this corridor. Extent is approximate — confirm the parcel against the official SINAC/PNCB record.

Conservationmedium confidence

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.

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 78/100, drawing on standing forest, protected land alongside, relief for views. 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 committing
Intact 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 visit
The 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 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 — 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.

How it compares

53rdpercentile · Tropical · Neotropic

Ranked against 46 readings · same thermal belt

47th percentile against all 100 readings so far — the cohort rank above is the fairer one; this is the wider one.

About typical for the 46 readings logged in Tropical · Neotropic. Ecology is its strongest signal here (88th percentile), water its weakest (8th). Rainfall is declining across the landscape to the east.

Percentile by reading · higher is better land

Water

8th

Ecology

88th

Climate

78th

Low pressure

23rd

Landscape · 7 readings within 34 km

·Rainfall is declining across the landscape to the east
·Land reads weaker toward the north

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

24.5°C

Mean temp

+0.9°C

2050 Δ temp

-13%

2050 Δ rain

Exposure · High

2050 sits within a single planning horizon — about 24 years out. The models expect seasons here about 0.9°C warmer than today's, with 13% 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

7,550mm/yr

Rainfall

+3.5%

20-yr trend

0.8km

To watercourse

Quebrada Poza Azul · Río Guabo · Río Barú · Quebrada Playa Hermosa

Soil · 0–30 cm

Source unavailable for this parcel.

Terrain & cover

150m

Elevation

6.0°

Mean slope

99%

Forest

Built

Tree cover 99%Grassland 1%

The living surface

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

Ecology

1,675

Recorded wildlife observations

GBIF · the global species-record archive

Ramphastos ambiguus · Ramphocelus passerinii · Psarocolius montezuma · Pitangus sulphuratus

Pressure

1.3km

To road

6.1km

To settlement

Platanillo

Forest history · since 2000

93%

Tree cover 2000

1.8%

Cover lost

2020

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

Within

Corridor

screening extent

Área de Conservación Pacífico Central / Osa (ACOPAC / ACOSA)

Conservation area

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 →

Best-fit regenerative model

Corridor anchor reserve

90 / 100 fit

Protect the keystone; hold the connection open.

With 99% tree cover inside a declared biological corridor and a conservation priority of 93, the leverage here is protection: secure the core so the connection it anchors stays open.

High-value habitat inside the connectivity network. The move is to secure it — purchase or easement — so the corridor it anchors stays unbroken.

150 m elevation99% forest6.0° slope7,550 mm rain/yrinside a corridor

Also consider · Ecolodge / retreat (69) · Watershed protection (52)

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 (78/100) 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
Ground-truth what the canopy actually is before assuming forest value.
First visit
Satellite 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.
04
Commission a ground soil survey before any agricultural or restoration decision.
Before committing
Satellites 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.
05
Walk the land to scope the regenerative work before committing capital.
First visit
The 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

Standing under the canopy, is it one species or many — and which parts would you protect rather than replant?
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.

Schedule a 30-min call →See services or email us

Sources & method · 8 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)

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

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 soil survey, the thermal read — the affected pillars were reweighted, not guessed.

Generated Sat, 27 Jun 2026 05:17:15 GMT · 12.1s · synthesized by TERRA.