• Now #miisladelcoco will go out to visit schools and high schools throughout the country.
  • On April 2, the adventure began with the students as part of the challenge of having 500,000 people living the experience of visiting Cocos Island National Park.

San José, April 02, 2019.

The Smart Rabbit company created a campaign to bring Cocos Island to the continent, in partnership with the Cocos Marine Conservation Area (ACMC) and Friends of Cocos Island (Faico), so that at least 500 thousand people can live the experience of knowing about this National Park.

The objective of this campaign is that the majority of the population gets to know Cocos Island through an immersive experience, where thanks to virtual reality technology, they can live and feel the experience of being on this site and enjoying its natural beauty without having to travel 532 kilometers.

Cocos Island National Park is a Natural World Heritage Site and one of the greatest treasures that we have in Costa Rica; however, the population knows very little about it. Of the approximately 3,500 people who visit it every year, only around 140 are Costa Ricans.

Thanks to the contribution of entrepreneurs and people from the canton of Pérez Zeledón, today at the Dr. Rafael Angel Calderón Guardia School, we started a tour that will raise awareness on 600 students on the first day only.

The tour will visit the following schools: Sinaí, Mixta Pedregoso/Juntas del Pacuare, Rodrigo Facio, Villa Nueva, as well as the CTP Ambientalista Isaías Retana.

Gina Cuza, Regional Director of the ACMC stated that “it is relevant that our boys and girls learn more, through innovative activities, about the natural beauties and our high level of biodiversity that is renowned worldwide.  This type of campaign allows us to take our most precious jewel to all corners of Costa Rica… our Cocos Island, which belongs to all Costa Ricans.”

Likewise, in the Dr. Rafael Angel Calderón Guardia School, the first buoy that was part of the 14 tons of waste removed last March from Cocos Island National Park was delivered in a symbolic act.

These buoys will be painted by the students of the institution and messages that they will write will be placed in a capsule and will be released in a few years, to celebrate the day that #miisladelcoco visited them for the first time.

For Jorge Gamboa, Director of this educational center, “it was a wonderful experience to allow our students to acquire knowledge that will remain with them for the rest of their lives and to awaken their interest in conserving the natural wealth of this beautiful country called Costa Rica.”

“It is a historical fact that many barriers for our students were removed.  Hundreds of children experienced virtual reality for the first time, visited Cocos Island and dived with sharks along with our rangers,” emphasized Édgar Gálvez, Director of Smart Rabbit.

Alejandra Villalobos, Executive Director of Faico expressed: “Education is one of the best tools to protect an ecosystem like Cocos Island. The more knowledge we have about the marine and terrestrial wealth of this World Heritage Site, the more favorable actions we can generate for the benefit of the environment.”