During coffee picking season, migrant workers from Panama and Nicaragua travel to Costa Rica to work on the coffee plantations. The work is hard and the living conditions poor. It’s common for several families to share one small shelter that includes an open flame stove for cooking with no ventilation. Respiratory disease runs rampant among the workers, and as a result their life expectancy is less than 60 years.

Unfortunately, cooking over open flame stoves is the way of life in many third world countries. That’s why SeaChar, a Seattle based, non-profit group, developed the Estufa Finca BioChar project. SeaChar is researching and building small clean burning stoves. The biostoves, as they are called, use an extremely efficient biomass gasification technology that produces clean heat and gas. The stoves produce 60-75% fewer emissions while co-generating biochar, a fine-grained, porous charcoal that can be used as a soil amendment and remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. The stoves can be made out of “found objects” like discarded paint cans, pieces of corrugated tin roof, even an Altoids mint tin.

Several months ago, Art Donnelly, co-founder of SeaChar and Arturo Segura, owner of Costa Rican based Sol Colibri Coffee, met at a Seattle Tilth event. Donnelly was demonstrating the biostove technology and Segura became interested in the project as a way to help improve the living conditions for the migrant workers on his farm. Segura also was very interested in using biochar on his coffee farm.

SeaChar and Sol Colibri Coffee have partnered to bring the Estufa Finca BioChar project to the migrant workers of Central America. To be successful, SeaChar will need funding, materials and volunteers to travel to Central America to construct the stoves. Donnelly estimates that the stoves will cost as little as $20 each to build and believes that he can teach anyone to build them. He has been teaching stove building workshops in the Seattle area for six months and has built 65 stoves.

EcoTeach is excited about the Estufa Finca BioChar project and is working with Santos Tours, a Costa Rican eco-tourism company, to provide EcoTeach groups the opportunity to participate in stove building as part of the Highlands Community Service trip in the coffee growing region of the highlands of Costa Rica. If you’re interested in getting involved with the Estufa Finca BioChar project, please contact us at 800-626-8992 or stephanie@ecoteach.com.

Now that is one way that EcoTeach travel can help change the world.

We at EcoTeach are all about changing the world. We give back by exploring education and conservation, with the belief that through travel, we can help shape the future, just as travel has shaped us. With this in mind, we’re proud to announce a chance to earn EcoTeach Bucks and other prizes with an essay contest about how travel has influenced you and your life.

Tell us how travel has, or could change your world in 250 words or less. It’s a short word limit, so make it powerful!

The rules:

• All entries must be original content.
• Maximum word limit of 250 words.
• Each entry may contain one photo.
• Limited to one entry per person.
• Entries must be submitted between March 1, 2010 and 11:59 p.m. on Friday, April 30, 2010.

How it works:

Log onto www.ecoteachcontest.com any time from March 1 to April 30, 2010.  Submit your essay and up to one photo and voila, you’re entered! Once the entry period closes, we will open up all the submissions for four weeks of voting, beginning on Monday, May 3 and ending 11:59 p.m. on Monday, May 31. Whichever essay gets the most votes wins! Winners will be announced on Tuesday, June 15.

The prizes:

To encourage globally conscious travel, the first and second place winners will be awarded EcoTeach Bucks that can be put toward any of our eco-trips to Costa Rica.  The EcoTeach Bucks can also be applied to EcoTeach merchandise or donated to the EcoTeach Foundation to support a specific project in your name. Five third place winners will walk away with an EcoTeach travel kit!

1 First Place Winner: $500 EcoTeach Bucks

1 Second Place Winner: $250 EcoTeach Bucks

5 Third Place Winners: EcoTeach Travel Kit (includes an EcoTeach T-shirt, EcoTeach stainless steel water bottle and a bag of our organic, fair trade certified coffee from the Sol Colibri co-op in Costa Rica.)

How to win:

Help yourself rake in the votes by spreading the word! After submitting your essay, send your essay link to your friends, family and social networks! Ask for votes on Twitter, Facebook and MySpace. If you have a blog, link it there. Let people know how their support will help you change the world!

Remember, the contest launches March 1, so get writing.  Good luck, and as always, happy travels!

What could be more educational for a student than the magic and mystery of watching an endangered, prehistoric creature lay her eggs?  Under the cover of darkness, she will make her journey from the sea onto the beach to dig her nest.  She’s been doing this for more than a million years and you’ll be there to experience it. You’ll work with your guide to take measurements, collect the eggs and bury them in a protected hatchery.  This is “service learning”, combining academic classroom curriculum with meaningful work.

This year, EcoTeach and SEE Turtles are teaming up to bring you this opportunity. This 12-day adventure will be hosted by passionate sea turtle conservationist Zander Srodes and led by a highly experienced EcoTeach guide. The group will spend 8 life-changing nights in the peak of Leatherback nesting season protecting beaches along the Caribbean coast, working hands-on with the largest sea turtle species on earth.

This trip is for young adults and college students only. There are two trips – May 28 – June 8, and June 10 – 22. The cost is $1,595 (excluding airfare). More information is available through SEE Turtles or EcoTeach. Book early to reserve your space! Click here to request more information.

College credit is available through Eastern Washington University.

Salve las tortugas!

Whether you’re a teacher, parent, group or individual, EcoTeach makes it easy to plan an ecological adventure of a lifetime.  We can help you plan an itinerary packed with your desired balance of education, hands-on conservation work, cultural exchange, fun and adventure.   Founded by teachers, EcoTeach knows how to guide you through the process of planning a trip, developing an itinerary, coordinating a group of travelers and even – packing your bags!

Getting started with EcoTeach:

• Select your trip dates. Contact us at 800-626-8992 and we’ll help you select dates that work for your group. The earlier you plan, the more likely your specific dates will be open.

• Choose an itinerary. We offer standard 9-day or 11-day itineraries, or we can customize a trip for you.  Do you want to work with sea turtles, observe manatees, stay with a local family, hike through rain forests, do reforestation work or visit an indigenous tribe?

• Put together a group of at least 7 travelers. EcoTeach can accommodate groups of 7-20 travelers.  Depending on the length of your itinerary, your trip is FREE when you put together a group of 7-10 travelers.

• Promote your trip! EcoTeach will set up a web site that keeps your group of travelers informed with your specific trip dates, payment deadlines, itinerary details, flight information, participant registration forms, international travel specifics, flyers to promote your trip, packing lists, etc.

• Know that your trip will have an impact on both the environment and your travelers long after they’ve returned home. Because we’re EcoTeach, and we know that travel can change the world!