Pacuare River Conservation History
Costa Rica Runs on >75% Hydropower
Protecting the Pacuare River
“I started trying to save a river and a rainforest valley that would have been ruined by being dammed. Nature would have been killed. But we did not comprehend then how far-reaching our activism would be. We ended up causing ICE to have to create environmental impact report policies. We pushed them to look into developing other alternative energies, which has led to wind, solar, and geothermal energy projects in Costa Rica, moving away from hydroelectric dams over the years.”
– Rafa Gallo
September 1980
Polish explorers Piotr Chmielinski, Jerzy “Yurek” Majcherczyk, and their CanoAndes team of kayakers make the first modern kayaking descent of the upper and lower Pacuare River. Learn more…
November 1985
Rios Tropicales runs its first commercial trip on the Pacuare River with kayakers. To get the kayaks and gear down to the river, they used a cart pulled by an oxen team.
1988
The book “The Rivers of Costa Rica” is published, co-authored by Rafael Gallo and Michael Mayfield. It is still, to this day, the definitive canoeing, kayaking, and rafting guide for Costa Rica’s rivers.
April 23, 1990
Large demonstration at the ICE camp by the entrance to Dos Montañas Canyon on the Pacuare with environmental activists, journalists, and members of the rafting and indigenous Cabecar communities stop that day’s scheduled dynamiting of the canyon as the company prepared to build its hydroelectric dam. A rotating group camps for six weeks on the beach at the entrance to Dos Montañas Canyon to prevent ICE from doing any dynamiting or other invasive action on the river.
September 1991
Project RAFT (Russians and Americans for Teamwork) and Rios Tropicales host an international rafting championship, called the Rainforest Festival, on the Pacuare and Reventazon rivers. Attended by over 400 international athletes, one of the event’s goals is to promote saving the Pacuare.
September 1998
The first official IRF World Rafting Championship is held on the Pacuare and Reventazon rivers as part of the 1998 Camel Whitewater Challenge. Watch the video.
2008
Rios Tropicales wins the Conde Nast World Savers Award.
2008
Rios Tropicales wins the first National Geographic Geotourism Challenge: Celebrating People and Place. Rios Tropicales Lodge is featured in this win.
2009
Rios Tropicales receives the Blue Ecological Flag for Protected Natural Spaces for its work in the Pacuare River watershed. This award also has been received annually ever since.
October 2011
The IRF World Rafting Championship returns to the Pacuare River, organized by Rios Tropicales, and becomes the first-ever Certified Carbon Neutral world championship sporting event.
August 28, 2015
Costa Rican President Luis Guillermo Solis goes rafting with his family and advisors down the Pacuare River. At the end of the trip, he signs a Presidential Decree protecting the Pacuare and Savegre rivers from any hydroelectric plants for the next 25 years (through 2040).
August 2021
The Rivers and Forests Alliance (RAFA) officially organizes to continue Rafa Gallo’s conservation work of protecting and regenerating the Pacuare River Basin.