Rancho Mastatal

Since 2001 the Ranch has been developing and running their project and business with the intention that it provides benefits to our local community and helps to promote positive community development. Most of the finances that they currently bring in through their work remain in our community in the form of employee salaries and health care coverage and payments to local suppliers for the purchases of local goods like agricultural products and building supplies. Rancho Mastatal is the largest employer and consumer of agricultural goods in its community. 
In 2004 the Ranch founded the Mastate Charitable Foundation (MCF), a small US-based non-profit that has financed numerous community projects over the years.  Between work at the Ranch and MCF, Rancho Mastatal has been working diligently to be good neighbors doing good work. 
Some intiatives include

• Organized and funded 6 spay and neuter clinics that succeeded in fixing and providing medications and transportation for 400 local cats and dogs
• Fundraised for and built a timber frame Community Learning and Sharing Center (library) located in the center of town using local labor and materials
• Funded and installed 18 solar arrays for local people living far from the grid that could not afford electricity
• Funded the construction and installation of new windows, the floor and the entrance for the local Community Center
• Organized and sponsored 6 essay contests that have sent 25 local students and adults on educational trips throughout the country
• Paid for numerous scholarships for locals to participate in natural building, wilderness medicine and renewable energy workshops
• Currently act as the unofficial local medical aid station and provide a yearly free medical clinic
• Paid for the phone and phone installation at the local police station

In 2008 the Ranch began to shift more of its focus to food production. Since then they’ve added hens, hundreds of fruit trees, thousands of nitrogen-fixing trees, hundreds of additional square feet of garden space, a thriving nursery, many linear feet of earthworks, and various water and nutrient cycling systems. Many of these improvements have been designed and implemented using permaculture practices with the goal of meeting human needs using techniques that harmonize with ecological patterns.

Natural building is a focus at Rancho Mastatal. The ranch takes pride in designing and building structures to minimize the impact on the environment and maximize their sustainability. They use local labor and resources to not only build our infrastructure but also community.

In 2002, Rancho Mastatal initiated the process to put aside most of its property as a private wildlife refuge.  This involved developing and having approved by the Costa Rican government a management plan that outlines how they can use the land while meeting the primary objective of natural resource conservation. The ranch now protects over 200 acres of land that now borders La Cangreja National Park.