Dear Friends:

On behalf of the Osa Peninsula Earth Day 2008 Committee, we would like to personally invite you to be a part of our celebration honoring the Earth. On Sunday, April 20, 2008, the 4th Annual Osa Peninsula Earth Day Festival is again expected to attract hundreds of participants from communities throughout the Peninsula, providing an opportunity to network and celebrate together the abundance of Nature.
In 2004, the Osa joined with other communities around the world kicking off a festival in downtown Puerto Jimenez with a great showing of community support and involvement. For the past four years, we have continued to build on this success by offering a free event which celebrates the environment and reflects the growing diversity of our community. The Festival hosts numerous environmental exhibits with a wide variety of interactive educational opportunities for children and adults, as well as exciting and diverse live entertainment, musical line-ups, contests and speakers all in a family-fun atmosphere. The theme for this year is Living in Peace with Nature, presenting a variety of practical applications for ecological stewardship.
The Osa Earth Day Festival maintains free admission and when possible, free transportation to draw the largest cross-section from rural communities so that we can celebrate this internationally recognized event in the most inclusive manner. Our Festival’s success depends on financial support from businesses and organizations such as yours.
Enclosed is an overview of the sponsorship levels for the Osa Earth Day Festival 2008, which includes details of the sponsorship benefits. Please note that these benefits include potential print, radio, and television exposure as well as on-site visibility. By sponsoring the Osa Earth Day Festival, you have an opportunity to support the environment and garner positive publicity for your company locally, and exponentially throughout Costa Rica and the world.
Please see the attached opportunities for sponsorship, We appreciate your time and consideration and hope that you will partner with us as we work to protect the environment here on the Osa Peninsula, a place whose biological diversity has significance around the globe well as right here at home.

Sincerely,

Tricia Stapleton, Tao Watts
chirripohomegrown@gmail.com taoaqui@racsa.co.cr

Women of the Osa
event co-chairpersons
LIVING IN PEACE WITH NATURE
Earth Day 2008
COME JOIN US!

The Osa Peninsula Earth Day Celebration is a private-
public coalition working to raise public awareness and education about
conservation and environmental stewardship on the Osa Peninsula.
This coming year marks the 4th year of this ongoing initiative.

Here’s How You Can Help

BE A FINANCIAL SPONSOR

As a Sponsor, your organization will receive special recognition in a number of ways:
• Jaguar Sponsor $2,500
• Tapir Sponsor $1,000
• Monkey Sponsor $ 500
• Turtle Sponsor $ 100
• Macaw $ 50

BECOME AN EXIBITOR

Exhibitor package, including one 10′ x 10′ exhibit space
Exhibition Booth Fee: $25

PLEDGE YOUR SUPPORT
• Your financial support at any level is needed and appreciated.
• Consider contributing professional expertise and other “in-kind” services.
• Participate as a speaker, performer, or presenter

VOLUNTEER!
• Join the growing partnership
Public outreach success lies in the cooperation and hands-on
involvement of many partners. Volunteer efforts represent a
value exceeding 10 times direct expenditures in our event.

Name___________________________________________

Organization _____________________________________

Phone___________________________________________

Fax_____________________________________________

E-mail ___________________________________________

Please return this form along with a check for a tax deductible donation to:
Friends of the Osa
c/o Conservation International
1919 M St NW Suite 600
Washington DC 20036
Earmarked: WOMEN OF THE OSA EARTHDAY 2008
Or within Costa Rica:
Make a direct deposit to the WOO account
at Banco Nacional de Costa Rica:
100-02-094-600210-6
Ascociacion Women of the Osa
Or send your check to
Women of the Osa
Apdo #1
Puerto Jimenez
Peninsula de Osa
Costa Rica 60702

• For more information, check out our Website
http://www.womenoftheosa.org.

Your early commitment ensures success. While contributions are
welcome at any time, deadline for full recognition as a 2008 Earth Day sponsor is February 29, 2008.

If you would like to be a presenter on the main stage or the side stage, please choose from the categories below or create a new one in keeping with the event theme Living in Peace with Nature.

PRESENTER’S THEMES:

• Conserving and Protecting Land
• Green Construction
• Water
• Clean Energy
• Organic Gardening
• Conscious Consumption
• Waste and Recycling
• Wildlife Rescue
• Living in Paradise Ethical Guidelines
Thank you for supporting the Osa Peninsula’s Earth Day Festival!

It is critical to preserve this bio-diversity not only for the people who live in the Osa, but for the good of the world. The oxygen provided by the rain-forest helps balance the global warming effect. Rain-forest plants are a vital source for major medicinal breakthroughs. As well, our emotional well-being depends on places that give us a sense of peace and harmony. By depleting different wild life species, the chain of survival is broken which leads to dis-equilibrium in nature. By allowing deforestation our climates will continue to change dramatically. It is of global significance, this tiny unique region, which faces ever-increasing threats by hunters, loggers, and developers. As women who live and work and raise our children here, we feel especially called to conserve this amazing and resourceful place not only for ourselves, but for future generations.
We are concerned that proposed incongruous projects such as marinas, airports, and megadevelopments, threaten the landscape that is one of the richest displays of nature on Planet Earth, where up to 50% of the biodiversity of Costa Rica, and 2.5% of the entire world flourishes. Osa represents that “100% Natural�? idea that the marketing campaigns sell to the world about Costa Rica. It is also one of the most environmentally sensitive areas on Earth. In many respects, it represents the best of Costa Rica. As you, Dr. Arias, yourself have said, “It is a rare treasure…we have truly been blessed with the task of guarding this unique treasure, and we have an immense responsibility to be good stewards.”
As neighbors and stewards living and working in this community, we, The Women of the Osa, along with biologists, environmentalists, and other members of the Osa Peninsula community call upon the government of Costa Rica, and you as its leader, to provide protection against environmentally disastrous development by granting protected-area status to the Golfo Dulce. We believe that this is the best way to protect one of Costa Rica’s foremost environmental treasures while continuing to show the kind of leadership in ecological stewardship that Costa Rica is known for and respected throughout the world. We encourage Costa Rican authorities to protect Golfo Dulce and the entire peninsula with conservative measures that rethink the impact that approving any kind of mega project would have on the fragile eco system. We believe that Mega Development is not compatible with Conservation. Period. It is time to set forth the guidelines and limitations that are necessary to continue to protect this area from ruination.
We know that it is possible to create environmentally conscious and socially responsible development in an ecologically sensitive area. It is possible to sustain a community that can enjoy the treasure that Osa is without mega projects that are incompatible with conservation and protection of Costa Rica’s greatest resource. Several boutique, lodge style hotels in Osa have achieved this, and retreat centers and modest rental homes and eco villages have carved their unique spaces out of this biosphere, and done so with little endangerment to the wildlife, the marine life, and the prolific fauna surrounding them. Osa is a premiere travel destination because it is one of the few places on earth where “mega mania�? has not struck. Land owners, environmental and ecological organizations, eco tourism businesses and visitors to the Osa Peninsula see it as the proving ground for protecting and sustaining biodiversity, while developing and sustaining a rural economy.

If the Osa Peninsula is to be at the forefront of a your Presidential Initiative, “Peace with Nature�?, can we trust that you will to fight not only for conservation of the corridor between Corcovado and Piedras Blancas, but for the entire Golfo Dulce and Osa Peninsula region; to protect the clarity of the water, to protect the integrity of the forests and mangroves, and to protect the diversity of life that is so abundant in this unique environment?

Please let the Osa Peninsula stand as an example to the world of man’s best attempt to live in harmony with the earth, and make Peace with Nature. Let us be the model for how to build, plant, live, with positive impact on the environment, rather than as constant threat to it. Let us secure the Osa Peninsula, from over development, from mega projects, and from over population and severe impact by humans. Help us to continue to protect the natural resources of this region that are so important to the overall health and well being of the country and of the planet.

Sincerely and in good faith,

WOMEN Of the OSA