Silent Forests, Costa Rica

The natural beauty of the Osa Peninsula is at risk due to human destruction.

This project and piece is less so about showcasing the beauty of our natural world, but instead, an understanding of the consequences of its destruction.

The Osa Peninsula holds a vast array of biodiversity, but this is being destroyed due to land use change, pollution and illegal resource extraction. In this piece we show four different Acoustic Fingerprints, limited to the dawn chorus in an old growth forest, secondary forest, teak plantation and palm plantation (left to right). The old growth forest is untouched by human hands, the secondary forest was once removed for human use and is now regenerating and the teak and palm plantations are mono cultures (forests of one tree species) that are grown and used for wood and palm oil in our everyday products.

Every line and colour and every piece of dark space filled represents the sounds of wildlife, we can see as we move from a pristine forest to plantations the loss of these sounds and species. This piece is a pictoral representation of the loss of sound and biodiversity at human hands.