Brinkman & Associates Reforestation Central America (BARCA) was formed in 1994 to provide quality tropical forest management in Latin America. BARCA is part of the Brinkman Group, which includes companies dedicated to silviculture, urban restoration, climate solutions, and Indigenous partnerships. It is this broad-based expertise that informs all of our philosophy and practices at BARCA.

Fred Schutter, the founder of BARCA, spearheaded the creation of BARCA in Costa Rica to oversee the Birds Projects which he helped develop and establish in 1994. He served as Director of Central American Operations until retiring in 2016 after giving the company 22 years (just like an ideal teak rotation). Fred has been part of the Brinkman Group since 1978 and, prior to moving to Costa Rica, he managed reforestation projects in British Columbia, Canada. 

BARCA was able to attract esteemed Forester Ricardo Luján from his teaching position at the Instituto Tecnológico de Costa Rica (ITCR) in 1996 to head up the forestry team. He was a professor in Forestry at ITCR and a Principal Research Forester at CATIE. He has a Bachelor of Science in Forestry from ITCR and completed a Master of Science in Forestry/Agroforestry from CATIE. Ricardo is a registered professional forester and surveyor in Costa Rica. He is responsible for our FSC^® certification and leads our consulting services department, as well as, providing technical assistance to our genetic improvement program. 

Betsy Barcus is BARCA Costa Rica´s current General Manager. She began working with BARCA in the year 2000, coming from a Quality Assurance and HR position in the agro-industrial sector, to support BARCA with its administrative processes. She became BARCA Costa Rica´s Administrative Manager when BARCA expanded to Panama in 2007, specializing in land development and land sales, later becoming the general manager responsible for all the CR projects in 2020. She has a Business degree from Clemson University (SC, USA) and originally moved to Costa Rica in 1988, working with agricultural cooperatives as a Peace Corps Volunteer. 

José Corrales is a Costa Rican Forestry Engineer with a graduate degree from the Tecnológico, who has been BARCA Costa Rica´s Operations Manager since 2007 overseeing up to 2200 hectares and over 300 employees at peak planting seasons. He began as a student, doing his thesis creating maps and permanent plots for monitoring growth in the Bird farms, then began working part-time in BARCA in 1998, moving to full-time in 2001 as BARCA expanded its client base. His responsibilities expanded geographically and organizationally as BARCA grew in size, and he currently oversees land management, harvesting operations, the establishment and maintenance of forest plantations, and our nursery in Palmar Sur. 

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