Refugio Tinti – a tribute to Paul Kupelwieser

Alexander Tinti, son of Christiana and grandson of Manfred I Mautner Markhof and Maria Anna “Pussy” Kupelwieser has been walking in Costa Rica since 2016 in the footsteps of his great-great-grandfather Paul, who transformed the islands of Brioni from an uninhabitable swamp into a natural paradise.

24 hectares of drained and trampled marshland have been turned into a thriving ecosystem.
But it is not just the love of nature that drives him. Concerned about the massive increase in environmental degradation, he studied soil biology and permaculture at a young age and went to Asia in 1998, where he already was involved in various environmental projects.

Alexander Tinti’s approach is based on systems analysis and design methods based on permaculture. The Refugio Tinti is now a nature conservancy project with the overall theme of reconciliation between people and nature. What was once a degraded marshland in the humid lowland rainforests of Costa Rica, contaminated by agrochemicals and herd of cattle, has become a growing habitat for numerous species, including some threatened with extinction.