Tom made a brief presentation to explain the connection between the network Tierra project and a rain forest conservation project in Costa Rica. Tom has been involved in the development of the National Parks system in Costa Rica since 1977. These efforts have contributed to the creation of a fairly large area of protected forests in north-central Costa Rica. The present phase of the rain forest project aims to bring a few more unprotected areas under protection, and to work towards the long-term stability of the protected areas by developing economic activities connected with the natural areas.
The Tierra license agreement states that the source code can be freely distributed, but not the executables. The Tierra executables are available on floppy disk for $50. For the network version of Tierra, the profits from the sale of the executables will be contributed to the rain forest project in Costa Rica, through the Nature Conservancy. All of the members of the Tierra development group have agreed to this arrangement, and they will receive no funds from the sale of Tierra.