“Sustainability in Monteverde is a state of mind, a way of relating with the environment embedded in the code of the people who have lived here since they were babies. It perfectly matches Costa Rica's aim to be a carbon-free country and the generalized national idea that all industries must be sustainable.”
Monteverde is a community that thrives in an environment that — in other times and for other sorts of people — would have been called hostile. It is a wilderness that takes your breath away, and is powerful that the community has learned to respect it and flourish in it.
Monteverde’s community has been practicing sustainability much before the word was popular, and conservation was a worldwide issue.
But before we dive into what conservation and sustainability mean for the community of Monteverde, let’s start with a common definition..
What is Sustainability?
The definition given below includes some critical aspects of its meaning.
Brundtland (1987): This is the most commonly quoted definition, and it aims to be more comprehensive than most:
Sustainable development is the development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the needs of future generations.
Meeting the needs of the present, without compromising the needs of the future. That, in a nutshell, describes the story of Monteverde’s founding.
As you could read in The History of Monteverde, the conservation efforts here started soon after a group of Quaker families moved into the region and changed the area forever.
The community of Monteverde has been born, fed, and raised with a strong and quite intense drive for conservation and sustainability.
Sustainability in Monteverde is a state of mind, a way of relating with the environment embedded in the code of the people who have lived here since birth. And for a newcomer, this spirit is quite evident.
Some Sympathy for the Smallest
First of all, I’d like to tell you a story that illustrates the spirit of Monteverde.
When I moved to Monteverde back in June 2020, one of my first striking experiences was an invasion of army ants.
I have been in the rainforest environment throughout my life. I know army ants. You see their long trails around the forest, creating a ramble on the jungle floor.
They eat whatever is on their way. Scorpios, tarantulas, other ants, everything is food to them.
I had seen them around for a couple of weeks, but they started invading my place one Saturday morning.
I began noticing them around the balcony. Creating long lines that were moving here and there. Soon, they had completely covered the walls. It felt like one of those 1970's horror movies!
Of course, I didn't have insecticide. I am a conservationist living in the rainforest! Well! That morning I wished I had some.
My first move was to call and leave a message to my landlady, who was born and raised in Monteverde, asking her if she knew what to do about them.
Ants were getting in my house and my kitchen through the windows, eating everything stuck in the spider webs around. I was lost on what to do.
When they had covered the balcony floor and were already entirely invading the living room, I decided it was enough, and I took some hot water and threw it at them.
The first thing that struck me was that within three or five minutes tops, they were gone. Vanished. All of them.
It hit me how these zillions of ants are like one solid mind in a spread-out body.
But even more striking was the reaction of my landlady (We are talking about someone in her 70's here)
She called me a couple of hours later.
Her answer was more surprising than the whole chapter of the ants: "When ants come in your place, you take a walk and let them clean your place, that's all you have to do."
I felt almost embarrassed at making so much drama instead of allowing them to clean my place. I wish I could invite them over now and then.
When you live in Monteverde, the cloud forest is your habitat. And you are as part of it as the ants, or the flowers or the trees. And it feels so.
It is quite easy to realize this as, well, you are permanently surrounded by pristine nature.
The Four Pillars of Building Better
Monteverde’s founding principles and the instinctive protection of nature were highly influential, and eventually, Monteverde was one of the first places in Costa Rica to start a real conservation effort that was reflected throughout the community.
With scientists doing research starting in the ’60s, and visitors following these scientists, Monteverde has turned into a Mecca for people who want to study biodiversity, endemic species, and many other tropical biology subjects. But also for nature lovers, adventure fans, and hiking devotees.
In 1975, the main preserve counted 431 visitors, mostly scientists and bird watchers. Two years later, Mrs. Wood, a local Quaker, opened a tiny bed-and-breakfast in her home, where tourists may stay overnight.
Things grew quickly. Visitors went from 2700 in 1980 to over 40,000 in 1991. By 2019 the region received a little less than 250,000 visitors. (1)
However, this presented some new challenges — how do you grow a tourism business, and continue to protect nature? Well, for decades the community of Monteverde was dedicated to finding ways to cope with the ever-growing tourism industry and succeeded in more ways than we could count.
So let’s start by reviewing the 4 aspects of sustainability in Monteverde.
- Environmentally Conscious Organizations
- Circular Economy
- Community and individual efforts
- Education
Environmentally Conscious and Community Organizations
Monteverde is home to a variety of non-profit, environmentally conscious, and community organizations. Visitors can interact with these non-governmental organizations on a variety of levels, such as studying local flora and fauna in their laboratories, or simply walking through their cloud forest trails and learning a lot about tropical ecosystems and the preservation practices that aim to keep them in place.
The following is a list of organizations that are the founders and keepers of the Monteverde private reserves, allowing research and educational programs in sustainable development:
- The Monteverde Conservation League (MCL)
- The Monteverde Institute (MVI)
- The Cooperativa de Artesanas de Santa Elena y Monteverde, or CASEM, is a non-profit artisan cooperative dedicated to improving the economic and social well-being of local female artisans.
- The Monteverde Friends School is a bilingual, multicultural school that serves children from preschool to high school.
- Monteverde Community Fund Acts as a collector and distribution point for resources destined for community-led projects.
- As part of the Monteverde Community Fund, you can find The Monteverde Travelers Philanthropy Program; Integrated Solid Waste Management (COMIRES-Monteverde)
- The Monteverde Commission on Integrated Solid Waste Management (COMIRES-Monteverde)
- The Monteverde Commission for Resilience to Climate Change (CORCLIMA)
- Cloud Forest Research Data Base
- Made in Monteverde
- Econexiones is a new local company that sells products from this area and other parts of Costa Rica.
Monteverde and Circular Economy
While most of the world operates as a linear economy that ignores social and environmental costs and benefits; a circular economy seeks to find a balance that respects basic social needs and the limits of the planet. A donut economy stays in a regenerative zone with fair use of resources.
Community and Individual Efforts
I am going to enlist some of the particular individual and collective efforts the community and the neighbors of Monteverde are doing.
Food Production and Consumption:
- Several farms are compromised not to use synthetic nitrogen fertilizers on their fields.
- Many neighbors have organic gardens that have inspired locals and visitors to create their own gardens.
- There are several organic artisanal dairy products, cheese, yogurt, cream cheese, and you can also find El Camino Gelato ice cream.
- In the supermarkets of Monteverde, you can find several vegan and artisanal products made by local small companies or even individual people. Usually, you can find these products available at Whole Foods.
- Veganism and vegetarianism are quite common among the neighbors of Monteverde.
Transportation and energy use:
- Many people in the area have chosen not to own a vehicle and walk as their primary mode of transportation.
- Several neighbors assist the construction of sidewalks adjacent to their properties so that people can safely walk or use wheelchairs.
- Several neighbors drive electric golf carts and many get around town on electric bikes or regular bikes.
- You can find some 240 V charging points through Monteverde.
- Many neighbors cook with induction cooktops instead of gas.
- Dozens of neighbors have solar panels and/or solar water heaters in their houses. Some others have hydroelectrical systems to produce their own electricity.
- The Monteverde Electric Route: The ¨Ruta Eléctrica Monteverde¨ is a support network that allows electric vehicle travelers to reach Monteverde. You can travel without worrying about range anxiety, without polluting the environment, and while charging your vehicle.
Map of the Electric Route: Electric Route Monteverde-Google Maps
Waste management and water conservation:
- Current recycling efforts throughout the whole community.
- Neighbors also dispose of organic waste. Many people make use of the expanding municipal composting system and Compost bins are available
- There are people producing and selling dry toilet systems.
- There are "artificial humedales" to treat gray water, as well as infiltration gardens and other water-capture systems.
Forest preservation:
- Many neighbors work tirelessly to preserve water and biodiversity resources on the land of Bosqueterno S.A.
- Several neighbor clusters work on planting trees and restoring habitat in the area.
- Strong promotion of rural tourism and conservation.
Education of Our Community
“The world as we have created it is a process of our thinking. It cannot be changed without changing our thinking.”― Albert Einstein
There have been several factors that have influenced the Monteverde region’s education. From the families, the schools, and unavoidable nature immersion, the children of Monteverde learn to live with the forest as part of their homes and something to respect and love.
Since the 1960s the community of Monteverde has received a scientific community that lived within the community and the value that they give to the forests of the area permeated into the people of Monteverde.
Children of Costa Rica in general are taught environmental practices from a very early age. However, the Monteverde children are immersed in the nature they are taught to protect.
It gets into their DNA, and you can witness this wherever you are in Monteverde.
Libraries
The Library Committee has made reading possible without purchasing new books and has directed the cache, assisting in circulating resources to new owners rather than having things in disuse or sending them to the landfill. The Santa Elena Public Library's governing board has also created a space to share books with the larger community - using solar energy.
How Monteverde thrived in the pandemic:
Barter: Circular resources in the area that do not rely on traditional money.
- Los Verdes is the new Monteverde only social currency that allows people to trade skills and produce with other locals. You can also earn Greens by performing environmentally friendly actions, volunteering, or bartering with farmers.
- The Tilichera is a new exchange center located next to the Bank of Costa Rica. It's a great way to keep items circulating in the community rather than keeping them in someone's closet or drawer. You can place a bet, pay with Verdes, get Verdes, or simply make a donation if you are disposing of items.
- Buy locally: You can help our local economy remain resilient by purchasing locally produced, environmentally friendly goods.
- The Community Farm in Cerro Plano is transforming the bull ring into a place for more than 30 families to grow food and a place for the community to gather.
- Seeding Sustainable Development is a Monteverde Institute program that provides temporary work in sustainability projects to unemployed locals.
- The Food Bank accepts donations. Food can be brought at La Tilichera. Donations in cash can be made to the Community Fund.
- Two art projects are beautifying our spaces, raising awareness, fostering community, and inspiring action:
- Since the beginning of the pandemic, resilience has been creating art with chalk on the blackboard wall of the Monteverde center plaza every week.
- Monteverde Resiliente (a collaboration between CORCLIMA and ¨Costa Rica in the Pared¨) is painting murals and creating mosaics in Santa Elena and Cerro Plano.
- Bicionarios Monteverde is a movement dedicated to promoting safe cycling as a mode of transportation. If you must, please leave 1.5 meters between yourself and the cyclists and encourage others to do the same by attaching a sticker to their vehicle or sponsoring the installation of a sign.
- You can see a map with local producers here: Productores Locales de Monteverde- Google Maps
Monteverde takes environmental practices and sustainable development very seriously. And as tourism happens to be the main industry, you will find that everything and everyone in the industry is involved with sustainability and conservation efforts.
If you liked this article, you will enjoy ¨Costa Rica: Ecotourism for the Conscious Traveler¨
As a guest in Ocotea Boutique Hotel, you are immersed in all the environmental efforts of this amazing community. If you want to get involved ask our hotel and we will tell you the ways to help and support the Monteverde conservation efforts.
References:
(1) N.a. "Monteverde Conservation League Costa Rica." Monteverdeinfo.com. 5 Aug. 2021. Web. 17 Nov. 2021. <http://www.monteverdeinfo.com/community/monteverde-conservation-league>
