Tourism and Conservation: the

Monteverde Experience

Noemi Danao, Executive Director

MONTEVERDE INSTITUTE

September 2006

What enabled Monteverde to become a premier tourist destination and

“poster child” for conservation and sustainable ecotourism?

What is Monteverde?

• Monte Verde: political definition– District 9, Cantón (County) de Puntarenas,

Province of Puntarenas

• Monteverde: human community/settlement

• Monteverde zone: economic (agriculture, tourism), both sides of continental divide

Monteverde: a cloud forest

What makes Monteverde unique?

• Largest private reserve system in Central America (75,000+ acres)

• Density of biological diversity: 6 different life zones

• History, social/cultural context

Monteverde: Foundings

Precolombian inhabitation by Corobiciaborigenes (related to Mayan culture)

1900 Guacimal Land Co. (Gold mines): workers came up in hunting trips

1920-29 Settlers in the Cerro Plano, Monteverde, Santa Elena area (providing crops and

supplies for the Mining Co.)

1940 12 farms in Monteverde area

1950 175 farmers lived in the Monteverde area

Santa Elena in the 1950s

Coming to Monteverde, April 19, 1951Coming to Monteverde, April 19, 1951Quaker SettlementQuaker Settlement

Settling in Monteverde

Early challenges

Stabilizing economic and social structures

Early Sustainability

• Forest preservation (watershed protection)

• Connection to the land

• Stable economic base (dairy, coffee)

• Social cohesion and support

• Cultural continuity

• Relative isolation (almost closed system)

First Steps to Conservation

Community Involvement

• Quaker community

• Productores de Monteverde (Dairy plant)

• Cooperativa Santa Elena

• Development Associations

• Monteverde Cloud Forest Reserve

• NGOs: Monteverde Conservation League, Monteverde Institute, civic committees

• Municipal Government (2003)

Successes of Local Organizations

• Extensive land conservation and preservation

• Large scale reforestation

• Environmental education

• Community involvement

• Emergence of organizations that meet new needs

Challenges that face the region

• Global climate change• National context • Tourism boom (and bust?) in Monteverde

0

10000

20000

30000

40000

50000

60000

70000

1970 1975 1980 1985 1990 1995 2000 2005 2010

Increasing pressure on social, economic, and physical environment

The changing Monteverde zone

Population growth trends

360

1014

2166

3430

5507

0

1000

2000

3000

4000

5000

6000

1986 1992 2002 2010 2020

Year / Año

Po

pu

lati

on

/ P

ob

lac

ión Monteverde Cerro Plano Santa Elena

Challenges to sustainability

Cerro Plano, 1991Cerro Plano, 2001Cerro Plano, 2010Cerro Plano, 2020

Traffic Projection: Cerro Plano 2001

Source: Sustainable Futures 2001

Traffic Projection: Cerro Plano 2020

Source: Sustainable Futures 2001

Monteverde: Closing Reflections

• Conservation – unintended road to tourism (and development)

• Monteverde: a cloud forest, a protected area, a story

• Challenges: living up to image, building on achievements, finding a sustainable balance

Questions? Thank you!