played a major role in interinstitutional environmen-
tal cooperation. It has sponsored annual school con-
tests and week-long ecological-cultural festivals. The
Coope started the school contest in 1985 to encour-
age children to work together to learn more about
environmental problems in the area (e.g., garbage,
water sources, birds and their habitats, reforestation,
organic gardening). Expenses are underwritten by the
Coope, the dairy plant, MCFP, MCL, Monteverde In-
stitute (MVI), and donations. The festival, supported
by the same organizations and by hotels and eco-
tourism businesses, promotes community interaction
and awareness of environmental issues and problems
of the zone through educational, cultural, and sport-
ing events (C. Vargas and G. Vargas, pers. comm.).
The development of ecotourism. Rapid ecotourism
development from the mid-1980s onward created a
second economic base for the zone and greatly af-
fected conservation organizations. Those involved in
conservation organizations acknowledge that "eco-
tourism is embedded in conservation here" (F. Joyce,
pers. comm.). The types of ecotourists attracted to the
area have changed over the years (see Crosby, "Chang-
ing Face of Tourism," p. 376).
The development of a tourism infrastructure began
with the first pension, which was built in the early
1950s. Most of the early scientists who came to Monte-
verde stayed there (M. Moss, pers. comm.). By the late
1980s, hotels and pensions had multiplied; almost all
of these were locally owned. By 1998, there were at
least 15 medium to large hotels and more than 20
pensions and small hotels in the zone for a total of
about 450 rooms and 1000 beds. Individuals also rent
rooms in their homes to tourists and students. In 1991,
the larger hotels created a chamber of tourism (la
camarata)', the smaller pensions later formed their
own association (G. Arguedas and P. Smith, Jr., pers.
comm.).
Large hotels have their own restaurants; restaurants
and snack bars ("sodas") have also sprung up. Sou-
venirs, gifts, local crafts, books, postcards, slides, and
artworks featuring local natural history themes are
available in shops (see Burlingame, "Comite de Arte-
sanias," pp. 383-384 and "La Campesinita," p. 384).
Other tourism businesses include horseback-riding
stables and tree canopy tours. The establishment of
limits on the number of visitors in the MCFP created
an incentive to open nature walks and natural history
slide shows on private property. Tourists can observe
local animals at the Monteverde Butterfly Garden (see
Wolfe, "Monteverde Butterfly Garden," pp. 382-383),
the Serpentarium, and the Hummingbird Gallery.
These ecotourism businesses serve an educational
function and promote conservation and sustainable
development (Baker 1994, Rachowiecki 1994, Sheck
1996, Blake and Becher 1997).
Another source of ecotourism employment has
been natural history guiding. The first guides had only
a familiarity with the area; they showed trails and
likely spots for quetzals to bird watchers and scien-
tists. By 1996, guiding provided full-time jobs in the
high season for 30 local people. Guides explain com-
plex interactions of the cloud forest to thousands of
tourists a year. Although the MCFP, MCL, and MVI
have occasionally sponsored classes for local guides
to improve their English and guiding skills, most
guides learn on their own from bird books (e.g., Stiles
and Skutch 1989) and resident biologists, and then
pick up group management techniques from more
experienced guides (S. Crosby, pers. comm.).
For most tourists, the guide is the local person with
whom they may have the most contact. During the
tour, the focus is on education and entertainment,
with explanations of what exists in the cloud forest,
how it works, and the way it affects tourists' lives at
home. Most guides finish the tour by pointing out to
visitors ways in which they can contribute to conser-
vation in the zone (G. Diller, pers. comm.). Although
scientists generate the information about the biota, it
is the guide who makes that information accessible
to tourists, and tourists who make future conserva-
tion an economic reality (S. Crosby, pers. comm.).
Guiding can have a strong conservation impact on
the guided and on the guide. For example, one
Monteverde-born resident killed birds with a sling-
shot when he was young and later hunted for meat.
He repaired chain saws and cut trees for neighbors.
As he moved into dairy farming, he developed a claim
in the Penas Blancas valley and resented conserva-
tionists' efforts to buy land there because he saw the
land as being suited to farming. When he later worked
for the dairy plant and MVI, his attitudes changed. In
1990, he started guiding and initiated a night walk
program at the MCFP and realized he could make a
living because forests had been preserved. In 1996,
he launched his own conservation project and foun-
dation to create a new private reserve bordering Rincon
de la Vieja National Park (T. Guindon, pers. comm.).
Why did Monteverde become such a popular tour-
ist destination in Costa Rica? In the early 1970s,
George Powell published a site report on quetzals in
the journal American Birds (Fig. 10.2). Other scien-
tists who studied in Monteverde published articles
on rare and interesting birds in scholarly journals
that were read by serious bird-watchers (Snow 1977,
Wheelwright 1983). Larger audiences were reached
by BBC's 1978 televised film Forest in the Clouds
(Tosi 1992). The widely read magazine International
Wildlife published an illustrated article, "Is this the355 Conservation in the Monteverde Zone