regions on a broad scale. That 25% of Costa Rica is
now protected in the form of national parks and for-
est reserves tells only part of the conservation story.
If reserves are isolated from one another, the value of
setting aside a large percentage of the country is di-
minished. A high conservation priority is to connect
Monteverde to a regional system of parks that encom-
passes a broad elevational gradient similar to Braulio
Carrillo National Park on Costa Rica's Atlantic slope
(LaBastille and Pool 1978; see Fig. 1.4). Migratory ani-
mals pay no attention to international borders, which
greatly complicates conservation solutions (Young
etal. 1998, Powell and Bjork, in press). Three-
wattled Bellbirds and possibly other species of Monte-
verde animals spend part of their lives in Nicaragua
or Panama. Simply setting aside more park land in
Monteverde will not assure their protection.
Land-use patterns in Monteverde are constantly
changing. As ecotourism becomes increasingly impor-
tant in the economy of the region and as some farmers
reduce the scale of their dairy operations, pastures re-
vert to forest (see Chaps. 10 and 11), and it is important
to understand processes such as the regeneration of
abandoned pastures. The role that shade trees play in
promoting seed dispersal and facilitating secondary
succession in pastures is such a process (see Groom,
"Regeneration in Abandoned Pastures," pp. 442-444).
Many of the conservation problems that plague
other forests in Costa Rica are less serious in Monte-
verde (see Young, "How Have Humans Affected Bird
Populations?", p. 433). Compared to animals and plants
of the lowland tropics, species of highland forests ap-
pear not to be as specialized ecologically (see Chap. 6,
Birds). No animal or plant studied in Monteverde is
absolutely dependent on a single type of food, nest
site, microhabitat, pollinator, or seed disperser, al-
though orchids and other cloud forest epiphytes may
reveal themselves to be an exception to this generali-
zation. Wenny and Levey (1998) provide an example
of an advantage to a plant species of seed dispersal
by a particular bird species. The importance of the in-
teraction between the species would have been over-
looked in a study that failed to examine the fate of
seeds following dispersal. Monteverde's flora and
fauna are not generally characterized by the kinds of
life history features that predispose species to extinc-
tion (other than the need to migrate altitudinally). For
example, the sizes of seed crops of plants and the clutch
sizes of animals do not seem to be distinctively small
(and some are distinctively large; Sargent 1993). The
ages at first reproduction are not particularly delayed
in Monteverde's flora and fauna, compared to other
tropical sites (but see McDonald, "Cooperation," p. 204).
The character and history of the Monteverde
human community have reduced some conservation
problems, through private ownership of the land by
conservation-minded residents, protection of water-
sheds, a tradition of collaborative solutions to com-
munity problems, and the early and effective estab-
lishment of controls on hunting, tree-cutting, and
excessive scientific collecting (see Chap. 10, Conser-
vation Institutions). Monteverde's efforts to reduce
pollution in the Rio Guacimal caused by wastes from
the dairy plant are an example of community conser-
vation action (see Chap. 11, Agriculture, and Gill,
"Impact of Lecheria," p. 446).
The focus of conservation concerns in Monteverde
may have already shifted from local problems to re-
gional and global influences. Climate change has been
implicated in the decline of numerous species world-
wide (Peters and Lovejoy 1992, Barry et al. 1995). Of all
conservation problems in Monteverde, the most alarm-
ing one is the local extinction of 40% of amphibian
species in the last decade (see Chap. 5, Amphibians and
Reptiles). Once common, Fleischmann's Glass Frogs,
Golden Toads, Harlequin Frogs, Cloud Forest Anoles,
and other amphibians and reptiles are extremely scarce
or absent. The vast number of species lost over an area
as large as the Monteverde region implicates climate
change, pollution, introduced pathogens, or some com-
bination of all of these factors. The last 25 years of tem-
perature records in Monteverde mirror global warming
trends; temperatures have risen, the length of dry spells
has increased, and the hydrology of watersheds has been
altered (Crump and Pounds 1989; see Chap. 5). Anec-
dotal evidence suggests that the distributions of various
species of birds and plants have gradually shifted
to higher elevations on the Pacific slope, presumably
in response to climatic changes (see Chaps. 5 and 6,
Birds). During the last four years, four species of low-
land bats appeared in Monteverde for the first time (see
Chap. 7, Mammals). Although ultraviolet radiation has
not been measured in Monteverde, it has probably risen
there as it has elsewhere in the world (Herman et al.
1996, Yan et al. 1996). UV-B radiation can harm am-
phibians directly or indirectly by making them more
vulnerable to parasites or predators (Blaustein et al.
1996). The growing scarcity of frog-eating snakes in
Monteverde, attributed to the decline in their prey (see
Chap. 5), may be an example of an indirect effect of cli-
mate changes on animal populations.12.5. Can Conservation Biology
Offer Solutions to Monteverde's
Conservation Problems?Monteverde has an aura of a Shangri-la, a pristine and
distant mountain forest in the clouds, removed from
the rest of the world's environmental problems. How-428 Conservation Biology