rent practices of conservation organizations in the
Monteverde Zone (Caufield 1984, Wallace 1992).
Tourist guidebooks for Costa Rica have brief discus-
sions of conservation organizations in the Monteverde
Zone because it is a prime tourist destination (Sheck
1996). Newsletters, booklets, and brochures published
by Monteverde Zone conservation organizations are
locally available. Most other sources for this chapter
are in the "gray literature": annual reports, position
papers, grant applications and reports, newsletters,
letters, theses, and printouts of data. These sources
are available only from the organizations or indi-
viduals that produced them. This chapter is comple-
mented by a thesis (Stuckey 1988) and a dissertation
(Vivanco 1999). Names and acronyms of organizations
are listed in the Key to Abbreviations.
Another information source is a set of interviews
that I conducted during 11 two-week visits to the
Monteverde Zone between 1992 and 1998. Different
sources provide different views and interpretations of
the same event, action (or motivation for an action),
or institution, reflecting the different standpoints,
assumptions, or selective memories of the individu-
als or organizations. Two approaches used to allow
individuals to "speak with their own voices" are es-
says written by individuals and direct quotations in
the text from documents and interviews.
10.1. The ContextConservation in the Monteverde Zone has been influ-
enced by conservation and broader social, economic,
political, and cultural developments at the global
level, in Costa Rica, and in the Monteverde Zone.10.1.1. International Level
The meaning of the term "conservation" changes over
time and in different contexts. Through the 1960s, it
was applied to soil and water conservation and to
efficient and supposedly sustainable management
of natural resources such as national forests in the
United States. "Preservation" was applied to the pro-
tection of pristine wilderness areas. The environmen-
tal movement of the 1960s and 1970s was primarily
concerned with pollution and the protection of indi-
vidual endangered species. In the 1980s, conserva-
tionists identified a global "biodiversity crisis" and a
related crisis in tropical deforestation; the focus of
conservation shifted to the ecosystem level. Conser-
vationists concluded that to preserve biodiversity,
degraded habitats and watersheds must be restored
and isolated patches of surviving forests must be
linked (Wilson 1988, McCormick 1989, Grumbine
1992, Worster 1994, Takacs 1996).In the 1980s and 1990s, park managers realized
that the concept of a "wall around a park" was not
viable, especially in developing countries. Environ-
mental education for those who live near protected
areas and the creation of alternatives to deforestation
(e.g., ecotourism) became crucial. Conservation lead-
ers realized that long-term protection of natural areas
required more efficient and equitable use of natural
resources, or people would move to pristine areas and
repeat the process of degradation (McNeely and Miller
1982, Miller and Tangley 1991). Thus, sustainable
development ("development that meets the needs of
the present without compromising the ability of fu-
ture generations to meet their own needs") became a
goal for modern conservationists (World Commission
on Environment and Development 1987, p. 43).10.1.2. National Level (Costa Rica)
Costa Rica has a long-standing stable democracy, high
literacy rate, large middle class, relative prosperity,
and a small population. After a brief civil war in 1948,
it abolished its army and placed resources into social
programs and education. The country has a tradition
of welcoming foreigners, including scientists who
founded two organizations that had major impacts in
the Monteverde Zone (Gomez and Savage 1983).
The TSC, established in San Jose in 1962 as a pri-
vate nonprofit association, is a scientific consulting
organization that conducts research in ecology, for-
estry, land-use and watershed planning, environmen-
tal impact assessments, and economic evaluations of
environmental issues (Hartshorn et al. 1982). One of
TSC's founding members, Leslie Holdridge, devel-
oped a broadly used life zone classification system
(Holdridge 1967). The TSC owns and manages the
MCFP. The OTS, founded in 1963, is an educational
consortium based in the United States. With more
than 50 North American and Costa Rican member
institutions in 1998, its primary mission is training
graduate and undergraduate students in tropical bi-
ology and operating three field stations in Costa Rica
(Stone 1988, Tangley 1988). Students taking OTS
courses began visiting Monteverde in 1971; most of
the biologists who have done research in the zone
have been OTS graduates, the students of OTS gradu-
ates, or resource scientists for OTS courses. Their
publications have enhanced the Monteverde Zone's
reputation among scientists and contributed to the
growth of research and conservation.
Costa Rica has received international acclaim for
its national park system, which underwent great ex-
pansion in the 1970s and 1980s. Following standards
of the International Union for the Conservation of
Nature (IUCN), Costa Rica created management cate-352 Conservation in the Monteverde Zone