Figure 10.2. George Powell, who was among the first
biologists to carry out field studies in Monteverde and
who was instrumental in the founding of the Monteverde
Cloud Forest Preserve. Photograph by John Campbell.
Garden of Eden?" featuring Monteverde and La Selva
(Shaw 1978). The popular book In the Rainforest (Cau-
field 1984) contained a favorable chapter on Monte-
verde and highlighted the connections among politics,
biology, and conservation. The National Geographic
Society featured Monteverde in a book on "mountain
worlds" (D. Robinson 1988); numerous publications
and films reached a wide audience by the late 1980s.
The reputation of Costa Rica as peaceful democratic
country was exemplified in Monteverde; the Quaker
community was seen to have a mystique. It was an
easy place for people to go who did not speak Span-
ish, and the MCFP was more accessible than most
Costa Rican parks. Guide books for tourists featured
Monteverde as a "must visit" location.
Tourism leveled off in the Monteverde Zone be-
tween 1992 and 1997 due to four factors: (1) many
other places with good tourist facilities developed
in Costa Rica; (2) the national parks improved their
infrastructure; (3) some tour companies found the
Monteverde Zone too expensive, and some individual
tourists disliked the high level of tourism; and (4)
national tourism slowed since its high point in 1992.
Since late 1997, tourism has again increased in Costa
Rica, including the Monteverde Zone, partly due to
an international advertising campaign by the Costa
Rican government's Tourist Institute (Escofet 1998a,
G. Arguedas, pers. comm.). Studies of ecotourism in
the Monteverde Zone stress its benefits for con-
servation and sustainable development but have also
documented negative impacts (Tobias 1988, Boo
1990, Rovinski 1991, Tobias and Mendelsohn 1991,
Rojas 1992, Solorzano and Echeverria 1993, Wear-
ing 1993, Morrison 1994, Echevema et al. 1995, Ayl-
ward et al. 1996; see Chamberlain, "Pros and Cons
of Ecotourism," p. 376).10.2. The Quakers and Bosqueterno, S.A.Most of the Quakers who settled in Monteverde came
from a Quaker community in Fairhope, Alabama. Sev-
eral members had refused to register for the peacetime
draft after World War II and went to jail. In 1950,
Hubert and Mildred Mendenhall, members of the Fair-
hope meeting, visited Costa Rica and were impressed
that Costa Rica had abolished its army. They con-
vinced some Quakers in Fairhope to move there, and
an advance team looked for affordable land in April- Shortly afterward, 41 Quakers settled there (Men-
denhall 1995, Lucky and W. Guindon, pers. comm.;
see Guindon, "Monteverde Beginnings," pp. 10-11).
Most of the land (1400 ha), purchased in a single
block from the Guacimal Land Company, was divided
among the Quaker families according to the amount
of land each family estimated it needed. A parcel in
the community center was used for a meeting house
and school. The community set aside about one-third
of the original purchase to protect their watershed, the
headwaters for the Rio Guacimal. This portion, the
highest steepest land, was forested, wet, and unsuit-
able for farming but was crucial for their water sup-
ply, hydroelectric plant, and community sawmill
(Wolinsky 1989, W. Guindon, pers. comm.).
In 1974, the Quakers established an ownership
group, Bosqueterno, S.A. (The Eternal Forest), and
signed a contract leasing the 554 ha of land they had
originally set aside to the TSC for 90 years for one
colon per year to be protected and administered as
part of the MCFP. The lease was to be renewed au-
tomatically every five years unless either party ob-
jected in writing three months before the five-year
term ended (W. Guindon, B. Law, and J. and S. Trostle,
pers. comm.). The mission of Bosqueterno is to serve
as the owner of the land and to "preserve, protect,
and administer the land of its shareholders" (Stuckey
1992, p. 19). Part of the parcel forms the "Triangle"
area, which includes the most heavily used trails in
356 Conservation in the Monteverde Zone