to buy 6000 ha and then turn it over to TSC. By 1998,
the deeds to the land had not been given to TSC be-
cause of lack of agreement over transfer terms; the
dispute is now limited to 4000-5000 ha that are in-
cluded in the 10,500 ha MCFP cites for its current size
(E. Arevalo and B. Carlson, pers. comm.).
The first available figure for annual visitorship to
the MCFP is 471 (1973-1974). For the first few years,
most visitors were scientists. As they published ac-
counts on the rare and interesting birds in the area,
amateur bird-watchers began to visit there. The an-
nual number of visitors climbed to about 50,000 in
the 1990s (Fig. 10.6). The number of visitors fluctu-
ated seasonally, with fewest in September and Oc-
tober and the most between January and April, with
a second peak in July. A three-year WWF grant pro-
vided salary for an administrator and a forest guard.
As the size of the MCFP and the number of visitors
increased, professional staff grew. By 1993, 53 em-
ployees worked in seven departments; the number
of employees was reduced to 35 in 1994 because of
the leveling off of tourism (Chamberlain 1993, Tropi-
cal Science Center 1992-1994). Forest guards (all
local Costa Ricans) were added as the MCFP ex-
panded. The guards, who are unarmed, patrol in
pairs, communicate by radio telephone, and meet
regularly with guards and Directors of the MCFP,
MCL, and ACA (Lober 1990, W. Guindon, pers.
comm.).
Infrastructure at the MCFP evolved gradually. The
main building, which houses the field station, dining
room, kitchen, administration offices, library, snack
bar, and gift shop, was completed in 1979 with funds
from TNG and TSC and construction assistance from
Monteverde residents. It was used primarily for OTS
graduate courses and MVI courses. In 1991, TSC re-
stricted the living quarters to students on short stays
and volunteers working for the MCFP.
A 1982 report for the U.S. Agency for International
Development (USAID) published by TSC pointed out
that the MCFP had no master plan (Hartshorn et al.
1982). This inspired the management and develop-
ment plan produced by consultants at the Centre
Agronomico Tropical de Investigacion y Ensenanza
(CATIE 1985). This plan was written before visitation
at the MCFP had increased exponentially. Later, TSC
obtained a planning grant from the MacArthur Foun-
dation and assembled a team of architects, biologists
who had worked at the MCFP, and the MCFP direc-
tor. They released their "Master Plan for Monteverde
Cloud Forest Preserve" in 1991, which proposed a
large new visitor center, interpretative trail system,
housing complex, and scientific laboratory. The au-
thors extrapolated from rates of increase in visitation
and planned for facilities costing $2.5 million with
an annual capacity of 135,000 visitors by the late
1990s (Aspinall et al. 1991).
Reaction to the plan by Monteverde residents was
negative; they were appalled at the prospect of so
many visitors, objected that the community had not
been consulted, and wished to consider alternatives,
for example, setting limits on the number of visitors.
The controversy succeeded in catalyzing community
planning for the future and led to improved relations
between TSC and the Monteverde community and to
TSC's decision to limit the number of visitors. The
projected increase in annual visitation proved to be
too high; it reached a plateau of about 50,000 starting
in 1992, a partial result of limits to visitation im-
posed at the MCFP. The TSC developed a more mod-
est building plan. By 1998, new construction included
a visitor's center with interpretive displays, a bath-Figure 10.6. Total annual number
of visitors to the Monteverde Cloud
Forest Preserve (* = May 1973-74).
Source: Tropical Science Center
(1992-1994), R.Bolanos and B.
Carlson (pers. comm.)359 Conservation in the Monteverde Zone