Today we visited the cloud forest reserve located in Monteverde. We had a tour guide that lead us through the reserve to show us the wildlife, nature, and speak on sustainability. During the hike, our guide made sure that we knew how important to forests were for oxygen and water production. It also helps in creating medicines and other holistic healthcare.

After our talk with Don Guillermo of Life Monteverde, I learned the differences between productivity, conservation, and sustainability. Productivity is when people work very hard in order to get things done efficiently. However, this can affect sustainability and conservation because of pollution and other negative side effects that come with productivity. Next, sustainability is the efforts that we put into the rainforest in order to make it healthier and more alive. Conservation is using tools and techniques in order to keep what we have at its current state.

Currently, Monteverde is experiencing some challenges dealing with foreigners. Tourists, much like ourselves, come to Costa Rica in order to learn about and immerse themselves into the beautiful country. However, in doing that, a lot of waste, in specific water bottles, is created that wasn’t there before. People don’t trust the water that comes from the tap in Costa Rica, therefor they use a bunch of plastic water bottles. While these tourists may seem like a huge problem, they are bringing in lots of money that Costa Rica depends on in order to continue sustainability and conservation.

If I were to prioritize one of these three values, it would be sustainability. I believe that we have to make the effort in order to see a change in our world. We can’t have money or progress be our number one motive. Keeping what we have now isn’t enough. We must figure out different strategies and techniques in order to grow the earth to its greatest potential, for we have already done so much harm to it.