Today, we had an early rise to go to the Cloud Forest in Monteverde. When we arrived, we were given a plastic card which were used to log how many people entered the forest. We were shown their sustainability efforts right off the bat with these reusable cards. And it also allowed them to track the amount of people going into the forest. Then, we were assigned our tour guide and went in. Our tour guide talked about other sustainability efforts that the forest has. He said that only 2% was open to the public and the other 98% is private. So, that means all the animals in the 98% have a private, free of humans, place to live. The habitat was also very natural for the animals. The tour was actually quite unpredictable. You didn’t know which animals were going to be there because it was their home and was not manipulated by the tour guides. They kept it very natural and if the animal was there and we could see it then, awesome! But nothing was done to disturb the animals in order for tourists to be able to see them. We saw a lot of birds, monkeys, a tarantula, and a giant stick bug. Our tour guide was really funny and he taught us a lot about the animals that we saw.

Then we went off to a sustainability lecture. We learned about the principles of a circular economy and applying sustainability to basic everyday products. Within a circular economy, it is important to make sure everything flows back to where it originally started. Our speak explained how the 4 steps to sustainability is sourcing, making, designing and reusing. And putting sustainability to work also requires a lot of business elements that we have learned in the classroom. Our speaker talked about the importance of always being able to adapt to your strategy, which is one of the biggest ideas we learned about in Managing Complex Environments. She said that this was a big thing with COVID and how they had to find new ways to be sustainable when producing food, especially when a lot of people couldn’t afford it. She talked about how there would be local producers of food and gardens, which allowed a solution for less shipping distance to avoid emissions. She also talked about how its very important to remember that everything we do, it can effect bystanders, so its important to consider all factors. We also did a fun hands-on activity where we got a basic household item and we had to make it more sustainable. We discussed how grocery stores should have refill areas for plastic bottles so they wouldn’t go to waste, using incentives to get people to recycle, and marketing this in a way to make sure people know about it and are on board.

Between productivity, conservation, and sustainability, if I had to prioritize only one, I don’t think I could choose. I think they all relate to each other, one way or another. For productivity, if you are producing more products with less resources, then you are being sustainable by not using products. And conservation and sustainability go hand in hand to me as well. They both have the meaning of making something last and preserving it for later. So, I don’t think I can choose. I really loved the cloud forest today and can’t wait for another day tomorrow!