Today, we were lucky enough to be able to hike in the Cloud Forest. It was amazing the amount of wildlife we were able to see in such a short time. We saw Coatis, Toucans, Stick bugs, and many other types of plants and animals. I was also able to go see the continental divide which was amazing. Here is a picture.

After we finished the hike we ate lunch and then went to the University of Monteverde. There we listened to a speaker talk about the different issues Monteverde and Costa Rica are currently facing. These issues are complicated and it has been hard for Ticos to find the right balance between the interests of productivity, sustainability, and conservation. Our speaker seemed to mainly focus on sustainability as he talked about how Ticos were working to fight climate change in the cloud forest. He talked about how one of the ways they were doing this was planting trees around Monteverde. He said this year alone they expected to plant around 20,000 trees with the help of farmers. One of the issues they faced with this was that they were getting demands for more trees than they were able to produce. Some of the demands came from regions where they did not have the right species of trees and therefore could not fulfill the orders. Another idea that he spoke about was how to protect water resources. One of the reasons for this is many of the streams near Monteverde are headwaters for rivers all around the country and it’s important they don’t pollute them because it could damage the resources downstream. Based on these issues, the goal for a better future for Costa Rica would be to focus on sustainably using their existing resources.