Today’s main activity was a nice hike through the cloud forest, in which we got to experience the wonderful ecosystem of Monteverde. Throughout the hike we got to see many animals native only to the Monteverde area. Some of the animals we saw were birds, bugs, and butterflies. Fun fact did you know that those blue butterflies you’ve seen from pictures are actually just brown with scales. My favorite animal of walk was the Three-wattled Bellbird which looked very pretty and sounded nice and unique.

After our hike through the cloud forest we grabbed lunch back at the hotel, took a break, and then went off for a lecture on sustainability and its interplay with the economics of Monteverde. At the beginning of our lecture it was explained to us that Monteverde was an area dependent on dairy farming and so they would deforest with no care for the land as long as they could make a profit. Around the 1990’s the area finally started caring about implementing conservation efforts as they saw that it lead to an increase in tourism. Many different people tried to make sustainable farms but the area was a mess due to the lack of a local government.

That’s where Instituto Monteverde comes in, their job is to help farmers to practice more sustainable habits while still being able to profit off of their land enough to feed themselves. We saw that they had many places where they grow and test trees so that when the season comes they can donate them to farms and improve their conservation efforts. We also heard about efforts to build a lab that allows people from the community to prototype different things as to encourage people moving away from tourism as it is one of the only jobs in the area. Overall we learned that Instituto Monteverde is a big factor in encouraging locals to focus on conservation efforts and sustainability while still maintaining the majority of productivity on their lands. I think if I were to prioritize just one it would be sustainability because it allows future generations to use the farms without having to make major changes to what’s already in place.