Purpose
- Investigates the effect of the global financial system and/or the monetary system in fostering a sustainable economy.
- Explores and develops market-based solutions.
Summary
This project aims to gather remaining information necessary to implement the creation of successful biological corridors between the Children’s Eternal Rainforest, at the heart of the protected Monteverde-Arenal Bioregion, and vital conservation lands more distantly located. We will accomplish this by mapping land ownership, current conservation efforts, and likely future land-use changes within two potential biological corridors. We will develop a long-term plan to protect and enhance the corridors, most likely involving consultation and advisement with landowners and direct purchase of select properties. This effort will contribute to meaningful ecological connections to land that has been successfully protected thus far, helping ensure long-term conservation of forests, biodiversity and ecosystem services. This work will continue to support and enhance the economic well-being, human health, and community strength that has been created in this region through conservation.
Foundation site visit to Monteverde, Children's Eternal Rainforest and proposed corridors.
Purpose
This project addresses biological corridors crucial for the conservation of the CER and the greater Monteverde Arenal Bioregion, one of the most important ecotourism locations in Costa Rica, vitally important for the regional economy. Tourism has both promoted and threatened biodiversity: increased tourism has caused isolation of protected lands from other natural landscapes, but ecotourism is entirely dependent on a healthy, biodiverse environment. Tourism has also created thousands of jobs, increasing local support for conservation. In this way, tourism brings not only a conflict, but also a possible economic and conservation solution focused on maximizing the region’s ecosystem services. If additional properties are developed for ecotourism, the region could expand the tourism sector, spreading benefits to a larger geographic area. For the biodiversity of the MAB to survive long-term, the corridors described in this grant must be enhanced and protected from long-term degradation.
Scope
This project addresses an important challenge of conservation and ecotourism development. The study area – the Monteverde Arenal Bioregion, with the CER at its center – is home to a vibrant tourism economy, which in turn depends on a healthy and biodiverse environment. Paradoxically, tourism, even with the best of intentions, can cause land-use changes, habitat fragmentation, and ultimately ecosystem degradation and species loss. This project seeks solutions to protect and enhance biodiversity and ecosystem services in a region critical for global biodiversity protection, and at the same time support the development and sustainability of a valuable ecotourism economy. There will be a focus on a market-based approach where we hope to encourage protection and enhancement of landscapes that provide the most ecosystem services promoting human health, well-being, and economic vitality. In short, we believe this region has landscapes whose greatest market value is as conservation properties.
Proposed corridors from 2023 article "Establishing priorities for future land conservation to maximise biodiversity conservation and other ecosystem services in the Tilarán Mountains of Costa Rica" in Nature Conservation, by Lindsay Stallcup, Matthew D. Moran, Doris Rojas, Erich Mata.
| Posted |
3/1/2025 11:50 AM |
| Updated |
6/27/2025 9:20 AM |
Tapir footprint at the private Tapir Valley Nature Preserve. The Preserve is within a proposed corridor connecting Tenorio National Park with the Children's Eternal Rainforest and Monteverde.
Tracking footprints led to a closeup sighting of Baird's Tapir, the largest land mammal in Central and South America. The proposed corridor would protect habitat for tapir and other wildlife that benefit ecotourism businesses such as Tapir Valley Nature Preserve.
The tiny Tapir Valley tree frog (Tlalocohyla celeste) is found only in the 20-acre wetland seen in the background of the previous photo. The proposed corridors are designed to protect ecosystems including the range of species from charismatic large ones, to small creatures such as this frog.
Tenorio National Park supports local businesses that depend on transportation access via roads and power transmitted via a utility right-of-way. Wildlife also depends on natural corridors of unbroken habitat such as the proposed corridor connecting Tenorio Park with the much larger Monteverde Arenal Bioregion.
