Conference on Radio Comunitaria Monteverde

To hear the recording of the conference please visit:
Radio Comunitaria Monteverde - Monteverde Arenal Bioregion Conference

Monteverde-Arenal Initiative Video

Closing message for the Monteverde-Arenal Initiave:  Expanding into the Bioregion Conference from Dr. Peter Raven, Missouri Botanical Garden:

Over the past half century I have come to love and admire this unique and lovely country Costa Rica, and have come to understand the audacious decisions that have made it a model of peace and understanding.  We can appreciate why the Quaker pioneers were attracted to this special area of Monteverde.  Against this background and that afforded by the biological and human riches of this region, I express my appreciation to you all for your strong efforts over the past few days, efforts from which I am sure there will be many positive outcomes.  Dipping back further in time, it is delightful for me to think that the descendants of the quetzals I so rejoiced to see here in the 1960’s and of the new species of Fuchsia I studied here then are thriving in a protected area of some 135,000 acres, stimulated by the contributions of schoolchildren and preserved by the efforts of so many over the decades. In our overpopulated world, mutual understanding offer the only sure route to sustainability and peace: your interactions illustrate what such efforts mean for the present, and show the way to successes in the future. 

Thank you for making the effort to participate, to Debra Hamilton and her associates at the Monteverde Institute, to Nalini Nadkarni, and to a number of others for their sustained and expert work in making this gathering possible. 

“Pura vida” is a state of mind, not something one gets automatically, but for which one has to do the kind of work that this gathering represents, day after day, month after month, year after year – and I know we will do just that.  My very best congratulations to you all for your efforts during this meeting, and the hope for our common achievement of peace, love, and sustainability in the future.

Welcoming remarks – Peter H. Raven, Missouri Botanical Garden, St. Louis – February 15, 2013

Good morning!  I’m very pleased to send warm greetings to you all, along with the sincere wish that I could be there too!  I sincerely hope that this will be just one of the first of a series of comprehensive meetings of institutions and individuals who are deeply involved with this beautiful and biologically significant Monteverde-Arenal region.  In a world where biodiversity is being lost so rapidly, but nowhere more so than in the tropics, the Monteverde-Arenal region stands out as a gem, a place where actions and knowledge can be melded to provide many more enhanced opportunities for citizens, students, scientists, and especially for the survival of biodiversity here on this remarkable “Green Mountain.”  

Discussions at the joint birthday party of OTS and ATBC in San José last June highlighted the reasons that both organizations have flourished not only in the land of their birth but throughout the world.  Since World War II, Costa Rica has, like most of the tropical world, grown rapidly in population and destroyed a large proportion of its natural forests and other resources.  At the same time, it has continued to offer a peaceful setting in which education, science, health, and peace could be pursued at times more effectively than in much of the rest of the world.  In addition, Costa Rica, with a deep respect for the value of ecosystem services, has organized one of the most impressive programs for the conservation of natural areas anywhere in the world. Because of these factors, studies conducted in Costa Rica have often contributed substantially to the development of the increased knowledge of tropical organisms and ecosystems that is available today.

At this meeting, we are considering the special value of preserved and altered lands in the Monteverde-Arenal area of the Sierra de Tilarán for conserving biodiversity, increasing knowledge, and building the sustainable world of the future.  How can the talents and activities of the many organizations who have permanent facilities in this region or visit it repeatedly become a conceptual entity with more facilities, educational opportunities, more extensive conserved and restored areas, an enhanced  contribution to sustainable tourism, and lasting value that has the potential of outliving us all?

Leading the way to our current considerations, Nalini Nadkarni organized a special symposium on many of the biological, geological, and human aspects of the Monteverde-Arenal area, a region that she has come to love and appreciate so well because of her experiences here, including a great deal of experimental work, and the simple beauty and charm of the place and the people who come here or make this their home.  Participants made it clear what a remarkable intersection of community, social, economic, spiritual, and scientific elements work together here to have created a uniquely productive and cooperative environment for research and understanding tropical ecosystems.  In the discussion that followed the symposium, we began to visualize ways in which the activities and facilities of all these diverse institutions could enhance one another and lead to a situation in which the whole could clearly be greater than its parts.  Human endeavors usually succeed best where there are strong individual motivations to achieve particular goals coupled with consultation, cooperation, and mutual encouragement overall.

Over this weekend, I hope that we can move toward a conceptualization of the whole Monteverde-Arenal Area as a conservation, research, and education site, fully integrated with the welfare of all of the people who inhabit the region. I hope that many strategies will emerge from our discussions that will allow each one of our institutions to achieve its goals better. Because the biology of this area is so unusually rich, its human potential so strong, and the interest in learning more about the ecosystems and putting that knowledge to work, I am confident that a strong, united Monteverde-Arenal Regional Initiative and the resulting action plans will help sustain these and other tropical forests for endless generations to come.

I would like to close by offering special thanks to Deb Hamilton and the Monteverde Institute for graciously handling all of the Conference logistics and creating this special opportunity for us all.    

Group photo- Foto grupal

Group foto of Sunday's participants --- Foto grupal de los participantes del domingo

Committee proposals --- Propuestas de los comités

This is only meant to be as a summary of some of the ideas presented by the committees, please comment if anything was left out :

Coordinating Committee: Formed by having leaders of each of the committees. - To have an annual all inclusive congress to review, adjust and plan the future. Also for networking. Immediate task: set up the first meeting with the leaders. Find a coordinator and define the job description. The coordinator must work a sa supervisor, help with funding, give organizational support. Amongst his or her responsibilities are those of communication, network enhancement, collaborative ideas and implementation.

Education: Bioregion diagnostic. List of educational centres, organised groups, NGO's and governmental. Make an educational strategy for the area that responds to the needs of the people. This group wants to be able to measure the impact of the educational program, to count on active participation, to promote leadership, and a structure that promotes integration. The action plan is to create a group that will give this follow-up.

Conservation: the goal is to: strengthen the mechanisms for the conservation of the bioregion and its ecosystems to perpetuity through legal, social, political, educational and scientific mechanisms to ensure the correct use of the land and to preserve biodiversity.
As strategies they want to involve more governmental entities and representatives of the protected areas such as ICE, MAG, Asadas and more. To start they want to meet to set the priorities and work mechanisms. Very import to include the Arenal area.

Research: To share information. Improve communication. When possible to have coordinated monitoring and in some cases to have protocols. Leadership will have a horizontal model. As mechanisms they want to have committees and sub-committees. The idea is to create some sort of digital board. To create monitoring programs and publications. Organise more "ologist" meetings. As an action plan they want to decide the format of the digital board, form the committees, seek funding for professionals and made it sustainable.

Maps: They work as a measure of communications and information. By May they are planning on having some sort of database. They need information on the different area sin order to be able to create these maps.

Communication and public image:  It was divided into two groups, internal and external communication. The goal is "to perpetuate the vision". The communication position is to centralise the message and to promote open and frequent communication. Each institution must asign a communication representative for the bioregion. There will be a directory created. The communication department will be a resource for the institutions. A person must be hired at least part time ASAP that is Costa Rican and bilingual that will be responsible for the development and management of the communications department. This person must physically visit the institutions and neighbouring communities to not only offer digital information but also physical information for the bioregion. Also help create information for all the sub-committees.

Funding: Inclusion -Transparency - Accessibility. -Equity (distribution of resources). Secure funding for a part time coordinator. - Establish funding opportunities at a local level the will fill traditional funding gaps. Create a membership quota. To create communication material. Get funding for the committees.

List of Committees - Lista de comités

Para poder continuar con esta iniciativa de ha llegado a la conclusión que se necesitan crear diferentes comités donde los participantes y otras personas puedan seguirse reuniendo regularmente. Si saben de alguien que estaría interesado en participar, la invitación está abierta.-

In order to continue with this inciative it was decided that different committees will be formed in order for participants and other people who are interested to continue meeting. If you are interested you are welcome to participate. -

Lista de comités - Committee list:

1- Comité Cordinador - Cordinating Committee: el que supervisa - the one that supervises.

2- Conservación- Conservation: among its duties is to create a common agenda.

3- Investigación - Research

4- Creación del mapa de la zona - Map creation

5- Reacción de notas de la conferencia - The writting up of a summary of the conference.

6- Directorio de personas en cada campo - A professional Directory of the area.

7- Educación - Education

8- Recaudación de Fondos - Funding

9- Comunicación y imagen pública - Communication and public image