In the upper Pacific slopes of Monteverde is a tract of land that was once owned by the government. Instead of selling the land to a large farming corporation this area of land was given to the community, divided up amongst families through a lottery system.
Upon receiving the land, families were told they had to maintain a certain percentage of undisturbed forest. Many families have maintained their original agreement, using some of their land for sustainable agriculture while maintaining and protecting important forest. Unfortunately, some of the families clear-cut their tracts for use as cattle pastures.
It is important that the families who use the land protect the forest that is present to maintain and protect wildlife and ecosystem function, following the biological corridor model. It is vital to have patches of, if not continuous, supportive habitat that allow animals to migrate along their needed ranges to maintain species diversity and to conserve our existing species.
We visited the plot of Finca la Bella belonging to a farmer named Gilbert. On his farm, Gilbert has a wide variety of crops including banana, coffee, peppers, sugar cane, and many other fruits. Gilbert originally planned on growing just coffee, but in efforts to eliminate pesticides and herbicides, he needed another source of income, as sustainable coffee alone is not enough to support him and his family. As coffee is a very labor intensive and low paying crop to grow, many farmers on small plots turn to other crops or eve livestock to maintain their livelihood.
