Center for Sustainable Development Studies
Costa Rica
Cuidad Colon, El Rodeo, 1991-1993
Atenas, 1993-present

The first SFS program in Costa Rica took place in the summer of 1984. Twelve students and two faculty members spent a month in Guanacaste Province studying the population distribution of howler monkeys in an area that had been deforested. Over the next eight years, SFS summer programs in Costa Rica focused on one of three topics: tropical rainforest ecology, endangered sea turtles, or primates.  Beginning in 1989, SFS began discussions with a number of US colleges about the possibility of collaborating on a new center. The Center for Sustainable Development Studies grew out of a recognition that industrialized countries must find ways to cooperate with developing countries to discover environmentally sustainable paths for socio-economic change. Initially, SFS looked at opening the center in Zimbabwe but a number of logistical problems there necessitated a change in venue. In what ended up being a fortunate turn of events, the center found its home in Costa Rica with the help of early Consortium members, the University of Michigan, Allegheny, Colby, Middlebury, and Dickinson Colleges as well as the Arnold D. Frese Foundation which contributed essential start-up funds.

In Fall 1993 the center relocated to what is now its permanent home in Barrio Los Angeles just outside of the town of Atenas in Costa Rica's fertile Central Valley.  At that time, three new case studies were introduced: that focused on protected area management, sustainable management of agroecosystems in protected zones, and the possibilities for sustainable development of grassroots grower cooperatives.

Twelve years later, Center students, alumni and staff can point to an impressive array of accomplishments that have developed from those early interests.  Management plans for two key protected areas, Rio Grande and Cerro Atenas have been developed, and another for Volcan Poas National Park is in the works. CoopAtenas—the local coffee cooperative—received certification as an environmentally friendly business, and eight local coffee farmers have now obtained the even more desirable organic certification which has enabled them to link directly to wholesale buyers that process and supply coffee to Starbucks. Building on this success, SFS students helped these growers further leverage their position in the organic market by forming a grassroots association of organic coffee producers called APROCAFE (Asociacion de Productores de Café) who for the first time, joined the value-added chain and sold 700 kilos of their roasted coffee, Café La Villa Orgánico, at a 36% increase over their usual profit.