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Academic Update
This past week has been very intense. The faculty and staff at the Center for Sustainable Development Studies went to the Central Mountain Slope Conservation Area headquarters to sign an extension of our agreement with the National System of Conservation Areas (SINAC), under the Ministry of the Environment of Costa Rica (MINAET), to continue our collaboration in research for five more years (SFS’s president, Bonnie Clendenning, Vice President Raimundo Salamanca, and other high SINAC officials attended the meeting). The meeting served to elaborate on the outcomes and products of the first round of our research agenda. SINAC and MINAET officials summarized our role by showing that the Center is one of their key partners and collaborators, providing data and sharing experiences and advice to improve the management of protected areas. Behind the stage, our students and professors were getting ready to begin Directed Research projects. Today, everyone left for the field. Our lecturer in natural resource management, Dr. Achim Haeger, is examining the carbon storage capacity of coffee plantations in Atenas under different management strategies in order to develop a system of payment for environmental services. Our lecturer in environmental economics, Dr. Sergio Molina, is taking his students to the neighborhood of Volcan Poas National Park to evaluate the quality and quantity of the services provided by local communities to Park visitors. Our lecturer in tropical ecology, Dr. Edgardo Arevalo, is taking his students to Carara National Park to continue with the long-term bird monitoring project while measuring the impact of the Park’s road on bird distribution. His results will help park managers to identify susceptible species to road disturbance and fragmentation. It was indeed an intense week, but fulfilling at the same time. Our agreement with SINAC and MINAE is a reflection of the hard work of our faculty, staff, and students. What other study abroad program could do something like this?
- Gerardo Avalos, Center Director
Student Reflections
Overall, this Costa Rican adventure has been filled with many amazing experiences. I can’t even begin to explain how much fun I have had, and how many memories I am going to take away. The Costa Ricans, the staff, and even the friends I have made in this program, are amazing. The main thing I am going to enjoy taking away from this is all the visual memories that I have acquired from the abundance of picturesque moments we have had. I had never seen a single volcano before coming here, but I will leave eight weeks later after having seen six of them. I had never seen or experienced a tropical rainforest, but I will have lived in one for two months. As for wildlife, I have had the privilege of seeing an extremely diverse set, including sloths, wild monkeys that approach you, and an incredible assortment of birds. I had never really seen actual parrots, nor the opportunity to play with them. The peak of my experience was the sunset in Ometepe, Nicaragua. I was on a large volcanic island, in the middle of a large shark infested lake, standing under palm trees and looking at the widest range of colors I have ever seen, found in everything from the slightly rippling water to the voluptuous clouds.
- Gordon Kersten, Gonzaga University
Our trip to Cahuita was one of the highlights of my time in Costa Rica. The Caribbean side of the country is definitely a different world from the Central Valley. On the Caribbean side, there is a much stronger Afro-Caribbean, indigenous, and Panamanian influence. The Afro-Caribbean influence can be seen in the languages, food, and music of the region. In the  Central Valley, people speak Spanish, eat gallo pinto, and listen to salsa, meringue, bachata, and cumbia. On the Caribbean coast, the people speak a variety of languages (Spanish, and a language that mixes Creole English, French, and Spanish together). Coconuts are major dietary staple, and their version of gallo pinto (actually called “rice and beans”) is cooked in a coconut sauce and topped with tender chicken. Reggae dominates the music scene. The indigenous and Panamanian influence on the Caribbean coast also adds its own flavor. I had some of the most stimulating conversations of my trip with the workers at our hostel, many of whom were indigenous, and several of whom were from an indigenous tribe in Panama (the Taribe) as opposed to Costa Rica’s Caribbean indigenous group (the BriBri). I spent most of the weekend discussing indigenous rights with them. It was especially moving to speak with the members of the Taribe tribe, who are currently fighting against a government project to build a hydroelectric dam that will displace their entire community of 2,000 people. In the Central Valley (and in the United States), displacement is something we talk about. It’s a ‘problem of development’ that needs to be addressed when instating a new national park or building a hydroelectric dam. In the Taribe and other indigenous communities, it is a reality that destroys livelihoods and communities.
- Lizzy Fox, Clark University
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