Butterfly Garden

Interns will assist in all aspects of running the Garden. After a training period you will be asked to serve as an interpreter for visiting guests to the Garden. In this regard you will be expected to discuss the history of the garden, the behavioral patterns of the insects in the Garden, the threats to each species from commercial development, and loss of habitat. Additional job duties will include maintaining the exhibits, propogating new species, and cleaning up after hours if needed.

The garden was founded in 1989 by a leadnig biologist and his wife with the aim of inspiring and education visitors about the vast array of butterflies and insects native to Costa Rica. All the butterflies in the garden are bred on the premises, unlike most gardens which buy in their chrysalides. The Garden believes in hands-on education. The biodiversity center displays a variety of insects and arachnids local to Moneteverde, many of them live, allowing visitors and up-close and personal experience, as well as information about breeding, feeding and habitats, live bug cams, and a case for viewing butterflies as they emerge from their chrysalides. Each of the four butterfly gardens represents a different Costa Rican habitat according to temperature, altitude and vegetation, ranging from hot lowlands to mid-elevation forest-edge to higher altitude cloud forest. The gardens contain more than fifty species in total, including the unique Calico butterfly, the only butterfly in the world to produce sound; the stunning Blue Morpho seen all over Monteverde, as well as transparent and barely visible Glass-Wings and unusual striped Zebra-Wings.

The medicinal plant garden is a self-guided tour of more than seventy plants used medicinally throughout the world. An information sheet lists their many different and often surprising uses.

The final, and perhaps most fascinating exhibit, is the Leaf Cutter Ant Colony, displayed under glass allowing visitors to see the ants carrying leaves along a warren of trails to their nest; here they are cultivating a fungus from the decomposing vegetation that they will use to feed on later.

The tour is informative and often very entertaining, actually more like a mini-course in tropical entomology and Costa Rican natural history! As well as learning about butterflies visitors will discover why cockroaches are actually great neighbours and how jewel scarab beetles can distort light waves.

Rainforest Conservation

Working in collaboration with a major conservation / education group based in the verdant cloud forest of Monteverde I.C.E. offers interns a chance for hands on rainforest protection. Located on a 32 acre reserve and adjoining the Bosque Eterno S.A., the reserve includes primary and secondary growth cloud forest with trails throughout, and is available for research and recreational use. Areas of focus include several areas of focus that reflect the complex issues faced by the Monteverde zone and around the world. All of our programs, whether they be a study abroad program, an applied research project, or community forum, reflect these areas:

• Water
• Ecotourism
• Conservation biology
• Community Health
• Land use and sustainable development
• Spanish language and culture
  

Your work at the site will include trail maintainence, assisting research scientists in the monitoring of native plant species,birdlife, and native mammals on the preserve. Additional duties may include assisting office staff with marketing materials and onine searches, repairing facility infrastructure and providing tours for visitors.

Your host is a not-for-profit association dedicated to education, applied research, and community engagement.  Founded in 1986, they have facilitated place-based, experiential learning in education, grounded in the environmental, social, economic and cultural realities of Monteverde communities, while at the same time promoting research and community development activities relevant to Monteverde.  Through the participation of international students, faculty, researchers, and the local community, their programs and projects have evolved to be both locally focused and globally relevant – a unique interplay between a world community and a particular locale.

“Education for a Sustainable Future” is the core theme of all the programs on site.  The philosophy is that sustainability requires consideration of environmental, social, cultural, economic, and technical factors equally.  The complex and multifaceted issues faced in Monteverde and around the world call for multidisciplinary and interdisciplinary study and professional practice.  The cornerstone of their approach is its synergism between international study, applied research, and community engagement.

Ecotourism Company

JOB DUTIES:

Costa Rica is a great location to learn the ins and outs of the ecotourism industry. Our host ecotousim organization has a distinguished history in running a profitable business without exploiting the environment in which it operates. Assist a knowledgeable staff as they impart the local wonders to international visitors. Interns will bring fresh ideas and skills for a mature but expanding business, as well as supporting members of staff in all facets for the company operations. This internship is a unique opportunity for anyone interested in ecotourism, business, conservation management, or any of the activities that this company offers. You will be constantly exposed to the daily operations of this business, and will be able to choose from a few different areas, business administration, tour guide, online research, journalism, marketing, and ecotour develpoment.

Help to develop strategic business plans in an evolving market place, and/or carry out market research and publicity--an area that the company is keen to develop. There is also a journalism aspect in which you can join the company's research effort and publishing arm to develop literature on ecotourism, conservation, and the local bird life. Training the local staff is also an important duty--helping to improve their English skills and develop knowledge and understanding of ecology, especially plant and bird ecology. You will be involved in honing the staff's ability to pass this information on to the clients in a simple, but effective way. Interns should have a very clear idea of what they want to do within this incredibly diverse and busy company so that they can get the most out of the internship.

Provide an overview to walk-ins and other cliental about the nature of the trips offered and an overview of the geography of the different locations visited. The successful intern will be a flexible and able to adapt to different daily tasks. The initial orientation period is designed to allow the intern to become familiar with the general daily operations and will lead to more responsibility as skills and confidence develop. This includes joining a web design team to assist in designing and maintain web sites for clients. In addition, you will assist designers with advertising literature for a number of local companies in the local tourist industry. Working for a small business, you will quickly learn about the administrative side of the company, as well as the sales and marketing aspects that are vital to any organization.

ABOUT MONTEVERDE

Who would have thought that birds - not hunted, not exported, not cooked, but watched - would become one of Costa Rica's economic mainstays. But in recent years, eco-tourism has surpassed banana and coffee exports to grow into Costa Rica's largest source of foreign exchange, earning $700 mllion last year.

The prefix "eco" has spread like a virus through the Costa Rican yellow pages. In San Jose, for instance, one can rent a vehicle from "Ecology Rent-A-Car" and fill it with Texaco "Super Ecology" gasoline. And some "eco"-lodges in the town of Quepos have been criticized for dumping raw sewage into the sea. The eco-mania prompted the Costa Rican Tourism Institute to come up with a set of criteria for firms that choose to call themselves "eco."

Amid the hype, Monteverde is often held up as a model because it generally fulfills the lofty goals of nature tourism. The Eco-tourism Society, a trade group based in Vermont, defines this kind of tourism as "responsible travel to natural areas which conserves the environment and sustains the well being of people."

Monteverde has proved that eco-tourism can work for conservation. Through a series of private nature preserves, the community has saved part of the cloud forest that might have been cleared for dairy cattle and coffee farms, which dominate the lower elevations.

The 26,000-acre Monteverde Cloud Forest Preserve attracted 50,000 tourists last year. It supports itself through donations and an eight-dollar entrance fee. Down the hill, the 42,500-acre Children's' Eternal Rainforest was purchased with money contributed by schoolchildren and adults from 44 countries. Even the local high school runs its own 775-acre refuge: the Santa Elena High School Cloud Forest Reserve, whose income helps support the school, and whose biodiversity teaches students about the environment.

Biologists say the heavy volume of visitors has a surprisingly low impact on the fragile environment.

"Most people are willing to stay on trails," says Bob Carlson, a biologist and director of the Cloud Forest Preserve. "They don't throw their garbage away, they keep it in their bags. If you tell them not to make a lot of noise, they're normally quite quiet."

For-profit reserves are also paying for themselves. A case in point is the Ecological Farm.

Up until a few years ago, Jorge Rodriguez oversaw a farm whose climate was too wet for vegetables, and whose terrain was so steep the cattle kept falling into ravines and breaking their necks. But he noticed his proximity to Monteverde's hotels and wondered if tourists might pay to visit his farm and see its abundant wildlife, such as the endangered bell bird, with its clang-like call that can be heard for half a mile.

With the absentee owner's approval, Rodriguez put in trails and a parking lot, and renamed it the Ecological Farm.

"Now, for the first time, the farm is making a little profit, just enough to maintain the paths and sustain my family. Before, it wasn't even doing that," says Rodriguez, sitting at a picnic table, "For me, it's better to conserve. Because if all the world wants to have cattle, we'll never have forest anywhere. It will all disappear."

Nature tourism in Monteverde has also generated a slew of related businesses which line the main road: hotels, restaurants, snack shops, gift shops, horse stables and art galleries. An artisans cooperative employs 150 women who sew specialty clothing to sell to tourists.

"We have learned a little bit how to do tourism," says Carlos Vargas, past president of the artisans coop. "The people who run the restaurants, the stables, the hotels and the nature guides are all local people. I would say maybe 80% of income tourism generates stays in the community."

Says Jim Wolfe, a biologist and dairy farmer who runs a popular garden in town, "Years ago, people would say, 'Oh that reserve up there is so foreigners can go see their birds.' Now, so many of the local people depend on that forest for their livelihood. The attitude has changed considerably."

Monteverde is an unlikely success story. It's two hours from the nearest paved road, has an annual rainfall of 120 inches, and is populated by several thousand insect species. People say the town thrives not only because of its biological treasures, but because of its unusually strong tradition of self governance.

It was founded in the early 1950s by a small group of Alabama Quakers who came down to live out their pacifism, after serving jail sentences for dodging the peacetime draft. The Quakers brought with them a consultative style that has enriched Monteverde's community life. And though the Quakers cleared some primary forest for dairy farms, they deserve the credit for setting aside the mountaintop which later became the core of the Cloud Forest Preserve.

"The Quakers transmitted to we Costa Ricans the spirit to protect the environment. And today, this is being reinforced in the schools, as you see here with our reserve," says Eduardo Castro, administrator of the Santa Elena High School Cloud Forest Reserve, the only school-run nature sanctuary in the country.

The Quaker's vision of an "intentional community" endures. Yet people worry that Monteverde is being tarnished by its unforeseen popularity. Land prices have spiraled. Burglaries and petty theft have shot up. Too many hotels have opened - 30 in all - and several are expected to fail.

"It's easy to talk about eco-tourism, and sustainable development," says Huber Barquero, the leading investor in a failing hotel located outside of town called the EcoVerde Lodge. "But the reality is very difficult. For the first year, we've had less than four percent occupancy."

Some Quakers worry that the character of visitors is changing.

"I've always been in favor of having other people come and appreciate this wonderful, beautiful place," says Lucky Guindon, one of the founding Quakers. "But some of the tourists come in and they're just here because it's the popular place to go. I've heard somebody say, oh, I did the Triangle (trail at the Rain Forest Preserve) in such and such a time. They want to do it as fast as they can. What do you see? You don't see anything."

In order to discourage dilettante tourists, most Monteverde residents continue to oppose paving the rutted, gravel road that connects them to the Inter-American Highway. Anyone wishing to visit must now make a two-hour, bone-jarring, muffler-mashing trip. Monteverde may be the last travel spot in Costa Rica willing to turn away tourists

Teaching Assistant

Teaching assistant positions are available in both Monteverde and San Jose. As a Teaching Assistant, interns will be assigned to a teacher and a classroom. Interns will have the opportunity to work collaboratively with a teacher to share responsibilities of the classroom. You will help plan lessons, assign and correct assignments. You may be asked to conduct Story Time, set up science experiments for teachers, help with a literacy fair and spelling bee. Additionally, you will act as a tutor in reading and math, offering private attention to students on difficult coursework. You will assist in physical education, sometimes organizing your own activities and games for the students.

At-risk-youth Mentor

As an At-Risk Youth Mentor, you will participate in programs that teach youth goal-oriented behaviors which they can apply at school, home and in their community and help youth further develop leadership skills. The mentor may also be asked to help with a program that serves youth in transitional shelters with their families. They feature one-on-one mentoring and positive role models to youth whose parents are often focused on more immediate needs. THis includes individual mentoring, encourages academic achievement and provides positive adult interaction. All mentors receive comprehensive training and on-going coaching and support as they mentor young people.. Monthly workshops on age-appropriate topics and social activities strengthen outcomes for program participants.

Interns have the opportunity to choose based on their interests and the needs. Each intern has a unique background and a variety of aptitudes that will benefit different programs. The internship is designed to be a learning experience for both the intern as well as the adolescents with whom they work.

Cultural Museum

Costa Rica has a number of regional and national museums that highlight the celebrated history of the region. Interns will help share the history, culture, and art of the indigenous population, meztizos, and Spanish. Working directly with the public by greeting and assisting visitors from around the world, selling Museum memberships, providing support during special exhibitions and at various Museum events, helping children and families during special family programs or school tours, assisting in the Museum offices.

During special exhibitions, volunteers help with a variety of duties, including being in the galleries, assisting visitors, organizing school groups, answering questions, giving directions and taking tickets.

Participation opportunities include assisting with activities developed for teenagers, assist staff and visitors with art-making activities and related performances during “Kids Day”, welcoming visitors to sketch in the galleries and provide materials or assistance.

The duties mentioned above are just some of the possible responsibilities of the volunteers. The experience can be changed depending on the skills and interests of the intern. Training at the museums is provided.

ABOUT THE MUSEUM: The museum features a courtyard displaying pre-Columbian artifacts and cannons from the colonial period. It is organized thematically in a counter clockwise direction from the entrance with artifacts related to Costa Rica's geological, colonial, archaeological, religious and modern history. The museum had a notable collection of pre-Columbian stone tables (metates), ceramics and a gold room "Sala de Oro" in the northeast tower. The colonial room has a notable collection of furniture and is designed to emulate that of an actual quarters in the 18th century. The museum also has an exhibit of the 1987 Nobel Peace Prize awarded to Óscar Arias, and a bust of José Figueres and butterfly garden in the outside "Plaza de la Democracia."