Initial attempts to colonize coastal areas were unsuccessful due to the extreme heat, dense jungle and diseases such as Dengue fever and malaria. Colonists finally settled in the cooler, central highlands of Cartago in As most of the native population had perished, the settlers worked the land themselves and became small land owners. Cartago remained a provincial capital of colonial Spain for nearly two and a half centuries.
In , Costa Rica and several other Central American provinces declared their independence from Spain. Juan Mora Fernandez, elected the nation's first chief of state in , initiated the construction of roads and ports and established a judicial system. Moreover, he encouraged coffee cultivation by providing free land grants to farmers.
The cultivation of coffee would transform Costa Rica in the nineteenth century. At this time, only a few families owned sizable properties. As Costa Rica began to develop, these few families rich in land soon became some of the wealthiest in the country.
To support the coffee trade, an oxcart path was built from the fertile Central Valley, where most of the coffee was being grown, to the Caribbean coast for direct export to Europe. The capital of San Jose rapidly developed and was one of the first three cities in the world to have electricity. In , Jamaican slaves, Chinese indentured servants and American convicts were brought in to begin railroad construction. This was significant in that it would unite the coffee-growing Central Valley with the Caribbean port of Limon.
The new railroad helped boost the coffee industry and the steady rise in coffee exports resulted in a wealthy upper class and a prosperous Costa Rican economy.
The first democratic elections were held in and, other than two brief periods of violence, democracy has been synonymous with Costa Rica ever since. In , Federico Tinoco overthrew the elected president, Alfredo Gonzalez.
Most Costa Ricans, as well as the United States, opposed Tinoco's overthrow, and he was deposed in In the close presidential election of , Rafael Calderon fraudulently claimed victory over Otilio Ulate. The dispute precipitated a six-week civil war, resulting in over deaths. Jose Ferrer, a supporter of Ulate, assumed presidency for 18 months before deferring to Ulate.
Economic and social reforms since have enabled the country to remain stable. A new constitution was adopted and elections have since been free and fair. Costa Rica still has a large agricultural sector including coffee, banana, pineapple and sugar exports. In the last twenty years, eco-tourism and technology have taken off and become top-earning industries in the country.
Costa Ricans enjoy a high standard of living, and land ownership is widespread. The country boasts a high literacy rate, a large middle class and a stable government that has functioned without an army for more than 60 years.
Barra del Colorado. Cabo Matapalo. Ciudad Quesada. This was an important factor in the future development of democracy and the avoidance of major civil conflict. The largely collaborative small-holder producer vs. However, despite these seemingly equitable relations, coffee and power have always been closely linked and Costa Rica was no exception in this.
The cafetalero elite, comprised of wealthy, aristocratic families, mostly of pure Spanish descent, and newer European immigrants, amassed a fortune through the booming industry, gaining huge political and economic power and influence.
They maintained this dominant position until the midth Century after which social and economic reforms brought about their decline. However, the most prominent families continue to have influence even today, in fact President Oscar Arias is grandson of Julio Sanchez Lepiz, one of Costa Rica's most prominent coffee producers and can trace his heritage back to the original conquistador, Juan Vasquez de Coronado.
Throughout the boom period this group consolidated their power through a series of personal hegemonies in which the wealthiest families vied for dominance and leadership transitions were generally determined by military coups and interventions. In addition to its contribution to social peace and economic stability, the coffee industry's other great legacy is its commitment to the liberalist agenda that continues today. The coffee oligarchy, professional and educated, was heavily influenced by Enlightenment principles and the 'ideology of progress' They were the 'true heirs of the European Enlightenment' 11 a somewhat paternalistic elite promoting ideals of education, rationality, secularism and the pursuit of science and technology; discouraging the influence of the Church and of traditional customs and beliefs and creating a hegemonic reality based on economic and intellectual freedom.
In this way they consolidated what had previously been a vague tendency, making 'Liberalism' the only viable political and economic standpoint. In the Costa Rican Congress named Jose Maria Castro, an enlightened supporter of education and freedom of the press, as the first 'President' of the new Republic.
Castro inaugurated the University of Santo Tomas, the country's first university; founded the first high-school for girls and established a new national newspaper.
However, the increasingly powerful cafetaleros announced their ascendancy by using the army to force his resignation and replacing him with their own candidate, Juan Rafael Mora , a leading personality within the coffee aristocracy and the first in a.
Initially Mora faced opposition and was not accepted by the general populace. However, his actions during the invasion of US filibuster William Walker and the subsequent 'National Campaign of ', made him a national hero, temporarily at least. He was supported in his endeavor by a group of wealthy and powerful Americans, on the condition that he institute slavery in Nicaragua.
Walker proposed converting the whole of Central America to slave territory and annexing it to the confederacy of Southern U. He arranged for an invite to support the Nicaraguan Liberal Party who were embroiled in civil war. He arrived in June, , bringing men and arms from California, and quickly overpowered the opposition Conservative forces, declaring himself 'President of the Republic of Nicaragua.
He then proceeded to invade Guanacaste, Costa Rica, in March Mora pulled together a make-shift army of men, comprised of all classes - campesinos, artisans, merchants and bureaucrats - all wanting to defend their country. He led this army north to meet the invading forces, aided by none other than Captain William Le Lacheur of England, who used his ships to carry soldiers and ammunition.
In September , this ragtag army attacked the filibustero forces and defeated them in only 14 minutes at the Battle of Santa Rosa. Those who survived fled back into Nicaragua, followed across the border by Mora and men, to their stronghold at Rivas, where fighting continued.
On 11th April, , Walker's forces had barricaded themselves into a farmhouse from which they refused to be dislodged. According to popular legend, Juan Santa Maria, a lowly drummer-boy from Alajuela, ran up and torched the roof of the house, dying in a hail of bullets, but forcing Walker's retreat and ensuring Costa Rica's victory.
Juan Santa Maria id now recognized as a national hero, the victory is celebrated every year on the 11th September and Costa Rica's International Airport is named after the boy. Walker was eventually captured in Honduras in and was executed by the Honduran army. The victory made President Mora a popular hero, this however was short-lived as the real price of the war was yet to come.
This, combined with the costs of the 'National Campaign', put Costa Rica's economy into recession and together with Mora's attempts to establish a National Bank, challenging the cafetalero's economic control, turned the tables against the president, and when he attempted a third term in power the army helped to topple and exile him. He came to an unseemly demise in when he attempted a coup d'etat against the new president and was subsequently executed by a firing squad.
His reign is now perceived as a 'watershed for the nation,' 14 setting in motion forces that would shape the modern democratic state and announcing the shift towards representative politics and more peaceful transitions of power. Guardia was a real reformist, expanding public administration and creating a strong, centralized government to back him up, he used coffee earnings and demanded high taxes to finance social programs, investing in public health, education and particularly transport infrastructure, aiming to increase efficiency for the coffee industry.
He abolished capital punishment, and, in a landmark revision to the Constitution of , made primary education for all, 'obligatory, free and at the cost of the nation. By strengthening public institutions and thereby increasing political authority he managed to initiate a decline in the role of militarism and to curb the power of the cafetalero oligarchy.
He convinced them that a secure and stable regime was better for business interests than the inherently unstable reliance on military intervention to resolve power struggles.
Instead he believed in raising the consciousness of the 'masses' through education and ideological means, encouraging political participation and eventually, peaceful, if still fraudulent, elections.
Guardia's reforms made him the true 'founder of the Liberal Order' in Costa Rica. His rule, and those of his successors, Prospero Fernandez and Bernardo Soto, saw the real consolidation of the Liberal agenda and the rise of a group of young intellectuals - teachers, journalists, lawyers and politicians - known as the 'Olympians', or the 'Generation of '. These 'priests of progress' 15 had a clear plan of reform, aiming to create a modern nation state, based on a capitalist agricultural-export system.
Taking cues from their predecessors, they promoted a doctrine of progress, liberty and democracy, espousing principles of economic and intellectual freedom, land privatization and independence.
Believing that a free-market, capitalist economy would lead to prosperity for all, their 'Project' of social reform was intended to transform all material, legal and political bases of society. The 'Olympians' saw themselves as pioneers, leading a backwards, rural nation into the 'Modern Age'. The expansion of education was part of a mission to 'civilize' and instruct the campesino masses, to incorporate these lower classes into the nation through legal and political relations and to install in them new skills and values in accordance with their particular agenda.
Despite their 'democratic' rhetoric they were members of the elite and their policies were aimed at preserving the dominant social and economic framework and maintaining oligarchic control in the political arena. Electoral fraudulence and corruption were accepted as inevitable within this paternalistic approach to government. The Olympian's efforts culminated in with what was widely perceived to be the first 'democratic' election in the country. Ironically, their attempts at raising political consciousness had worked so well that the public voted in the opposition candidate.
The liberals, in true oligarchic fashion, failed to recognize the new president until 10, protestors took to the streets of San Jose and they finally had to accept him as rightfully elected. The election process may not have been entirely 'democratic' on this occasion, but the subsequent protests and their result were certainly the first democratic manifestation of public power in Costa Rica.
True parliamentary democracy would not arrive until , although the direct vote, for men, was approved in This unifying myth was essential to Costa Rica's national identity and self- perception throughout the coffee boom period, providing a justification and program for the political and economic structures that strengthened and supported the coffee export order.
The small-holder grower vs. This 'interdependent' relation imparting a sense of value, inclusion and fair distribution, and combining with the colonial image of the 'yeoman farmer working the land,' to ensure that the ideologies of both aristocrats and peasants alike converged and coincided.
This legislation was subsequently expanded with Law in , and came to be seen as the guarantor of social peace in Costa Rica, leaving no room for any perception of exploitation or injustice within the industry. To the oligarchic cafetaleros then, their product and its 'equitable' relations, as the foundation of Costa Rica's society and economy, was responsible for the consistency of its order; the spirit of peace, community and collaboration; the love of freedom and independence that would eventually lead to democracy; and for the image of equality, harmony and tranquility that persists today - to the particular advantage of the new 'ecotourism' economy.
However, despite containing some elements of truth - coffee wealth and power were indeed shared, but never equally! As sociologist Jeremy Paige suggests, the leyenda blanca was simply an 'idealized reflection of the elite's experience of actually exhibiting relations of production in coffee' 19 another privileged, white version of historical and social development. It was this suppression, together with the desire to expand their industry and increase its efficiency, that led the cafetaleros not only to pave the way for a competitive economic challenge to their control of the export market, but also to create the conditions for a political challenge to their dominant ideology.
The banana industry operated under entirely different relations of production. Banana operations were largely foreign-owned, with most profits leaving the country, and with vast areas of plantation owned by a very wealthy few, who exploited a mass of 'unfree', 'alienated', often immigrant, wage-laborers, to make profit.
A highly differentiated class structure of multi-national corporations vs an impoverished, racially-mixed proletariat was the norm here. Bananas meant a dependence on foreign investment, reliance on U.
Working conditions in the banana industry were also very different; workers generally lived in squalor in primitive encampments on the plantations; they were badly paid, had few rights and were subject to indiscriminate firings and wage reductions. Plantations were simply abandoned once the lands they had exploited were exhausted, devastating whole communities who had become not only economically reliant but also dependent on the strategic services they provided - water, electricity, transport - which were cut off when they left.
Foreign control and exploitative relations eventually led to the fomentation of anti-imperialist sentiments amongst sections of the Liberal class and social conflict within the industry itself.
Carlos Luis Falla, Costa Rica's greatest literary figure, published his best known work, 'Mamita Yunai', describing the terrible conditions of plantation life at this time. The social conflict, the arrival of Panama Disease infecting banana plants and a drop in market prices, led to the eventual decline of the industry after However, by this time, the diversification of exports had come to include other products - sugar, cacao, hardwoods, cattle-ranching - consolidating capitalist relations in the region, and prompting extensive clearing and destruction of forest areas, thereby increasing class-differentiation; creating a substantial landless peasantry, a significant laboring class and the beginnings of what would become a new, dominant elite of self-made entrepreneurs.
In this way the banana industry, and the agro-capitalist relations it brought to Costa Rica prompted a challenge to the leyenda blanca in the form of a radicalized class consciousness; and provided the conditions for the country's subsequent political and economic re-organization.
The period between and was marked by rising public power, popular demonstrations and labor conflicts; May Day was celebrated for the first time in A paradoxical result of the Liberal 'civilizing mission' was the forming of a new 'radical' generation. By the s the majority of Costa Rica's population was literate and politically engaged to some extent, including the new laboring classes. European and Soviet literature was easily accessible, anarchist and socialist ideas began to circulate within both middle and working-class culture and the contradictions behind the 'glitter of the golden bean' 21 and certainly within the banana industry, began to be detected.
This 'radical' generation saw a growing 'abyss' between an elite wealthy few and the lower classes. The heightened political consciousness and increased class awareness, combined with the global economic collapse of the Depression - which had a catastrophic effect on both industries, discrediting the Liberal elite's free-market dogma - resulted in the formation of two independent leftist political parties.
The Reformist Party was founded in , followed by the Communist Party in These parties participated in elections and won seats throughout the s and 40s.
Revolutionary uprising had previously been avoided primarily due to the absence of any mass base. However, within the banana industry Communism finally found its proletariat to organize.
The plantation and dock workers, recruited from the poorest regions of the country; indigenous groups, descendants of slaves, Nicaraguan and Jamaican immigrants, united to offer the first real counter-ideology, an ideology from below, comprised of those voices excluded from the cafetalero vision of social harmony , existing outside of the coffee industry and its social structures.
The Costa Rican Communist Party, founded on June 16th, , and led by Manuel Mora Valverde, initially shared the extreme rhetoric of the Third International, waging battle against 'the capitalist assassins'. However, its somewhat restricted base meant that it quickly adapted to Costa Rican style politics - becoming more moderate; an early form of Euro-Communism with a largely social democratic agenda.
Mora became the voice of a separate, national brand of communism, labeled Tico-Comunismo or Comunismo-Criollo, whose program asked for improvements in the lives of working people; social security, national health, a minimum wage, an eight hour day, union laws and a nationalization of monopolies. In Mora himself reiterated this departure from communist orthodoxy stating, 'in Costa Rica the class struggle has been replaced by class collaboration,'22 a profound reflection of the entrenched social relations of the coffee order and of the Costa Rican tendency to keep the peace at whatever cost.
However, the Communist Party did play a major role in organizing the 'Great Banana Strike' of , the largest in Costa Rican history. On August 9th, , Carlos Luis Falla, author of 'Mamita Yunai', and chief organizer of the protest, led 10, workers out to the strike, which was not resolved until mid-September when the government sent in armed police forces.
The strike did bring about improvements in living and working conditions on the plantations. However, it also encouraged a strengthening and increased converge of ideas within the coffee sector who united in an anti-communist stance which would eventually lead to the suppression and outlawing of the party. Communism came to represent all those forces threatening change to the established order and rural way of life; the poor, the dark-skinned, landless banana workers, the unemployed, the growing urban proletariat, even the forces of industrial capitalism itself, and anti-communism became a part of the national identity.
The capitalist relations of the new industry came hand in hand with radical social conflict and an increasing polarization between the two worlds of those included and those excluded from the country's 'national ideology'.
In the s this polarization brought the country to civil war and the bloodiest event in Costa Rica's history. A profoundly religious man, trained as a physician, he presented himself as a caring man of the people, a progressive alternative to communism, and did not appear to represent break with the liberal ideology of the coffee elite.
Like his grandfather he was a social reformist. However, he was also deeply influenced by his experience as a physician and by the social Christian values of his religion, which led him to reject both Marxist materialism and Liberal individualism, believing instead in a Christian notion of community and of the responsibility of the State to care for its people.
Once elected he began putting these ideas into practice, implementing a series of ambitious reforms that, despite fierce opposition at the time, would become the basis of Costa Rica's modern welfare state.
Calderon received support from workers unions and the Communist Party, as well as more left-leaning sections of the middle-classes. His principles were also much admired by the Catholic Church, especially after he re-instated religious education disapproved of by the secular Liberalists in schools in However, the merchants, businessmen and landowning elite felt that these 'improvements' were being made at their expense, and became hostile to the 'progressive' and state-interventionist elements of the reform program.
This opposition was further inflamed by Costa Rica's declaration of war against Germany and Japan on December 11th, , and the subsequent internment of German and Italian members of the coffee export trade suspected of Fascist sympathies. Calderon lost the support of the wealthy elite, and, in a bid to increase his voter base, formed an alliance with Mora's Communist Party.
This was the first in a series of unlikely but strategic alliances throughout this tumultuous period, and did indeed increase the President's political strength, ensuring the success of his reforms.
However, it further alienated all classes of the coffee sector and increased the intensity of his opposition, leading to extreme polarization in the run up to his second election attempt in This 'opposition' comprised of aristocratic members of the coffee elite and their rural followers, outraged by the interventionist, socialist nature of the reforms; and a group of entrepreneurial, pro-capitalist, democratic reformers, who supported Calderon's reforms yet were fiercely critical of what they saw as his 'corrupt' administration and of the 'personality cults' and 'closed-off' economic dominance of the coffee elite; united only in their opposition to Calderon and in their militant anti-communism.
The alliance revolved around two men, aristocratic publisher Otilio Ulate, editor of the conservative Diario de Costa Rica, and representative of the cafetaleros, who proclaimed the reforms an 'opium of the people,' 23 and Jose Figueres Ferrer, a wealthy, self-made agricultural entrepreneur who denounced the State as corrupt, antiquated and incompetent and called for an economic revolution that would transform Costa Rica into a modern, social-democratic, capitalist-industrial nation.
Figueres and his supporters saw armed insurrection and a military victory as the only option that would leave them free to act and clear the way for a new social and economic order, a 'Second Republic'.
Figueres had been exiled to Mexico in , after denouncing the president in a live radio broadcast. Whilst in exile he made contact with other organizations aiming to overthrow the Central American dictatorships, and on his return to Costa Rica in he began training irregular troops at his ranch in San Isidro de General, forming an 'Army of National Liberation'. The election campaign of saw 'The Opposition' candidate, Ulate, pitted against Calderon.
Officially, Ulate defeated Calderon by more than 10, votes. However, Congress, which was largely dominated by Calderon supporters, first demanded a recount, amidst allegations of fraud, then voted to annul the results. Thus, negotiations between Calderon and Ulate began, to find a peaceful solution. Figueres used this opportunity to launch his long- threatened armed rebellion, declaring war on the government before any compromise could be made.
On March 12th, , he and his band of revolutionaries took over the town of San Isidro, initiating a civil war that would last 40 days and result in over deaths. On April 19th, with government forces suffering heavy losses to the insurgents, and with Figueres preparing to storm San Jose, foreign diplomatic corps finally negotiated a cease-fire and political pact to end the war.
Pro- governmental forces agreed to surrender in exchange for amnesty and indemnity for all victims, whatever their affiliation, and a guarantee that the social reforms of Calderon would be respected and kept intact. Figueres then marched into San Jose to initiate his revolution. He immediately broke his promise by sending Calderon himself along with thousands of his supporters into exile and outlawing the Communist Party.
But, true to his belief in democratic elections, on May 1st he signed an agreement with Ulate, promising to hand over office to the rightfully elected president, after a period of eighteen months during which the country would be ruled by an eleven man junta, the 'Founding Junta of the Second Republic', headed by Figueres himself. As head of this ruling junta, Figueres, much to the horror of the coffee elite who had supported him, proved to be more radical in many respects than Calderon.
Calderon's reforms were embraced and strengthened, and during its brief tenure the junta issued a further decrees-laws. One of its first acts was the abolition of the Costa Rican army, immediately removing a potential ally of the coffee oligarchy and eliminating the possibility of military intervention in future elections.
Although he rejected Socialist state-ownership, he did support intervention in the economy, establishing autonomous state-sponsored entities to take control of key sectors; the first of these was ICE, the Costa Rican Electricity Institute, the system was then expanded to include insurance, telecommunications, aviation, tourism, fisheries and petroleum refining.
In January a 'New Constitution for the Second Republic' was drawn up which included finally giving the franchise to women and blacks, barring presidents from re-election for 8 years after leaving office and creating an 'Electoral Tribunal' that would ensure the sanctity of electoral democracy, making it an essential principle of the country's politics.
The Costa Rican Communist Party was declared illegal and with this Costa Rica 'symbolically buried' 25 communism and the class divisions, inequality and social questions it had raised 'disappeared' from political discourse. However, despite Figures' profoundly anti-communist stance, the aforementioned demands of Tico-Comunismo were all actually achieved under his reformist regime and remain fundamental principles of Costa Rican politics and consciousness today.
In November Figueres handed power over to Ulate as promised, but by this time the foundations of economic transformation had already been laid and the coffee elite had suffered a fatal blow from which they would never regain their former dominance. In the elections, ironically, it was Figueres who was labeled a 'communist' by the opposition Ulate supporters. Figueres however, won the election legitimately, without military intervention or fraudulent pacts!
The first 'democratically' elected president was then able to consolidate his campaign of 'reconstructed', state-centred liberalism and truly initiate his intended economic and industrial transformation of Costa Rica through government-led development programs.
Breakdown of forest administration areas in Costa Rica. One example of the park service's success can be seen in Corcovado Park, on the Osa Peninsula. The Golfo Dulce Reserve has been invaded by squatters who have been encouraged by the gold-mining activities in the reserve. No method for controlling this invasion has been found, and the NFD was well disposed to a plan to manage the reserve jointly with the AD!
This plan has not yet been financed, and there has been no improvement in the condition of the reserve. Corcovado Park, on the other hand, does not have any invasion problem as of June , and employs 20 park guards to control the entry of squatters. The only farmers who remain within the park boundaries are those who had legal title to their land before the establishment of the park.
Another example of NPS success in avoiding forest destruction can be seen in the Altos de Coton, on the Panama border. This has been the site of a major conflict between peasant squatters and national officals, and the area in question abuts lands administered by the AD] and the NFD. In at least one instance, the NPS relinquished control over parts of a biological reserve which were not appropriate for inclusion under their administration.
The reserve in question is Carara, which, in the beginning, included some areas of abandoned pasture and an isolated watershed protection area. Organized squatters invaded part of the reserve, and were ejected, but they brought pressure to bear through the actions of local political officials, so the NPS acceded to the separation of some abandoned pastures which, according to an NPS official, were not really appropriate for inclusion in the reserve.
Part of the separated lands became farms, and the rest became the Cerro Turrubares Protection Zone. The NPS strategy of releasing lands which they are not prepared to manage may be important in their success in protecting the areas they can manage. Indian reservations occupy more than , ha in Costa Rica. These lands are generally forested, and NCIA officials report that these lands are not being deforested.
The Indian populations do not practice extensive agriculture or commerical logging. Furthermore, the Indians assist in keeping squatters out of the reservations, either by advising them that they are on reservation land or by informing the appropriate authorities. The exceptional cases of Indians who consistently alienate reservation lands through attempted "sales" Indians have no legal right to sell reservation land are controlled through "development committees" composed of local Indians which may order their exclusion from the reservation.
The largest category of protected lands in Costa Rica is forest reserve, under the administration of the NFD. The management of forest reserves and protection zones falls under the direction of the Reforestation Program of the NFD. Each forest reserve and protection zone has its own operative plan, which is to serve as a basis for a more detailed management plan. To date, only La Carpintera a protection zone has a management plan. In principle, none of these lands is available for colonization, but there has been a constant pressure on the NFD to release lands.
Some reserves have been colonized by squatters, and the Golfo Dulce and Los Angeles reserves were mentioned as having especially severe problems. The Los Angeles Reserve was established after the town of Santo Tomas had been established within its limits, creating a situation of constant pressure by farmers.
The NFD strategy is one of legalizing farmers within the reserve by giving land titles, thus cleary establishing which lands are occupied and which not in order to prevent further squatting. Farm lands within the reserve will be zoned as to appropriate land use, and the NFD'S power to authorize land titling will be used as an enforcement tool. The NFD has not been as successful as the NPS in controlling access to protected areas, possibly due to the ambiguity of their mandate in the management of forest areas.
The head of the department of reforestation for the NFD reports that the objective in managing forest reserves is to incorporate them into the national economy. While this orientation is appropriate for a governmental agency, it surely gives rise to a need for many decisions as to whether an immediate economic contribution is more desirable than a more valuable future or long-term contribution. The existence of these alternatives may hamper decision-making and thus cause an ineffective protection of forest areas.
The case of the Taque-Taque colonization illustrates this point. It represents an innovative plan for colonization involving forest reserve lands; it was initiated in and is jointly administered by the NFD and the ADI.
The "colony" is a mountain top near Pejibaye, which itself is located in an agrarian reform colony established in in a banana production area. Pejibaye sits in a small valley and the establishment of new colonies is required by the growing population of the area. The innovative aspect of the Taque-Taque colonization is that it is a first attempt by the NFD to manage the occupation of forest areas for agricultural purposes.
The NFD had managed the colonization of the Chambacu area near Ciudad Quesada, but the land had already been deforested at the time the project began. TaqueTaque abuts the R'o Macho Forest Reserve 91, ha and comprises an abandoned farm which straddles the border of the reserve. Part of the ha colony has been carved out of the forest reserve and temporarily loaned to farmers for five year renewable loan periods. Some parts of the Taque-Taque area are too steep to be safely cultivated, and the objective of the management project is for the NFD to analyse land use potential and recommend appropriate uses through the activity of the national level agroforestry programme.
The basis for activity to date has been in large part a student thesis, in which land in the area was stratified by appropriate land use. These recommendations are being reviewed by NFD personnel for incorporation into the final package of recommendations to farmers. Following the land use recommendations in the thesis, land in Taque-Taque has been stratified into usage categories of "protected," "restricted," and "unrestricted.
The activity by the NFD in Taque-Taque is still restricted to investigation, and no recommendations to farmers or attmepts at control have yet been made.
Some agricultural activity is being introduced into the area, but the main activity seems to be extraction of fuelwoodfor the coffee processing plant in Pejibaye. NFD officials are doubtful of their ability to enforce their technical recommendations, despite their seemingly powerful weapon of last resort, the revocation of the temporary permission to use the land. The Taque-Taque colonization project was a response to pressure from the local community to provide new lands for younger farmers.
The NFD acceded to this pressure in permitting the land from the forest reserve to be considered for colonization, and a recurrent theme regarding government officals in this study has been the inability of government agencies to resist the demands of local political pressure groups.
In , the AD! The AD! The ADI is primarily concerned with settling farmers on land; environmental concerns may be recognized and acted upon at a personal level, but are not generally included in policy decisions. In some cases, for example the 12, ha Barbilla Protection Zone, the administration of the area is jointly assumed in this case by the ADI, NFD, and NPS , with the understanding that each agency will carry out its function within the designated area.
In such a plan, forest exploitation is integrated into the process of colonization in a more rational fashion, as had been done in the Cariari colony near Guapiles McKenzie Provisions are made so farmers realize benefits from the forest which will capitalize the farms and demonstrate the economic potential of forest management.
Such a project requires good controls over forest cutting and lumber marketing, and neither the NFD nor the AD! The policy of the AD] is to precede the establishment of new colonies with a set of socio-economic studies which analyse the appropriateness of proposed farmers and use capacity of the farm land as a basis for recommending the most appropriate farmers and for purchasing the land.
These studies later serve for making recommendations to farmers as to how to manage their farms.
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