Product Description
The Monteverde Cloud Forest Reserve has captured the worldwide attention of biologists, conservationists, and ecologists and has been the setting for extensive investigation over the past 30 years. Roughly 40,000 ecotourists visit the Cloud Forest each year, and it is often considered the archetypal high-altitude rainforest. This volume brings together some of the most prominent researchers of the region to provide a broad introduction to the biology of the Monteverde and cloud forests in general. Collecting and synthesizing vital information about the ecosystem and its biota, the book also examines the positive and negative effects of human activity on both the forest and the surrounding communities. Ecologists, tropical biologists, and natural historians will find this volume an indispensable resource, as will all those who are fascinated by the magnificent tropical forests.

CUSTOMER REVIEWS (Average Customer Rating: 5.0 based on 1 review)

Very good reference book

I have found this to be a fantastically helpful reference book for everything Monteverde-related. This book isn't meant to be a best-seller, it (seems to be) designed for the subset of people who are interested in Monteverde, Costa Rica. If you have spent some time in Monteverde, or plan to, it has pretty much everything you could ever want to know about natural history and climate. It is also put together in an easy and intuitive manner, which counts for a lot when you are trying to find one specific thing in a book that is about everything. It is aimed more towards science, but it also has quite a bit about the history of the town. This is the first place I would look for helpful tidbits of information about Monteverde like yearly rainfall/mist, neat graphs that break down the number of species of plants of various life forms ("X% of plants in MV are climbers, Y% are epiphytes, Z% canopy trees"), and the such. I would strongly suggest it to anyone interested in Monteverde natural history. This is not a field guide, it won't help you identify anything to species, but it will be a very good supplement to pretty much any field guide, so you can see what ever you are interested in the large framework of its ecosystem.

It is also just plain fun read.
September 23, 2007

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