Felipe Montoya

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Environmental anthropologist. Over 20 years experience working with indigenous and peasant communities in Costa Rica. Currently is full professor in the School of Anthropology at the University of Costa Rica, Director of the Development Observatory of the UCR and Director of the Las Nubes Project of the Faculty of Envronmental Studies of York University.

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Informality, Social Citizenship, and Wellbeing among Migrant Workers in Costa Rica in the Context of COVID-19

International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health

Costa Rica is home to 557,000 migrants, whose disproportionate exposure to precarious, dangerous,... more Costa Rica is home to 557,000 migrants, whose disproportionate exposure to precarious, dangerous, and informal work has resulted in persistent inequities in health and wellbeing in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic. We used a novel multimodal grounded approach synthesizing documentary film, experiential education, and academic research to explore socioecological wellbeing among Nicaraguan migrant workers in Costa Rica. Participants pointed to the COVID-19 pandemic as exacerbating the underlying conditions of vulnerability, such as precarity and informality, dangerous working conditions, social and systemic discrimination, and additional burdens faced by women. However, the narrative that emerged most consistently in shaping migrants’ experience of marginalization were challenges in obtaining documentation—both in the form of legal residency and health insurance coverage. Our results demonstrate that, in spite of Costa Rica’s acclaimed social welfare policies, migrant workers contin...

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Necro-Capitalismo vs Vida-Mundos: La esperanza de la diversidad bio-cultural

Maize Survives its Makers in the Nicoya Peninsula

Degradación y rehabilitación de ecosistemas terrestres: estado de la cuestión

Este articulo presenta una vision panoramica sobre la degradacion y la rehabilitacion de los ec... more Este articulo presenta una vision panoramica sobre la degradacion y la rehabilitacion de los ecosistemas terrestres costarricenses. Se senalan el mal uso de los suelos, la destruccion de los bosques y el auge ganadero como los principales factores degradantes de los ecosistemas; por otra parte, se recomiendan practicas como la designacion de la capacidad de uso del suelo, la reforestacion y las practicas silvopastoriles como herramientas en pro de la rehabilitacion de los ecosistemas y de un desarrollo sostenible.

Biocultural Diversity and Ngöbe People in the South Pacific of Costa Rica

From Biocultural Homogenization to Biocultural Conservation, 2018

This article reviews a participatory action research (PAR) project in the Indigenous Territory Gu... more This article reviews a participatory action research (PAR) project in the Indigenous Territory Guaymi de Osa of the Ngobe (a.k.a. Ngabe, Guaymi) in southern Costa Rica. This PAR project was carried out by researchers from the University of Costa Rica, the Austrian Institute for Latin America, and the Tropical Research Station La Gamba, to study traditional ecological knowledge (TEK) of the Ngobe people and facilitate its incorporation into public environmental management and restoration policies and initiatives in the Corcovado-Piedras Blancas Biological Corridor. The results of this multifocal research produced more questions than answers regarding the nature and the role of Ngobe TEK for environmental conservation. It did, however, reinforce the importance of promoting biocultural diversity over the hegemonic tendencies of homogenization inherent in neoliberal capitalism as the current rendition of modernity, if we are to find sustainable solutions to the social and environmental problems and growing pressures and threats associated with this globally dominant system.

From incidental findings to systematic discovery: locating and monitoring a new population of the endangered Harlequin Toad

The scientific and conservation communities recognize toads of genus Atelopus as among the most v... more The scientific and conservation communities recognize toads of genus Atelopus as among the most vulnerable of all amphibian groups, with over 75% of the species assessed as "Critically Endangered" by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List. Atelopus varius, known as the Harlequin Toad, has been thought to be extinct in Costa Rica since the mid-1990s. There have been four rediscovered populations of the species since 2004. This report presents the fifth reappearance of A. varius, this time in the Alexander Skutch Biological Corridor (ASBC) in the Pacific Slope foothills of La Amistad International Park, Costa Rica, which represents a new location. Previously, the pattern of reappearance of this species has been unclear. In this study, the discovery of a new population of A. varius allows us to evaluate the presence of Bd infection and offer critical natural history remarks. In total, 25 different individuals were identified. All samples analyzed for Bd diagnosis were negative. In contrast to other A. varius populations, this one was mostly found high above the riverbed, often in the foliage, tree trunks, and bromeliads, from 1-6 m above the water both during day and night. The absence of Bd infection in these Harlequin Toads, a highly susceptible species, in an area identified as having a high probability of Bd occurrence, suggests that this behavior could have helped this population survive by reducing infection risk. Moreover, the distribution of A. varius may have changed in the last 50 years, by penetrating higher in the montane regions of the Talamanca mountains, a change in distribution that might also help its survival of some environmental stressors. With the discovery of a new locality for A. varius, this study offers an animal behavior argument to account for species recovery in general, as well as a possible expansion of what has been accepted as the historical distribution of this species.

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Building ecological connectivity and human well-being in the Alexander Skutch Biological Corridor, Costa Rica : scenarios and tools for social-ecological systems; final technical report (15 January 2013 - 15 March 2015)

The project adds to the sustainability and impact of the Las Nubes Project through creation of an... more The project adds to the sustainability and impact of the Las Nubes Project through creation of an online, interactive data-base (a "virtual corridor") that compiles and organizes information available on the Alexander Skutch Biological Corridor (ASBC) in the Peñas Blancas watershed in Southern Costa Rica. The project highlights the importance of collaborative creation of technological tools. It introduces a complex-systems theoretical framework for action research, coupled with social-ecological systems, factors which contribute also towards accurate monitoring and evaluation of such projects. The virtual corridor has led to development of a larger research network in Costa Rica that is adopting the new approach

Montoya 2009 Environmental Conservation & Sustainable Livelihoods

Montoya & Drews 2006 Livelihoods, species conservation

Antropología ambiental: una rama verde

Montoya 2009 Mother of Harvests

Children&#39;s bedtime story about the birth of farming.

Montoya 2010 Tradiciones alimentarias

Perceptions, Local Knowledge and Expectations of Peasant Coffee Farmers in Puriscal, Costa Rica

This study aims to systematization ofcapture the experience of both perceptions and local knowled... more This study aims to systematization ofcapture the experience of both perceptions and local knowledge of a Peasant community from Costa Rica, mainly, about his on their vision and expectation on the coffee growingth activity. Interview iIn- depth interviews were done carried out to inquiry perceptions on current state of coffee production systems and expectations at regarding future of coffee productiongrowers. Interviews were applieds in 39 coffee farms of Cantón of Puriscal, Costa Rica. This study used methods and techniques from qualitative approaches such as likethe grounded theory and the systematization of experiences. The issues treated were related with to three topics: present and future state of coffee production systems; opinions on organic coffee production systems, and training expectations and requirements of training. Even though the most statements suggested a pessimistic attitude in frontregarding the crisis of coffee productionactivity, almostready half of producers ...

Montoya 2011 Tradiciones Alimentarias en Costa Rica -diversidad biocultural en vias de extincion

Montoya 2005 Degradación de Tierras

An anthropological view on progress toward community-based custody and valuation of coastal and marine resources in Costa Rica FINAL REPORT to ALCOA Foundation Practitioner Fellow Grant

From Private Property to Common Property: Costa Rican Peasants Mobilize to Protect their Forested Mountains

ABSTRACT &quot;This paper is based on four months of anthropological fieldwork carried out in... more ABSTRACT &quot;This paper is based on four months of anthropological fieldwork carried out in the Central Valley of Costa Rica during the summers of 1989 and 1990, and documents the case of a peasant grassroots organization, CODECE (Committee for the Defense of the Mountains of Escazu) mobilized to protect forested mountains on which they live. Emerging as a response to threat of foreign &#39;development&#39; which endangered their natural water supply, and consequently, their livelihood as subsistence farmers dependent on irrigation, CODECE has developed a comprehensive approach to environmental protection which includes the need for environmental education, cultural revitalization, broad-base support, and action on multiple fronts, and managed to halt rampant deforestation of the Mountains of Escazu. Strategies employed by CODECE which have determined much its success, can broadly be described as adherence to participatory democratic principles, promotion of a common property consciousness, and willingness to be flexible and self-critical. CODECE has recognized the need to convert privately held forested mountains where their springs are born, into common property. Contrary to Hardin&#39;s tragedy of the commons, here the commons is seen as a solution to the tragedy of private property.&quot;

The Socioecological Evolution of a Biological Corridor: A 15-year Case Study of the Alexander Skutch Biological Corridor in Southern Costa Rica

Journal of Rural and Community Development, Mar 9, 2021

Concerns around the isolation of protected areas led to the establishment of Biological Corridors... more Concerns around the isolation of protected areas led to the establishment of Biological Corridors in Central America two decades ago. Created by executive decree and within the National Framework of Biological Corridors in Costa Rica, the Alexander Skutch Biological Corridor has become an example of collective actions and imaginaries that provides alternative models of rural community development. Multiple lessons arise from this 'lived experiment' in Southern Costa Rica, where differing ideologies, agendas, and paradigms converge and where place and a sense of place shape social interactions, both discursive and material. The Biological Corridor becomes a framework with guiding principles for stakeholders, where biodiversity conservation and sustainable development are intertwined in both a local and regional project of global significance.

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Ecology and Ethics 3 From Biocultural Homogenization to Biocultural Conservation

This series is devoted to continuing research at the interfaces of ecology and ethics (embedded i... more This series is devoted to continuing research at the interfaces of ecology and ethics (embedded in the multiple fields of philosophy and ecology) to broaden our conceptual and practical frameworks in this transdisciplinary field. Confronted with global environmental change, the academic community still labors under a tradition of strong disciplinary dissociation that hinders the integration of ecological understanding and ethical values to comprehensively address the complexities of current socio-ecological problems. During the 1990s and 2000s, a transdisciplinary integration of ecology with social disciplines, especially economics, has been institutionalized via interdisciplinary societies, research programs, and mainstream journals. Work at this interface has produced novel techniques and protocols for assessing monetary values of biodiversity and ecosystem services, as illustrated by the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment. At the beginning of the 2010s, however, an equivalent integration between ecology and philosophy still remains elusive. This series undertakes the task to develop crucial theoretical and practical linkages between ecology and ethics through interdisciplinary, international, collaborative teamwork. It aims to establish a new forum and research platform to work on this vital, but until now insufficiently researched intersection between the descriptive and normative domains. The scope of this series is to facilitate the exploration of sustainable and just ways of co-inhabitation among diverse humans, and among humans and other-than-human co-inhabitants with whom we share our heterogeneous planet. It will address topics integrating the multiple fields of philosophy and ecology such as biocultural homogenization, Planetary or Earth Stewardship.

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Felipe Montoya

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