The “cloud forest” of Monteverde in central Costa Rica will soon no longer deserve its name: climate change is threatening this unique environment, its fauna and flora under a bright blue sky.
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Here one should listen to the constant dripping of moisture condensation falling from the trees. But it’s the dead branches that break the silence, cracking under the footsteps of tourists on the paths on the dry ground.
The high-altitude forest still holds out and delights the hiker with an infinite variety of green tones under the sadly bright sun: the fog that reigned here until recently is dissipating under the effect of rising temperatures, laments 24-year-old guide Andrey Castrillo.
“The forest should be cool,” he explains. “You should hear the drops falling all over the forest, but that only happens on the wettest and windiest days of the rainy season,” he laments.
“There was no sun here… We had about thirty days of sun a year. There are now more than 130,” the guide complains.
At 1,400 meters above sea level, 140 km northwest of the capital San José, the Monteverde Conservation Area (private) covers 14,200 hectares and is home to a hundred species of mammals, 440 birds and 1,200 amphibians.
This exceptional high-altitude forest type accounts for only 1% of the world’s tropical and subtropical areas. “A low-level cloud cover forms when the humidity saturation is above 90% and the temperature is between 14 and 18 degrees Celsius,” researcher Ana Maria Duran of the University of Costa Rica told AFP. 38 years old.
The researcher explains that she has been coming here regularly for more than twenty years. Normally, the “almost permanent” fog gives the impression that you’re walking “practically in the middle of the clouds” and you can’t see more than a meter, she says, as the view descends into the forest, where the temperature tops 100C °C under a blue sky, only a few clouds crown the peaks.
“Coming to Monteverde and finding the dry conditions and not in the clouds like it was 20 years ago when I first started coming is obviously very sad,” said Ms. Duran.
Rising temperatures, lower humidity, more sun: the moss on the tree trunks is dry, the rivers are just streams and the amphibians here are the first victims of climate change.
“The decline in amphibians in cloud forests could be a wake-up call,” warns biologist Andrea Vincent, who teaches at the University of Costa Rica.
The species Incilius periglenes, known as the gold frog or Monteverde, has been listed as extinct by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) since 2019.
“A cloudless cloud forest, it will disappear, it has to disappear,” asserts the 42-year-old scientist and warns that there will be “many species extinction”.
But this “disheartening scenario” can still be avoided, she hopes: “Ecosystems are resilient.” If we make efforts to stop climate change, it is possible that the cloud forests will recover … not in our lifetimes, but maybe for the next generations.”