 
PEOPLE,
PRODUCTION, BIODIVERSITY
Talamanca is a
privileged region. It is
located in the south of
Costa Rica, Central
America. It has an
extension of 2809.93km2,
which is 5% of the Costa
Rican landmass. One of
the greater wealth of
Talamanca is its people:
our population is
composed of indigenous
Bribri and Cabecar, as
well as of black and
white inhabitants.
Furthermore, since
Talamanca is a border region, a strong cultural
exchange with the
population of Panama
exists. Other
characteristic of the
area is the ecological
diversity of various life
zones: the coastal zone,
the fertile valleys, and
the mountainous zones
where our magnificent
rivers have their
origins. Talamanca is a
canton of which 55%
corresponds to National
Parks (Chirripo, Amistad,
Cahuita), 31% to
indigenous reserves
(Kekoldi, Talamanca
Bribri, Talamanca Cabecar
and Telire), 2% to
Gandoca- Manzanillo Wild
Life Refuge, and 12% to
unprotected areas. In the
canton we produce cacao,
banana, plantain, a huge
diversity of fruits and
wood, and an increasing
number of producers are
raising animals for
consumption and sales:
pork, hens, bovine cattle
and fish. Talamanca is also a home of various
organizations of
producers, one of which
is APPTA with more than
1000 active associates.
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HISTORICAL AND
ACTUAL DESCRIPTION OF
TALAMANCA
Socio-geography/culture/environment
It is undeniable that
Talamanca is one of the
most resourceful zones of the
country with the presence
of tropical forests in
natural, secondary, and
agro- forest conditions,
among which different
models of use are
intercalated, creating
different gradients of
protection and use of the
forest. Furthermore,
Talamanca is a land that
has been blest with a
cultural patrimony and a
linguistic and ethnic
diversity incomparable to
other areas of the
country.
The region covers a
series of protected areas
such as: The
International Friendship
Park (Parque
International la
Amistad), the Gandoca-
Manzanillo Wildlife
Refuge, the Cahuita
National Park, and the
Hitoy and Cerere
Biological Reserve. Also,
there are joint
territories of
development and
conservation, such as the
Indigenous Reserves for
Talamanca-Bribri,
Talamanca-Cabecar, and
Kekoldi. In addition,
there are some other
private and communal
areas of protection and
natural resources
conservation.
Transecting throughout
the region of Talamanca,
from the Chirripó Peak
(4000 msnm) to the
continental platform in
the Caribbean, 9 of the
12 tropical life zones
(Classification of
Holdridge) and about 60 %
of the faunal diversity
of the country (560 kinds
of fowls, 215 of mammals,
and 250 of amphibians and
reptiles) are found.
Indigenous Bribri and
Cabecar, Afro-Caribbean
black, Asian, Creole, and
former banana workers
from all over Central
America constitute the area's
heterogeneous population
range in their cultural
demonstrations and
knowledge systems.
In spite of the
biological and cultural
wealth, Talamanca is one
of the poorest cantons in
the country. The Social
Development Index (SDI)
in the last national
census indicated
9.75 for Talamanca in the
scale of 0 - 10 of which
10 signifies less
development.
Until a little while
ago, the infrastructure
(communication and
transportation) was
practically void in the
area, and even though the
infrastructure conditions
have improved since then,
the canton continues to
present alarming
deterioration of economic
and social conditions.
The Physiographical
conditions of the region
constitute serious
limitations for the
conventional development
schemes based solely on
the politics of
agricultural production.
This is subdivided into
two sub-regions. The
sub-region of High
Talamanca is 2,248 Km2
(80% of the canton), of
which 2,044 Km2 is
protected mountains with
slopes with inclinations
of greater than 60%, and
204 Km2 is mountainous
steps, where a small part
of the indigenous
population is
concentrated. The Low
Talamanca has an
extension of 562 Km2
(remaining 20 % of
Canton), composed of 225
Km2 of hills (8% of the
canton), 281 Km2 of
valleys (10%) and 56 Km2
of coast (2% surface of
the canton), in which
most of the population is
concentrated.
(CATIE-UICN, 1994).
Biological and
geographic caracteristics
of Talamanca
The preceding is an
indicator of the serious
limitations that exist in
this region for the
conventional agricultural
development. 88% of the
surface of the canton is
of forest aptitude,
either for protection
(majority) or for the
forest and agroforestal
development, with the
exception of the valleys
of the hydrographic
basins.
Critical situations at
the regional level such
as the economic crisis of
the 80's caused by the
monilia disease of the
cacao (previously the
only cash crop) and its
macro – economic
repercussions; the impact
of the 1991 earthquake;
periodical floods; and
physiographical
limitations hindered the
production of small
producers trying to
meet their subsistence
needs and to generate
adequate income to secure
their basic needs.
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HISTORICAL
EVOLUTION OF
SOCIO-ENVIRONMENTAL AND
CULTURAL SCENE
1500 Years Later
During the
pre-Columbian era, the
territory currently known
as Talamanca was
inhabited by the groups
of indigenous peoples
called Tariarcas, Terbis,
and Terrebes (Terrabas).
The first two groups
lived in the coast, while
the Terraba lived in High
Talamanca. Thereafter,
they were displaced by
the Bribri and Cabecar;
who come from the north
of South America
(CATIE-UICN, 1994). After
the pre-Columbian era,
the indigenous people
successfully resisted the
intents of 1)the indigenous
Miskitos, 2)of the
conquerors and Spanish
settlers, 3)of the
displacement promoted by
the expansion of banana
plantations in the turn
of the century, and most
recently, 4)of the
integration policies of
the centralist
governments.
The first foreigners
who were able to
establish themselves in
Talamanca successfully
were the afro-Caribbean
black, who established
coastal communities in
the early 1800s, and who
have been living in
harmony with the
indigenous inhabitants of
the region.
The Bribri-Cabecar
economy, until the
beginning of the 20th
Century, was based on
subsistence agriculture,
fishing, and
hunting-and-gathering in
the forest. Their
agriculture consisted
mainly of corn, ayote,
cacao, pejibaye, yucca,
beans and tubers. During
the colonization period,
bananas, sugarcane and
rice were incorporated
in their agriculture. The
annual crops were
cultivated in a rotation
system with these crops
in the plots around their
dwellings; they are
harvested once or twice a
year and then rested for
10 years. In this system,
small amounts of corn,
ayote, beans, and tubers
can be harvested every
months; thus, allowing the
small producers to have a
balanced diet.
In the case of the
afro-Caribbean, these
were devoted to fishing
and gathering, and
eventually to agriculture
(cacao and coconut),
incorporating some
elements of the
indigenous production
system. With the entry of
the European descendents,
pastor agriculture, along
with cattle-raising and
slash-and-burn
agriculture is introduced
from other practical
zones of the country,
which have all been
injurious to the ecology
of Talamanca.
The way of life and
the social structure of
the indigenous people
were affected, first with
the entry of the Spanish,
second with the banana
companies in the
beginning of the 20th
Century, and then by the
process of
neo-colonization imposed
by the rest of the
country in the recent years;
therefore, in fact, the
traditional subsistence
patterns or forms of
cultivating the land in Talamanca have
suffered significant
changes. The apparent
changes have invoked a
reflection by the local
people on the direction
of the future of their
society.
Upon the transfer of
lands from indigenous
people to banana
companies, a part of the
population were displaced
into the interiors of the
mountain range, while
others ended working for
the company, which
provoked the replacement
of the
communal economy of
subsistence with an
individual economy with
work unit remuneration
for goods acquisition.
All these conflicts in
the past were motivated
by the
control of the territory
of the region. Today,
conflicts are caused for
the control over natural
resources. First with
bananas, then with cacao,
plantains, lumbers, and
now, with mines. In the
same way arrived the oil
exploration, repeated
very recently by RECOPE
which also entailed the
destruction of the
environment and new
pressures for the nature.
Such exploitations of the
natural resources also
brought electricity,
highway, environmental
degradation, immigration,
and the population
growth of both the
indigenous and
non-indigenous
populations, producing
impacts very difficult to
measure, but easily
identifiable.
With the abandonment
of the banana companies
in the 1940s, people
returned to the low lands
and the banana was
replaced by the
mono-culture of the
cacao. This crop, which
was traditionally
cultivated for
subsistence, ceremonies,
or popular festivities,
became a commercial
product as a principal income generating product in the economy of the region, peaking in the
1960s and 1970s.
In the meanwhile
(40's), the development
of the lumber resources
in the coastal zone was
initiated by a Cuban
company for exportation
purposes. Currently, many
of these secondary
forests in the coast have
been recovered by the
means of natural
regeneration.
Nevertheless, the situation is no longer the
same, since the forest
development is changing
the use of the soil
from forest to
agriculture, with all its
negative consequences.
With the arrival of
the cacao disease called
Monilia in 1978, the
agriculture of the zone
was seriously affected,
collapsing the
flourishing local
economy. Productive
properties were converted
into properties without
production and became
nurseries of mushrooms;
many properties were
totally abandoned. With
the assault of the
monilia, the danger of
depending only on a
single crop was revealed
in the area.
Through the mid-late
1980's, the wood that
gave shades to the cacao
and the forests were
converted into a
transient alternative to
the crisis. At the same
time, the community of
Talamanca again became
dependent on another
mono-culture, plantains,
which was booming in the
national and
international market.
Civil wars at the
Central American level,
the environmental,
economic, and population
crisis in other zones such
as Guanacaste and
Puriscal (deforestation,
productive latifundism),
and the abandonment of
the Banana Company in the
south zone provoked the
uprooted people to
migrate to Talamanca,
increasing the social
tension between the new
and old residents.
In 1985, the pilot
experiment of land
entitlement of 11,000 Ha
in the Gandoca-
Manzanillo zone,
sponsored by ANAI and
WWF, catalyzed and
accelerated the process
of regional entitlement
of the Banana River
Project of 300,000 Ha,
IDA - IDB project of
1989, a process that
helped to conciliate the
rights in conflict,
helping to create stable
social conditions in a
long run.
Nevertheless, for a
part of the population,
mainly the refugees from
the neighboring Central
American countries who
were still in process of
adapting to the new
culture, finding
solutions to their
serious economic and
social conditions were
very difficult. As a
response to the needs of
this segment of the
Talamancan population,
APPTA in 1994 subscribed
an agreement with
ASCODI-DIGEPARE- BANCOOP,
to grant credits to both
the local population
(indigenous and Ladina)
and refugees who have
suffered the uprooting,
through the creation of
productive options that
serve as economic
alternatives for their
development.
The annual
cultivation: corn, rice,
beans, increased their
area of cultivation until
1986, when they began to
decrease in cultivated
area and importance as a
consequence of the
expansion of plantain
plantations.
The neo - expansion of
banana companies in the
1980's increased the
impacts at environmental
and social levels. The
banana company returned
to buy the most fertile
lands at an accelerated
level, provoking
deforestation,
indiscriminate use of
agro-chemicals, use of
technology unfriendly to
the environment, and
inappropriate work
conditions.
1980s
In the 1980s the
economic, social and
environmental crises
aggravated with 1) the
presence of the monilia,
2) the fall of cacao
prices to less than half
of their previous values,
3) the end of the
geographical isolation,
4) state abandonment, 5)
soil erosion and loss of
natural resources, and 5)
few work opportunities
for an increasingly
growing population.
The economic recession
provoked by the monilia
of cacao induced the
abandonment of many cacao
farms, some of which were
cleared permanently and
substituted with other
crops and extensive
cattle-raising. Those who
were living in the
flooded lands in the low
parts of the canton were
making a transition from
cacao to banana, which was
the new and most
important commercial
mono-cultural crop in
addition to plantains in
the area.
Assistance in the
fields of health,
education and roads
existed. During this
period, ANAI was the only
NGO in the zone that was
responding to the
problems of this context.
1990s
For the 1990s, the
crisis further aggravated
in some aspects, new
issues emerged, and some
of the previous issued
also persisted:
- With the expansion of
banana companies at the
beginning of 1990s, and
with the expansion of the
massive tourism (large
beach tourist
developments), provoked
even more migration
towards the region,
mainly for economic
reasons.
- The increase in the
number of organizations
and institutions working
in the zone generated
certain institutional
complexity (lack of
coordination and
conciliation between
groups and sectors).
- The constant threat
of external mega-projects
that put the natural
resources of the region
in danger (banana
companies, development of
coal and of other
minerals, trans-talamanca
highway, oil docks, oil
exploration, massive
tourism, hydroelectric
dams).
- Gradual loss in the
biodiversity and
indiscriminate mining and
destruction of forest,
scenic, and wildlife
resources promoted by
groups with strong
economic interest, which were
favored by a series of
political protectionists,
ended up limiting
the access to the
resources by the local
producers.
- Absence of a global
vision at regional and
communal levels toward
the DS.
- Grass-root groups
with a greater need of
political expression and
self-management.
- Increasing
unemployment rate. In the
coast and some sectors of
the Low Talamanca, the
displacement of an
agricultural economy
toward a service economy
in tourism, and
remuneration economy with
banana companies.
- Local interest has
been awaken by two types
of tourism: 1) the
massive, as a source of
income for both qualified
and non-qualified
laborers, which do not
require any type of local
investment; and 2) by the
naturalist adventure
tourism, as a method of
participating in a more
active way, integrating
the plots and their
resources, history, and
culture, to assure other
sources of income for
family economy.
- Substantial changes
in the patterns of tenure
of the land, mainly in
the coast; and reduction
in the average size of
the plot in the face of
increasing number of the
total population and
progressing urban
development of the zone.
- The problems and
consequences caused by
the trafficking and
production of drugs
became more apparent; And
its consequences in the
young population of the
canton no longer are problems
confined only to large cities.
- Environmental
pollution and the
problems of waste
management.
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