Last week I had the opportunity to visit the Costa Rican cloud forest, Monteverde, where the legendary Golden frog used to exist. I entered the cloud forest with some good friends fr
om the UN University for Peace trying to discover the wonders of this very specific type of wilderness.
Unfortunately, it did not take us long to realize that the cloud forest is no longer the cloud forest. Deforestation and climate change have already changed the microclimate so much over the last few years that many species have disappeared and the forest has turned into an entirely new ecosystem.
Though still a forest, the change in temperatures in the atmosphere and wind patterns has changed the average elevation of clouds by several hundred meters. Now, instead of mist and clouds, you have tropical downpour. The cloud forest is similar to the rain forest, but its unique location immerses the vegetation in clouds coming from the Atlantic and Pacific oceans, reducing the solar radiation and outgoing longwave radiation, and increasing humidity and water inputs from mist and direct depositions of cloud droplets (Lawton, 2001). The change in climate and the deforestation of the Atlantic Coast has made the precipitation and temperature change, and reptiles and amphibians used to cloud forest don’t have a place to go.
However, kids have been taking action! There are two reserves created through the efforts of children from around the world to protect the cloud forest. The Children Eternal Forest, for example, was founded with the donations coming campaigns around the world to save the forest. So, next time you see someone raising funds to protect the rain forest, know that funds are being used to provide a home to small and unique climate refugees…. Like the family of the disappeared golden frog! We need to take action, some creatures are not able to adapt to climate change (and other anthropogenic non sense) on their own.
