QCOSTARICA – In an atmosphere of celebration and optimism, Costa Rica’s President, Carlos Alvarado, and Minister a.i. of Public Security, Luis Castillo, signed this Wednesday, September 29, 2021, the legislative decree the “Creation of the Monteverde canton, Canton XII of the province of Puntarenas.”
The signing took place in the Monteverde Shopping Center and was also attended by the executive president of INCOP and coordinator of the Central Pacific Region, Juan Ramón Rivera; Legislator Carlos Ricardo Benavides; Monteverde mayor Yeudy Ramírez and vice mayor María Isabel González, the president of the Municipal District Council, Yadira Trejos, and a small representation of its residents.
The law, approved in a second debate on August 4, establishes that the head of the canton will be in the community of Santa Elena – the only district made up of the surrounding towns -, the site where the local government will function.
The new canton will border four cantons: to the east with San Ramón, to the west with Abangares, to the north with Tilarán and to the south with Puntarenas.
“With a unique biodiversity in the country, Monteverde is a prosperous and peaceful area, of high tourist attraction, whose inhabitants have known how to develop sustainable economic activities, protecting and caring for their natural resources,” said Alvarado.
“Monteverde is considered an important tourist destination in Costa Rica. The area is known worldwide for its Biological Reserve that attracts a large number of tourists interested in our tropical biodiversity, for this reason it is an honor for me to sign this decree that marks a historic event in our country,” said Castillo.
For his part, the Minister of Tourism, Gustavo Segura, indicated that the beauty of the cloud forest and the unequaled experience with which our tourists are received in Monteverde, “are just some of the jewels of this destination that is part of the 32 tourist development centers of the country”.
“Local development and decentralization processes have been a vital part of the National Tourism Development Plan, so we are sure that working together with the new local government will be of great benefit to the region,” added Segura.
The Monteverde community began its history between 1915 and 1920, when about eight families arrived independently, in search of new lands to cultivate. In 1951 they were joined by a group of families from Alabama, United States, the “Quakers” who installed dairy and agricultural production in the place, the town grows and today the more than 6,000 inhabitants celebrate this canton with enthusiasm.
