Like many communities around the world, Monteverde, Costa Rica is struggling to strike a balance between the risks and rewards of using ecotourism as a financial resource for conservation and sustainable development, which has often suffered from a mismatch between ecotourism’s vision and practice.

In this thesis, I assess how communities and conservation organizations economically dependent on ecotourism engage in debates regarding its value as a biodiversity conservation strategy and livelihood basis during the COVID-19 pandemic. I also examine how COVID-19 has affected conservation organizations’ protected area management strategies and engagement with nearby communities.

I argue that the COVID-19 pandemic serves as a revelatory crisis that has laid bare Monteverde’s over-dependence on ecotourism and the dangers therein. The pandemic has also served as a catalyst for the Monteverde community to chart a future for convivial, community-based, and resilient conservation in an era characterized by neoliberal conservation strategies and rapid global change in the form of both health crises and climate change.