Dr. Joyce lives in Monteverde, where he teaches college students. He is president of the Monteverde Conservation League, which owns and manages the Children's Eternal Rainforest. This magnificent wildlife Reserve is in the cloud-shrouded highlands of central Costa Rica. With enormous support from the International Children's Rainforest Network Worldwide, the protected forest at Monteverde grew very rapidly in the late Eighties and early Nineties. The International Children's Rainforest Network will provide on-going support to the Reserve, even though the major land aquisition phase is over.
Coffee comes from the roasted and ground-up beans of coffee plants.
For almost two centuries, coffee plants were grown in the shade of native forest trees. When coffee is grown on a traditional shade plantation, coffee trees are planted beneath a forest canopy. These small farms also cultivate diverse crops under the forest canopy. Some examples are fruit, avocados, cacao for chocolate, and trees for firewood. This provides a diversified living for small family farmers, who grow most of the shade coffee.