Eco-Tourism

Costa Rica is currently focusing on ecotourism as its key economic development. Ecotourism is defined as "environmentally responsible travel to natural areas, in order to enjoy and appreciate nature (and accompanying cultural features) that promote conservation, have a low visitor impact and provide for beneficially active socio-economic involvement of local peoples." Eco-tourism is currently booming all over Costa Rica, especially in places like the Monteverde Reserves, Lake Arenal and surrounding forests, The Arenal Volcano, beaches on the Pacific and Carribean sides of the country, and in its many rainforests. Costa Rica has used ecotourism to stimulate the economy and to promote conservation and sustainability. Ecoutourism brings money into the towns and cities that attract people from around the world. It also brings jobs to Costa Rica because many people are needed to work as tour guides, in hotels, on beaches, in new restaurants, and a variety of other places. In this way, ecoutourism substantially benefits the Costa Rican economy and the lives of many natives in the country. Ecoutourism also serves to provide visitors with knowlegde and information about conservation and preservation. This type of tourism works to preserve the land, not drain it of all its resources like most tourist destinations seem to do. Sustainability and environmentalism are promoted, and eco-friendly hotels are built while tour guides teach visitors what is so beautiful about nature and why it should be preserved. Costa Rica sets an example for the world in this field, as nearly 28% of its land is set aside as reserves and protected areas. In this way, extinction of thousands of species of plants an animals has been prevented using ecotourism, compared to bringing money into the country through other things like industry.

















This past weekend we visited the Reserves of Monteverde which are cloud forests up in the mountains about 4 hours north of San Jose. The town of Monteverde was founded by Quakers from the U.S. who moved to Costa Rica in the 1950's. They left the U.S. because they did not want their sons to go to war, and they chose this new place because they discoverd that Costa Rica had abolished its army in 1948. The Quakers immediately took a stance of environmentalism as soon as they arrived, choosing to preserve as much of the rainforest as possible. The Monteverde Reserves are now the most desired tourist destination for people around the world. The variety of species, including over 850 species of birds, can be found in these reserves, including the beloved quetzal, which is a green and red bird that is native to Costa Rica. During our visit we took both a night walk and an early morning walk through the cloud forest with expert guides. They explained to us why ecotourism is so important for the country, and how global warming is having an affect on the cloud forests. Warmer temperatures are changing the environment for many animals. For example, our guide mentioned that their is a certain type of catepillar that grows fungus on its skin, but as temperatures are rising, many of these catepillars have died because the fungus is able to grow to much and it eventually kills its host. Also, the golden tree frog that was native to Costa Rica is now extinct due to overcapture of these gorgeous creatures. A golden tree frog has not been seen anywhere in Costa Rica for the past 20 years. These are just two of the many examples as to how changes in the earth's climate due to human pollution and carbon emissions have affected plants and animals in the rainforest.
















All in all, ecotourism has been a great success for Costa Rica, and many nations are following its lead. It has set a great example as to how one can use nature to benefit the economy without destroying it, and hopefully this idea continues to catch on throughout the world as the trend to "go green" becomes more and more popular. Ecotourism has brought jobs and tourists to Costa Rica, all in the hope of preserving its natural areas and showing the world how gorgeous nature really is.