It began with Teddy Roosevelt and started at the Matterhorn. Today we call it eco tourism and what started as the germ of an idea on a cold, forlorn Swiss mountain now leads thousands of people each year to a tiny gem that Christopher Columbus named "Costa Rica" over 500 years ago.
A couple of decades before he became one of America's greatest presidents, Roosevelt, ever the adventurer, traveled to Europe to climb the famous Matterhorn Mountain in Switzerland. He was amazed by what he encountered on the mountain or, more accurately, what was missing.
The mountain was virtually barren. Where once there had been wilderness there were no longer goats, mountain sheep, bears, wolves, or other great animals.
Though the phrase "eco tourism" was nearly 100 years away from being coined, Theodore Roosevelt was the world's first eco tourist and in a very real way, he is the father of eco tourism.
What do Roosevelt and the Matterhorn have to do with Costa Rica eco tourism? More than you might think. The Matterhorn brought home to him the necessity to set aside vast tracts of land to preserve life and, when he became President, he took on the robber barons and vested interests to set aside 230 million acres as wilderness and parks: an extraordinary achievement for America and singular achievement for the world.
Roosevelt's bold accomplishment led to an extraordinary discovery: common citizens would gladly pay money to experience nature. Sustained use of land through eco tourism had important economic consequences, perhaps more valuable than exploitation in many cases---in America.
But, in Costa Rica? This was a place that in 1519 its Spanish Governor described "the poorest and most miserable Spanish colony in all Americas." Almost 450 years later, its forests had been largely devastated for farm land and it was primarily dependent upon the export of bananas, coffee, and other agricultural products for its economic well-being. It appeared destined for economic obscurity, particularly when the world coffee market crashed in the early 1970s.
With challenge comes opportunity for the bold and thoughtful and, in an apparently unlikely alliance, conservationists and business interests argued in favor of setting aside resources for sustainable, rather than exploitative, development. For whatever reason, the government agreed to this rather bold experiment and, in just three decades, has now set aside nearly 25% of the country for parks and preserves. Roosevelt, ever the visionary, would applaud if still here.
In the span of just 30 years, the results have been spectacular. While most countries were burning and cutting their forests, Costa Rica was reforesting. Today, there are 20% more forests than just 25 years ago. Birds and mammals are returning to places where they haven't been seen for a generation or more. Costa Rica has enthusiastically embraced sustained development, rejecting the siren's call of Big Oil by refusing off shore drilling for oil. Indeed almost 100% of its electricity now comes from renewable, non-polluting hydro-electric power and it is embarking on wind turbines for additional generation. Researchers from Columbia and Yale researchers now put it in the top 5 of all environmentally sensitive countries in the world.
Costa Rica tourism and eco tourism have soared and the country has vaulted into the #1 position on the Happiest Place in the World Index. Turns out that Columbus was prescient when he named this place "the rich coast" or "Costa Rica" and the Spanish governor who called it as "the poorest and most miserable Spanish colony in Americas" was dead wrong. Somewhere, Roosevelt smiles in triumph.
Finally, I want to end with the Swiss Matterhorn, the place behind Roosevelt's sudden clarity that parks and preserves were essential to saving wildlife and Costa Rica's courageous extension of that idea leading to today's incredibly successful Costa Rica eco tourism. Costa Rica is sometimes called the "Switzerland" of the tropics but Switzerland can learn from Costa Rica---not the other way around---that life-filled mountains (Costa Rica) are eminently more valuable than lifeless mountains (Switzerland). And it is possible to reverse fortunes with a change of attitude.
About the Author:
About this author: Victor Krumm writes from sunny Costa Rica. Visit his beautiful website about Costa Rica Vacationsand be sure to check out Retiring in Costa Rica. Get a totally unique version of this article from our article submission service
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment