Ecotourism Policy and Conservation in Costa Rica

Introduction: Costa Rica's Tourism Transformation

Just two decades ago, Costa Rica scarcely registered in discussions on global tourism. A small republic most noted for its agriculture and its production of tropical export goods such as coffee, pineapple, bananas, and palm oil, Costa Rica's appeal was largely limited to natural history enthusiasts and science tourists. An article from that period by Laarman and Perdue (1989) portrays the ecologically diverse nation as possessing a "small tourism industry" with "special interest" appeal (p. 205). In just the last two decades, however, this condition has changed dramatically. Where Laarman and Perdue referred to tourism as an important but modest secondary industry as recently as 1989, tourism is today the lifeblood of the Costa Rican economy. With the emergence of ecotourism as a concept and a market, Costa Rica has proven an exceptional destination for those seeking adventure, pristine natural beauty, a wide array of exotic plant and animal species, and a compelling spectrum of geographically distinct regions.

In the face of these changes, Costa Rica is experiencing both opportunity and risk. It is therefore incumbent upon policymakers to ensure that the opportunities before Costa Rica are seized with conscientious management of the attendant risk factors accompanying a fast-growing ecotourism economy.

Issue Identification: Opportunity and Risk

Little criticism can be levied against the Costa Rican tourism industry, which has performed with excellence as a growing force both in Costa Rica's modest but advancing economy and in the world tourism landscape. Costa Rica has enjoyed relative peace and stability since the end of the Cold War and the remission of American-Soviet hostilities in neighboring countries such as Panama and Nicaragua. Additionally, in spite of the modesty of its economic scale, Costa Rica is extraordinarily rich where natural beauty, wildlife, and ecology are concerned. As a result, and with increasing prominence, Costa Rica has become a major tourist destination, particularly for those drawn to ecotourism and adventure tourism.

The small Central American republic offers an expansive and diverse range of opportunities, boasting the world's only Cloud Forest ecosystem, massive stretches of unblemished tropical rainforest, the Central Cordillera Mountains, the still-active Arenal Volcano, and significant stretches of both the Pacific and Caribbean coastlines. These features have contributed to a growing popularity that brings ever-greater numbers of foreign visitors, honeymooners, adventure-seekers, and ecologists to Costa Rica.

According to Sergio (2011), Costa Rica continues to attract newcomers in record numbers. In 2010, Costa Rica saw 2.1 million visitors. The importance of this figure to the Costa Rican economy cannot be overstated. According to the U.S. Department of State — which identifies the United States as Costa Rica's top trade partner, the top importer of Costa Rican goods, and the source of roughly half of all Costa Rica's tourism — the tourism and service industries accounted for an estimated 71% of the Costa Rican Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in 2010 (U.S. Department of State, p. 1).

While all of this has presented Costa Rica with a significant opportunity to advance as an economy and a participant in the global free-trade community, it has also created a serious dilemma. Costa Rica must continue to find ways of achieving balance where this dilemma is concerned. Namely, just as Costa Rica has become a remarkable draw for visitors from around the world by virtue of its natural bounty, it must also compromise some of that bounty to make way for hotel construction, the paving of new highways, increased automotive traffic, and the influx of human interaction with preserved natural lands. This has produced considerable risk for Costa Rica, which must work to maintain its high standards of environmental protection while finding ways of accommodating the visitation that sustains its entire economy and, increasingly, the Costa Rican way of life.

As the discussion and research presented hereafter will demonstrate, there are myriad challenges ahead of Costa Rica today. The improvements to the Costa Rican standard of living resulting from the massive influx of tourism cannot be overlooked. But neither can Costa Rica, nor the global community, allow this to obscure the true and enduring value of protected natural lands. The research here is therefore intended to illuminate the various obstacles and opportunities before Costa Rica as it works to find balance between the advancement of its tourism industry and the conservation of its greatest resources.

Discussion: Ecology, Economy, and Foreign Investment

The importance of tourism to Costa Rica's economy cannot be overstated. In addition to being the most profitable industry in the nation, its convergence with environmental conservation goals has also helped to create an economic imperative for the protection of rainforests and other fertile wildlife habitats. Costa Rica's primacy as an ecotourism destination has a directly reciprocal relationship with its vaunted record as a world leader in protective and conservationist efforts. According to Menkhaus and Lober (1996), "Costa Rica, a country of little over 3 million inhabitants, has a wealth of biological diversity. Holdridge et al. (1971) list an extraordinary range of ecosystems which exist in the country, including 12 different life zones ranging from tropical dry to tropical wet to tropical sub-alpine. In fact, over one quarter of the country is located within 29 parks and protected areas, one of the highest protection rates in the world" (p. 2).

Menkhaus and Lober go on to note that this high level of environmental protection maintains a sometimes precarious balance between the desire to draw ecotourists and the capacity to accommodate them. Costa Rica's continued advancement as a major tourist destination has bred greater American interest in its economy, with both positive and negative consequences. According to the U.S. Department of State, the partnership between the two nations is underscored by shared concern for environmental sustainability. The Department of State reports that "the two countries share growing concern about the environment and want to preserve Costa Rica's important tropical resources and prevent environmental degradation. In October 2010, the U.S. and Costa Rican Governments, the Central Bank of Costa Rica, and The Nature Conservancy concluded agreements that will provide more than $27 million over 15 years for tropical forest conservation in Costa Rica, one of the most biologically diverse countries on earth" (U.S. Department of State, p. 1).

In spite of its apparent dedication to the preservation of the Costa Rican ecology, the United States has also used Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) in the development of Costa Rica as a way of eroding state control over certain primary sectors and of making inroads toward the ownership of resources previously claimed by the people of Costa Rica. As van Noorloos (2011) points out, the thrust toward trade liberalization may have negative consequences for Costa Rica's right to determine its own land-use policies. Van Noorloos warns that "neo-liberal policies aimed at attracting foreign direct investment have played a large role in this change; and the 'foreignization' and privatization of land has been the result." The article goes on to examine "how the north-western coast of Costa Rica has become a transnational space, in which struggles over resources and development models will continue to arise" (p. 85).

For Costa Rica, the consequences of this continued trend could be nothing short of disastrous. Its appeal is centered largely on its unique capacity to prevent deforestation and its success in staving off the overdevelopment that permeates most growing tourist destinations. Ceding control of these patterns to foreign interests — particularly those with a track record of resource exploitation — could gradually eliminate many of the pristine destinations that make Costa Rica unlike any other country in the world.

In spite of these concerns, Costa Rica's rise in global prominence is most assuredly driven by its tourism industry and the consequently heightened capability to establish major trade partnerships with the developed world. This is precisely why the dilemma is so challenging. According to Costa Rica Tourism (CRT) (2010), Costa Rica's involvement in free-trade advancement is central to its ever-rising standard of living. CRT reports that "Costa Rica's economy has been constantly growing during the last 10 years. The country has signed seven trade agreements with other Latin American countries, and one trade agreement with the United States (CAFTA). It also has preferential access agreements with several European markets. This economic development has been encouraged by direct ocean access on both coastlines, easy access by road to neighboring countries, Nicaragua and Panama, as well as regular flight connections to North America, Latin America and Europe" (CRT, p. 1).

According to the U.S. Department of State, Costa Rica has been a constitutional democracy since 1949, making it the oldest and most stable democracy in all of Latin America. Its partnerships with the global community are therefore a matter of some inherency. But this inherency cannot be accepted without caution. A study by Boo (1992), conducted at the early outset of Costa Rica's effort to grow tourism, warned that some of the risks of increased interaction between growing numbers of tour groups and protected natural lands might be difficult to project. Boo noted that "increasing demand for nature tourism is reflected in the number of tour operators offering tours to protected areas and in the increasing number of foreign visitors to national parks. Examples of some of the major protected areas are presented and the economic impacts of tourism are assessed. In environmental terms, nature tourism has had many beneficial impacts. Few negative impacts have been recorded, but comprehensive scientific studies have yet to be carried out" (p. 25). This observation underscored the uncertainty with which Costa Rica would attempt to pursue a balance between its natural bounty and its economic objectives.

Conclusion: Maintaining Balance Between Tourism and Conservation

As the policy recommendations above illustrate, balance is a recurrent theme. The recommendations call for balance between economic growth opportunity and ecological protection; for balance between the influence of foreign investors and the participation of local populations; and for balance between the provision of access to visitors and the construction of appropriate limitations. In each of these areas, the overarching theme of balance is synonymous with the goal of achieving ecological and environmental sustainability.

Ultimately, it is of the utmost importance that Costa Rica not lose sight of the things that make it truly unique in the global community. While its natural beauty and wildlife may intrigue, educate, and fascinate visitors, these ecological networks do not exist simply to satisfy human curiosity. The goals of ecotourism should not alone be the incentive to continue Costa Rica's distinctive record on environmental protection, for that would reflect a failure to protect ecology for its own sake. While the economic imperatives that drive Costa Rica's ecotourism are of tremendous importance both to this discussion and to the positive growth of the nation itself, these imperatives must remain always balanced by the primacy of environmental imperatives. Only then will Costa Rica find ways to maintain the equilibrium between tourism and conservation that will sustain both indefinitely.

Works Cited

Boo, E. (1992). Ecotourism: The potential and pitfalls — Country case studies. Organizacion para Estudios Tropicales, 2, 25–52.

Chase, L. C., Lee, D. R., Schulze, W. D., & Anderson, D. J. (1998). Ecotourism demand and differential pricing of national park access in Costa Rica. Land Economics, 74(4).

Costa Rica Tourism (CRT). (2010). Welcome to Costa Rica! Tourism.co.cr.

Hearne, R. R., & Salinas, Z. M. (2002). The use of choice experiments in the analysis of tourist preferences for ecotourism development in Costa Rica. Journal of Environmental Management, 65(2), 153–163.

Laarman, J. G., & Perdue, R. R. (1989). Science tourism in Costa Rica. Annals of Tourism Research, 16(2), 205–215.

Matarrita-Cascante, D., & Brennan, M. A. (2010). Community agency and sustainable tourism development: The case of La Fortuna, Costa Rica. Journal of Sustainable Tourism, 18(6), 735–756.

Menkhaus, S., & Lober, D. J. (1996). International ecotourism and the valuation of tropical rainforests in Costa Rica. Journal of Environmental Management, 47, 1–10.

Sergio, A. A. (2011). Pasó cerro el 2010 con el ingreso mas alto de turistas. Nacion.com.

U.S. Department of State. (2011). Background note: Costa Rica. State.gov.

Van Noorloos, F. (2011). Residential tourism causing land privatization and alienation: New pressures on Costa Rica's coasts. Development, 54(1), 85–90.