When ecotourism propels ecology
In the 1980s, Costa Rica was razing 100,000 hectares of forest each year to replace it with monocultures. This was the highest annual deforestation rate in Central America, comparable to the Amazon today! But when the income from coffee and banana crops began to dry up, the country saw in its natural heritage a completely different interest: that of ecotourism.
Trees were quickly replanted and ecosystems recreated, so much so that today 52% of the territory is covered by forest, compared to barely 19% in the 1980s. Tourism and ecology are so closely linked that the Costa Rican Institute of Tourism (ICT), created at the time of this change of direction in 1995, has worked hard to create national parks. It is also responsible for the Certificación para la Sostenibilidad Turística, a certification awarded to environmentally conscious tourism professionals. Thus, hotels, but also agencies, tour operators or car rental agencies can be awarded up to five green leaves, on the same principle as the stars in hotels, but to reward good ecological practices. The specifications are demanding, the controls are frequent, and practices as widespread as the use of a tumble dryer for the dressing room service can lead to the loss of a precious leaf. Further proof of the link between tourism and ecology, it is also the Costa Rican Institute of Tourism that launched, more than 20 years ago, the Bandera Azul Ecológica program, with the objective of protecting the beaches. Many beaches proudly display a blue flag, a sign that they have passed the various tests of water quality and beach cleanliness. At the national level, there are many laws that ensure the health of the beaches: no campfires, no quad bikes and other vehicles and no shellfish collection, so as not to rob the hermit crabs of their home.
Green policy
Ecology is so deeply rooted in the country's politics that the Costa Rican Constitution guarantees everyone the right to a healthy and ecologically balanced environment. The Ministry of Environment and Energy is in charge of the country's environmental policy. But Costa Rica goes further, and has set up an Environmental Court, which can put an immediate stop to any project (real estate, mining, industrial...) suspected of harming the environment, while waiting for a fair trial to allow the accused to explain themselves. At the legislative level, the State promises to financially support landowners who wish to reforest their land and plans to introduce eco-taxes on polluting fuels. Costa Rica is also charting its future under the sign of ecology: it has set itself a very ambitious goal: to become the first carbon neutral country by 2050, through plans for carbon offsetting and emissions reduction. This program is accompanied by a total elimination of single-use plastic.
Leveraging your resources
In 2011, motivated by an oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico the year before, the Minister of the Environment renounced the exploitation of oil resources, for a period of at least three years. At the end of the deadline, the decision is renewed for three more years. Finally, in 2019, President Alvarado announced that he wished to ban all oil, even imported oil, by 2050. The small country has the means to do so, since it already uses almost 100% renewable energy. This system, already admired by the whole world and taken as a model in international symposiums, aims to make the most of the country's many resources in a sustainable way. One third of the country's electricity supply is produced by five hydroelectric power plants, built in the 1950s.
A shadow in the picture
Behind the very smooth image of Costa Rica, there are also other facts that are not so well known. Costa Rica is the world champion in the use of pesticides, relative to its size, and by far. On average, each Costa Rican hectare is sprayed with almost 23 kg of pesticides, a third more than the second country on the podium. This is monumental: in comparison, France uses 3.7 kg per hectare. This is due to the high export of all kinds of fruits: banana, pineapple, melon, as well as coffee... Crops traditionally heavily treated. One hectare of banana trees receives nearly 50 kg of insecticides and fungicides.
One of the causes of this overuse is pineapple, a flagship product of Costa Rican agriculture. To please American and European consumers, Costa Rica has developed a juicy and sweet variety of pineapple, which is also capable of withstanding the Atlantic crossing: the extra sweet. But its sugar does not only please Westerners, and mealy bugs, gluttonous and destructive pests, love these crops, so they are particularly treated. Add to this a particularly flexible legislation regarding authorized pesticides, and you get many chemical poisonings in the population.
Although the initiatives remain timid, more and more farmers are interested in organic methods, and are trying to move away from monoculture. The citizens, true to their attachment to nature, are themselves very aware of the problem, and their protests have aborted, in 2019, a project of 500 hectares of pineapple monocultures, in the ecologically very sensitive region of Sierpe.
The problem of wastewater
Another major challenge that Costa Rica still has to overcome is wastewater. A 2013 report indicates that 96% of wastewater is discharged into the environment without any treatment, resulting in high water pollution. Most households are equipped with antiquated water collection systems, mainly septic tanks that only collect black water, i.e. from toilets, while household water (laundry, shower, kitchen, etc.) is immediately discharged into the environment. Beyond domestic consumption, agriculture also contributes to water pollution, particularly because of the famous pesticides. The intensive cultivation of coffee also causes its share of damage, since caffeine is a pollutant responsible for imbalances in aquatic ecosystems. Thus, Costa Rica has the highest concentration of caffeine ever recorded in surface waters. In general, aquatic pollution is such that the Rio Tarcoles, one of the longest rivers in the country and home to a rich biodiversity, is the most polluted river in Central America.
National Parks
In Costa Rica, the animals will be free, or not. Even if, by procedure, the last zoos are slow to close their doors, the country strictly prohibits the captivity of wild animals, since 2003. Thus, if you want to meet one of the many animals of the country, you will have to go to one of the 27 national parks, or other protected areas classified in 9 different names according to their status.
The most famous of the parks is the Parque Nacional Corcovado, which has even been described as "the most biologically intense place in the world" by National Geographic. The media does not lie, since it is estimated that no other place of this magnitude is home to a greater biodiversity. In 425 km2, it gathers 2,5 % of the species of the globe. The high rainfall that waters the park ensures not only a dense flora, but also a highly developed hydrographic network. However, there are concerns about the health of the park, as government financial support has declined in recent years, leading to a decrease in rangers from 63 25 years ago to only 10 today. This lack of surveillance has allowed mining and poaching to take place, leading to a dangerous decline in peccary (Tayassu pecari) and jaguar (Panthera Onca) populations.
The Monteverde cloud forest is composed of a national reserve (Santa Elena) and a private reserve (Monteverde). Its high altitude plunges its rainforest into a constant fog, which favors the development of spectacular epiphytic plants (which grow in the trees), but also orchids, since it is the park with the highest concentration in the world. But the real star of the park is the resplendent Quetzal (Pharomachrus mocinno costaricensis), a graceful turquoise bird, almost endangered.
But the biggest national park of the country is the Parque Internacional la Amistad, which covers almost 2,000 km2 spread over Costa Rica and Panama. A biodiversity hotspot, i.e., with high but threatened biodiversity, its conservation is essential since it is home to 20% of Central America's species. The park is part of a vast project to restore the Mesoamerican Biological Corridor, an ecosystem and area of intense biological circulation roughly encompassing Central America. Since the park has historically escaped deforestation, pumas, jaguars, coatis, ocelots, sloths, howler monkeys, hummingbirds and quetzals live here in peace.
Marine species are also receiving a lot of attention. In 2021, at COP26, Costa Rica joined with its neighbors Panama, Ecuador and Colombia to announce the huge project of the Eastern Tropical Pacific Marine Corridor (CMAR), a long protected strip along their borders that would be one of the largest and richest marine reserves in the world.
