Costa Rica (Lonely Planet, 9th Edition) - Matthew Firestone [39]
Unfortunately, the total picture is even bleaker. In 2004, scientists made an announcement following a 20-year study in the Amazon, claiming the world’s tropical forests may become less able to absorb CO2. In some areas of the forest scientists discovered that bigger, quicker-growing species were flourishing at the expense of the smaller ones living below the forest canopy. Since plant growth is dependent upon CO2, the team hypothesized that the bigger plants in tropical rainforests were getting an extra boost from rising levels of global emissions.
As a result of changing rainforest dynamics, specifically the decline of densely wooded subcanopy trees, the ability of tropical rainforests to act as a carbon sink is in jeopardy.
Because deforestation plays a role in global warming, there is a lot of interest in rewarding countries like Costa Rica for taking the lead in protecting their forests. The USA has forgiven millions of dollars of Costa Rica’s debt in exchange for increased efforts to preserve rainforests. The Costa Rican government itself sponsors a program that pays landowners for each hectare of forest they set aside, and has petitioned the UN for a global program that would pay tropical countries for their conservation efforts.
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Tourism
The other great environmental issue facing Costa Rica comes from the country being loved to death, directly through the passage of more than one million foreign tourists a year, and indirectly through the development of extensive infrastructure to support this influx. Every year, more resort hotels and lodges pop up, most notably on formerly pristine beaches or in the middle of intact rainforest. Many of these projects are poorly planned, and necessitate additional support systems, including roads and countless vehicle trips, with much of this activity unregulated and largely unmonitored.
The National Biodiversity Institute is a clearinghouse of information on both biodiversity and efforts to conserve it; see www.inbio.ac.cr.
There is growing concern that many hotels and lodges are simply dumping wastewater into the ocean or nearby creeks rather than following expensive procedures for treating it. With an official estimate that only 4% of the country’s wastewater is treated, and with thousands of unregulated hotels in operation, there’s a good chance that some hotels and lodges aren’t taking care of their waste.
THE PRICE OF ECOTOURISM
Traditionally, tourism in Costa Rica has been on a small and intimate scale. The great majority of the country’s hotels are small (fewer than 50 rooms) and staffed with friendly local people who work closely with tourists, to the benefit of both. This intimacy and friendliness has been a hallmark of a visit to Costa Rica.
But this is changing. The financial bonanza generated by the tourism boom means that new operations are starting up all the time – some are good, many are not. The big word in Costa Rica is ‘ecotourism’ and everyone wants to jump on the green bandwagon. These days, there is everything from ‘ecological’ car-rental agencies to ‘ecological’ menus in restaurants.
Taking advantage of Costa Rica’s ‘green’ image, a growing number of developers are promoting mass tourism by building large hotels with accompanying environmental problems. Apart from the immediate impacts, such as cutting down vegetation, diverting or damming rivers and driving away wildlife, there are secondary impacts such as erosion and lack of adequate waste-treatment facilities for huge hotels in areas far from sewage lines.
The government tourist board (ICT; Instituto Costarricense de Turismo) has launched mass-marketing campaigns all over the world, touting ‘Costa Rica: No Artificial Ingredients,’ yet hasn’t followed up with the kind of infrastructure necessary to preserve those