Pineapple

Costa Rica's pineapple boom raises environmental questions - 08/28/2008 - MiamiHerald.com

AGRICULTURE
Costa Rica's pineapple boom raises environmental questions
Many environmentalists and residents say the explosive growth in pineapple production in Costa Rica has outpaced the government's ability to regulate it.

BY DAVE SHERWOOD

Special to The Miami Herald

DAVE SHERWOOD / FOR THE MIAMI HERALD

Three of every four pineapples consumed in the United States originates in Costa Rica.

Gallery | Pineapple boom raising questions
EL CAIRO, Costa Rica -- The raucous

honking of a cistern truck carrying potable water rouses residents from
their homes here each morning, clanging plastic bottles and tin pots in
hand.

''When will it stop,'' says 64-year-old Rufina Najera, lugging
a yellow 5-gallon pail stained with dirt to the roadside. ``The
pineapple companies tell us the water is clean, but the government
won't let us drink it.''

Last year, authorities detected small
amounts of Bromacil, a pesticide used to thwart insects from pineapple
plants, in the local aquifer. Since then, the government has delivered
water by truck to nearly 6,000 people.

The crisis has spawned an
increasingly volatile movement among residents, who last week blocked
the country's principal export artery, Route 32, between the capital of
San José and the Caribbean port city of Limón, leaving hundreds of cars
and trucks stranded for hours.

More than 60 prominent Costa Rican
university scientists and environmental groups joined the chorus of
protest in July, citing water pollution and extreme erosion and
demanding a moratorium on new pineapple plantations in ``areas of high
biodiversity.''

Costa Rica bridges the gap between North and
South America, and is said to house 5 percent of the Earth's
biodiversity in just .03 percent of its land mass, according to the
country's National Biodiversity Institute.

Pineapple companies contend the reports are exaggerated -- and that they've cleaned up their act, and local aquifers.

''Where
there are problems, we've worked to solve them,'' says Abel Chaves,
president of the country's National Pineapple Producer and Exporter's
Chamber. ``If allegations remain, they should be investigated, and if a
company is found guilty, it should be charged.''

But many
environmentalists and residents say the explosive growth in pineapple
production in Costa Rica has outpaced the government's ability to
regulate it. Legal loopholes, poor enforcement and lacking public
health standards, they say, have placed communities, and ecosystems, at
risk.

Pineapple plantations, riding a boom that began when Coral
Gables-based fruit company Fresh Del Monte introduced the ''Gold''
pineapple in 1996, have sprawled from nearly 30,000 acres in 2000 to
more than 100,000 acres -- outpacing coffee, African palms and bananas
as Costa Rica's fastest-growing export crop, according to the country's
2007 State of the Nation report.

Three of every four pineapples
consumed in the United States -- 580,000 metric tons -- now originate
from Costa Rica, says Alberto Jerardo, of the U.S. Department of
Agriculture.

Exports from Costa Rica, meanwhile, have tripled in value with rising demand, from $159 million in 2002 to $505 million in 2007.

But
the music stopped in April, when the country's Environmental Tribunal,
Costa Rica's highest environmental court, called the burgeoning export
industry to task, placing 26 plantations under investigation for abuses
ranging from the illegal clearing of forest to water contamination and
violation of riverine buffer zones.

The revelations prompted a closer look at industry practices.

Bernardo
Vargas, executive director of the pineapple chamber, says his growers
responded immediately to concerns, issuing a series of
''social-environmental commitments,'' designed to reduce waste,
conserve soil and water and uphold environmental laws.

Many say the nature of large-scale pineapple plantations could make such promises hard to keep.

Jorge
Lobo, a University of Costa Rica biologist, says the regional trend
toward large-scale industrial monoculture is alarming, particularly in
an area so rich in rainfall and biodiversity.

Along the Caribbean
slope, just 18 pineapple producers now manage nearly 40,000 acres. In a
nearby province to the north, roughly the same acreage is divided among
more than 1,000 growers, according to pineapple chamber statistics.

''It's
a different kind of agriculture, much more intensive, and more
problematic,'' says Lobo, who adds that pineapple -- unlike coffee,
another traditional export -- requires direct sunlight for optimal
growth and thus, the absence of trees and forest cover, which help
prevent erosion in areas of heavy rainfall.

Locals say they are already feeling the effects.

On
a recent rainy afternoon, Mario Vargas, a small farmer from La Perla, a
Caribbean town now surrounded by vast green swaths of pineapple fields,
pointed out a series of creeks and rivers running the color of
chocolate near his home. It's proof, he believes, that not enough is
being done.

''Before the pineapple arrived, these rivers ran
clean,'' he said. ``Why should we be forced to trade our forests and
clean water for jobs?''

La Perla's aquifer, explains Vargas, is
still safely tucked away in cloud-shrouded mountains, watched over by
keel-billed toucans and howler monkeys. But as pineapple plantations
continue to expand and move uphill, he and others worry they could be
next.

Chaves, of the pineapple chamber, says increasingly
paranoid locals have come to blame everything -- water contamination,
skin lesions, illnesses -- on pineapple plantations.

''The fact is, there are very few studies that prove these connections,'' he said.

Here, as elsewhere, the pineapple boom caught the country unprepared.

Unlike
the United States and Europe, Costa Rica has never had potable water
standards for such agro-chemicals as Bromacil, said Health Minister
Maria Luisa Avila. The Ministry, she said, drafted a decree last month
that would set new limits, a critical first step, she said, to solving
the problem.

''We're looking to strike a balance, so that the
communities and the pineapple plantations can live in harmony,'' said
Avila, who has met with both sides in recent weeks.

Local residents are as quick to blame government regulators as they are the pineapple growers.

As
demand for this sweet, vitamin-rich fruit grows in the United States
and Europe, many large-scale banana plantations, once the mainstay of
the region, have swapped to the more profitable pineapple.

But a
loophole in the country's laws exempts most firms operating before 2004
-- the majority of banana-turned-pineapple plantations -- from
submitting environmental impact studies.

Gerardo Fuentes, mayor
of the canton of Guacimo, says the recent boom has also attracted a
sort of ''gold rush'' of newcomers, who buy and clear large tracts of
land, then plant pineapple without appropriate permits.

The mayor blames sloppy central government oversight.

Case in point, he said, is that of Setena, the national institution charged with environmental permitting.

Last
year, Setena received an environmental impact study from pineapple
grower TicoVerde, in which the company referenced pelicans and
mangroves (coastal species not found in Guacimo) and squirrel monkeys
(a species limited to the central and southern Pacific coast).

Despite such glaring errors, Setena approved the study in June.

Vigilant
locals, who have learned to scour government documents, cried foul. The
municipality declared a moratorium on new pineapple seeding and filed a
lawsuit against Setena, demanding TicoVerde's environmental permits be
revoked.

Setena officials did not reply to repeated phone calls and requests for interviews by press time.

Until
such issues are clarified, environmentalists say they will insist on a
moratorium on new pineapple seeding -- and a zero-tolerance policy for
agro-chemicals in their water supplies.

Lourdes Brenes, director
of Foro Emaus, an umbrella organization for 22 community action groups
that has spearheaded the fight, says the idea is not to shut down the
pineapple industry.

''We simply want them to obey the law, and the government to enforce it,'' she said.

David Pogue

From the Desk of David Pogue - The Bottom Line of the Eco Balance Sheet - NYTimes.com

The first time that realization hit me was when I first heard
someone answer the age-old eco-awareness question, "Paper or plastic?"

I'd
always assumed that, naturally, paper shopping bags were better,
because they biodegrade and plastic bags don't. But the calculus of
green is a lot more complicated than that; what people tend to ignore
is all the upstream cost of those end products.

The full paper-or-plastic discussion goes something like this:

"Why, paper, because it biodegrades."

"Yes, but we kill 14 million trees a year to make the paper. That's contributing to global warming."

"Yes, but the plastic bags consume 12 million barrels of oil and choke the oceans and sea life."

"Yes, but creating paper bags creates 70 percent more air pollution."

"Yeah, but plastic bags create four times the waste."

"Yes, but it takes seven times as many trucks to ship the same number of paper bags to the stores; they're much bulkier."

And
so on. (The real answer to that question, of course, is "neither—bring
your own reusable bags." But until U.S. stores start charging 15 cents
per bag, as groceries in Europe do, Americans aren't likely to go to
that trouble any time soon.)

As I do my best to be a concerned
eco-citizen, I'm constantly reminded of these upstream complications. I
recently wrote on my blog how much my wife and I love our 2004 Toyota
Prius, and how we tried to buy a second one to replace our old Corolla,
but were told that there's a 10-month waiting list.

Reader reaction was all over the map, but I was particularly surprised by the anger of the anti-Prius crowd.

For example: "The only reason to buy a Prius is so you can drive around like a smug eco-holier-than-thou."

Well,
no, actually. You might also buy one because it's a Consumer Reports
favorite in terms of ride, design and reliability. Or because it spews
out 90 percent less pollution than a regular car. Or because it gets 45
miles per gallon or better, which reduces our dependence on foreign oil
while we try to figure out a more permanent fix.

Calling names like "smug" is a playground-bully tactic that's not helping anyone.

"But it costs more than a similarly sized regular car."

Maybe,
maybe not. Our Prius gained us a $1,500 tax credit, and there's no
sales tax on hybrids in Connecticut. Plus we buy a LOT less gas than we
would for a regular car.

But let's say all of that still doesn't
equal the price premium—who cares? I'm not driving the Prius to save
money. I'm driving it because it saves a ton of fuel and pollutes a lot
less.

The one that really troubled me, though, was this: "The
Prius requires so much more energy to build and ship than a regular
car, it's actually an environmental disaster."

I actually saw
this one invoked on CBS News last Sunday. The correspondent stated "an
engineer figured out" that a Prius requires much more energy to build
than a regular car. Therefore, you're being more environmentally
responsible if you buy an old used regular car.

"An engineer?" Well, thanks for identifying that reliable source.

I
did a little research of my own, and I've found "several engineers" who
can easily debunk the first engineer's logic. Read this one, for
example (http://tinyurl.com/2oqkv7), and this one (http://tinyurl.com/5dt7f9). The bottom line: the overall Prius environmental impact is, at worst, neutral, and at best, still positive.

Besides,
none of these analyses take into account the market pressure that my
buying a Prius will create. The car companies have to manufacture
*something.* The more the public wants fuel-efficient, low-emissions
vehicles, the more the car companies will deliver. Every consumer who
buys an older, dirtier, gas-guzzling car is contributing to the status
quo. You're not only keeping that old, dirty gas guzzler on the road,
but you're also sending a message to the car companies that they should
*keep* building dirty gas-guzzlers.

It's become clear to me that
the math of greenness has become one of those endless Internet
morasses, like red state-blue state, Mac-Windows, or just about
anything involving digital photography. Both sides will make endless
creative arguments to make their points, and we may never find the
bottom line of the eco balance sheet.

Actually, on this Prius point, I think I may have come up with an approach we can all live with: buy a *used* Prius.

And then don't drive it much.

No Shoes required

No shoes required | TheNewsTribune.com | Tacoma, WA


There are far more scarlet macaws in captivity than exist in the wild,
but you can see the beautiful, endangered bird in its natural habitat
at Peace Lodge in Vara Blanca.

The five waterfalls of La Paz Waterfall Gardens were once almost
completely obscured by the mountains and rainforest growth. Now,
platforms for each waterfall provide breathtaking views.

Costa Rica's varied terrain and climate, along with
its tropical location only 10 degrees north of the equator, contribute
to the diversity of plant and animal life.

No shoes required

By JAN BUTSCH SCHRODER ; travelgirl

Published: August 27th, 2008 04:33 PM | Updated: August 27th, 2008 04:34 PM

As I was hanging hundreds of feet above firm ground, dangling by two pieces of steel and preparing to plunge myself into the treetops of a Costa Rican rainforest, I thought of a former co-worker. During a company retreat, I had been stunned to discover that this New York City bred guy had never walked in the woods, or even stepped outdoors without shoes.

Although I was raised in the city of Atlanta, our neighborhood had plenty of creature-filled woods and creeks for catching tadpoles, and shoe-clad feet were a rarity in the summer. But the truth is that in our car-obsessed, air-conditioned, skyscraper-covered society, it is possible to live your entire life with feet that never touch the earth.

But for many of us, a close relationship with the natural wonders of our planet is a craving that must be satisfied. And that is why places like Costa Rica are adult playgrounds, spawning a tremendous boost in eco-tourism. A trip to Costa Rica brings a heartfelt reminder of why we should focus on saving this amazing planet. Other worthy destinations have surely risen in the eco-tourism ranks, but Costa Rica is one of the "original" spots, and despite huge growth during the last 20 years - from 329,000 visitors in 1988 to 2.1 million in 2008 - it still maintains its role as a leading example of a place where nature and tourism have found a happy marriage.

My first-ever trip to Costa Rica turned me into a devoted eco-tourist, as I flew through trees, covered my entire body in warm, drippy mud, watched a butterfly emerge from its chrysalis, visited an active inner crater volcano, and smelled fresh-picked coffee beans on a plantation. But let's start with the leather diaper.

BLAST OF SPRING WATER AND A SMEARING OF MUD

Blessed with a wacky sense of humor and a possibly overblown willingness to embarrass myself, I willingly donned a leather diaper, a close-fitting inner tube and a helmet for a ride down the mountain water slide at Buena Vista Hot Springs in the Guanacaste area of Costa Rica.

After a hike up a wooded mountain trail in our fashion-violating attire, we were instructed to take a seat, one by one. When my turn came, I was hyper-propelled down the mountain by a blast of cold water on my back. Just as I was imagining that this is what an ice cube must feel like when it comes out of the chute in the refrigerator, I hit the water at the bottom, where I simultaneously tried to snort the water from my nose and yank my bathing suit bottom out of where it had become firmly wedged.

No time for fashion readjustment, however, it was time for our next adventure - the thermal springs and mud bath, one of the more popular attractions at Buena Vista. After taking a leisurely horse-drawn tractor ride over hilly, rocky road we disembarked and walked a short way down to the thermal springs. First we were instructed to enter a small sauna and bake our bodies - this was apparently the proper preparation for the messy business to follow. Next, we gathered around large vats of warm, oozing brownish mud, which we were then instructed to scoop up in our hands and apply to ourselves. It felt a little naughty, this blatant violation of all those childhood instructions to "Stay away from that mud!"

After piling the mud on every exposed surface of skin, we walked to a small platform where we pleaded with the sun to make its way through the canopy of trees to warm up our now chilling bodies while we watched the dark wet mud slowly turn pale as it dried. After washing off our mud-caked bodies in freezing cold showers, we made a beeline for the nearby stone-lined pools of warm springs. Although there are no proven health benefits of mud baths, a "therapy" that dates back to the days of Cleopatra, the experience is relaxing and my skin did feel smoother.

We had traveled to Buena Vista from the luxurious Hilton Papagayo Resort, located in Guanacaste, a province in the northwest section of Costa Rica, on the Pacific Ocean. The Papagayo Peninsula is the home to a collection of luxury hotels and condominiums, with more being added to handle the rapid rise of tourism. Travel has gotten easier with the recent renovation of the nearby Liberia International Airport.

THE DAY I DISCOVER VOLCANOES HAVE "INNIES"

Our Costa Rican adventure kicked off with a night in San Jose, the economic, cultural and geographic center of Costa Rica. We spent our first evening in the Doubletree Cariari, where we enjoyed an hour or so of lounging by the pool followed by a decadent steak and martini dinner at Curime Restaurant. The next day we headed to one of Costa Rica's favorite tourist attractions - an active volcano. There are eight that are classified as active, and Poas Volcano National Park has one of the most accessible ones, making it a favorite for tourists. (Note: Don't expect to dodge rivers of molten lava! The definition of an active volcano is one that is currently erupting, has a record of having erupted, and is likely to erupt again.)

Located about an hour north of San Jose, the park has an inner crater volcano that can be viewed from a platform high above after a short hike. Blessed with an unusually clear day, we had a glorious view of the volcano, which looked like a large green lake. Even though our lookout post was several hundred feet above the steaming pool of lava, a few people nervously asked about eruptions. We were assured we were at one of the safest volcanoes, with the last eruption 10 years ago. My only previous experience with a volcano was biking down Mount Haleakala in Hawaii, so this was my first experience with an inner crater volcano.

From our perch high in the mountains we could see the equally amazing view of both Costa Rican coasts: the Caribbean and the Pacific Ocean.

In addition to being beautiful and powerful displays of nature, Costa Rica's more than 200 volcanoes contribute to the variety of birds and wildlife species. Volcanic eruptions create fertile soil, which supports the approximately 500,000 to 1 million plant and animal species found in this country that's roughly the size of West Virginia!

Another Costa Rican natural standout is the La Paz Waterfall Gardens, where many of those species are viewable. There are 27 types of hummingbirds, a snake house, parrots, monkeys, tamarinds, toucans, a butterfly house and a frog exhibit. I could have spent a week nestled deep down in this rainforest garden, just communing with the wildlife and watching the waterfalls.

Lined up like colorful jewelry in a market, the thousands of chrysalises in the butterfly house were in various stages of rebirth. Fascinated, we watched as butterflies slowly emerged from their milky-white translucent cocoons. They hang 10,000 chrysalises a week, of which 5,000 hatch to fly around the house, representing 20 species.

Lucky guests at the Peace Lodge located inside the gardens can view the wildlife at their leisure. We got a peek at one of the rooms, all of which feature Jacuzzi tubs with seven-foot waterfall showers. Picture Thurston Howell III with his own suite on Gilligan's Island. Rates start at $265 per night.

MORE MONKEYSHINES AND TREE FLYING

"When we saw crazy gringos taking photos of monkeys, we knew we could boost our tourism," joked our guide Adrian, who took us around the Puntarenas section of Costa Rica, providing a sure hand behind the wheel and a humorous look at life in his country. He told us that the adventure in Costa Rica begins with the ride. "On these rocky roads you get a bus massage. My butt is like an aspirin from these roads - flat with a line down the middle."

When someone asked if one of the many single-lane bridges we were crossing was safe, he responded, "Sometimes."

Puntarenas is the largest of the country's seven provinces, and is located on the Pacific Ocean. Our first stop here was Turu Ba Ri Tropical Park, where I'd fulfill one of my life goals: to soar through the trees on a zip-line. If you think 4-year-old kids ask a lot of questions, try going with a group of women who are zip-lining for the first time. Our ever-patient guides didn't let on, but I'm sure we set records for most questions asked. They answered every query, demonstrated how the zip-line works and even let us each try a test on the short level version before we entered the forest for our first leap off a platform.

I have no fear of heights and once they told us that each of our two cables could support 1,000 pounds, I was even more confident. So, helmeted, harnessed in, gloved and psyched for an adventure, I climbed to the platform to confront my first surprise - the space between platforms was way longer than I expected. I had pictured a short little leap, and "poof!" you're on the next platform. Instead, each slice of jungle stretched dozens of yards, and the last one was a half-mile long.

But I made it through the course and happily checked one more item off my personal things-to-do-before-I'm-too-decrepit list. After riding the tram back to the main entrance, we were taken to a spring-fed pool (available for group rental), where we were entertained by local school children in colorful outfits, performing a native dance.

Like these dancing children, it seems almost everyone in this country of 4.3 million wears a smile. Perhaps one reason is that Costa Rica has a lot going for it as a place to live. It has the highest literacy rate in Latin America, with a school in even the tiniest village. Funding is helped by the fact that the army was abolished in 1948, giving it the nickname Switzerland of the South and making it one of the safest countries in South America. Compared to its neighbors, it has a relatively high standard of living and low unemployment rate. And in case you're wondering, you can even drink the water.

At one time, the economy relied primarily on the exporting of pineapples and coffee. Dr. Oscar Arias Sanchez, president from 1986 to 1990, and president again since 2006, saw the potential of his native land to attract people and began the tourism effort during his first presidency. By the late 1990s, tourism was the country's number one source of income.

Sanchez is also credited with attracting investment from foreign companies. Hewlett Packard and Intel both have large offices in San Jose. Ever the visionary, this Nobel Peace Prize-winning president announced in 2007 that Costa Rica will be carbon neutral by 2021 - possibly making it the first country in the world to reach that benchmark. It may have a head start, as one-fourth of the land is government-protected.

There is so much more to do in this beautiful country - take a tour of a coffee plantation, hang glide, snorkel and explore the reefs. Tourists looking for a beach experience primarily visit the Pacific side, although there are some lovely beaches on the Caribbean side, as well.

In Costa Rica you can get in touch with the sky, the earth and thousands of species of wildlife. The experience is a reminder that the Earth is an incredible stomping ground. And for many of the activities, no shoes are required.

(For more savvy travel info, pick up the latest issue of travelgirl magazine or visit www.travelgirlinc.com.)

Golf

The Journal

Costa Rica Masters to bring professional golf to Guanacaste

(Infocom) — Everything is ready for Costa Rica to re-immerse itself in the world of professional international golf, thanks to the Costa Rica Masters 2008, which will be held in Guanacaste’s Reserva Conchal Golf Club next Dec. 11-14.

The tournament was officially announced by Tour de las Americas (TLA) and the Canadian Tour, as part of a partnership between the two tours that will alos include tournaments in Chile and Argentina later this year.

In addition to being the first joint competition between TLA (the men’s professional golf tour for Latin America) and the Canadian Tour, the Costa Rica Masters will mark a new era in the country’s golf scene. With a purse of $125,000, the event will be the first at this level ever to be held in Guanacaste, which is now home to many high-quality courses that have made Costa Rica famous as a premiere golf destination.

Both TLA and the Canadian Tour, which are associate members of the International Federation of PGA Tours, published press releases last week making official the tree-country tours they will hold together.

The announcement comes at a time when golf has become an important source of foreign currency, employment and hotel occupancy for Costa Rica, which welcomes 34,000 tourists every year who come here exclusively to play golf.

Golf tourism is generating approximately $87.6 million annually in food, lodging and recreation expenses, in addition to sales of sporting equipment. Most golfers who come to Costa Rica are individuals of high purchasing power who take advantage of playing the game to do business with colleagues and new clients.

In a release issued by both tours, the director of the Costa Rica Masters, Ricardo Valdivieso, said: “We are very pleased for being able to make the new Costa Rica Masters a reality, as this tournament will proudly put the country back in the international golf scene.” He added that the tournament is proud to taking high-level professional golf for the first time to the province of Guanacaste, where golf and tourism development are growing by leaps and bounds.

“We thank Tour de las Americas and the Canadian Tour for their support, as well as Reserva Conchal Golf Club, which opened the doors of its spectacular course designed by the famous Robert Trent Jones II,” Valdivieso said.

The other two tournaments of the joint tour will be held Nov. 27-30 in Chile (50th Anniversary of the Sports Frances Open) and Dec. 4-7 in Argentina (Torneo de Maestros at Olivos Golf Club). Costa Rica will be the last leg of the trio. The tournaments will combine for a grand total of $435,000 in prize money.

The great business potential of golf and Costa Rica’s reputation as an exotic destination have contributed to the emergence in the past few years of new courses designed by internationally recognized golf stars, including Robert Trent Jones II, Greg Norman, Arnold Palmer and Mike Young.

The number of golf courses is expected to climb in Costa Rica in the short term, as at least six new projects are underway, several of them in Guanacaste.

Mundo Aventura

Mundo Aventura Costa Rica Adventure Tour | Costa Rica Travel News



Image from Blog Images that Speak to me.

Mundo Aventura Costa Rica Adventure Tour

Mundo Aventura has a full day tour that consists of a 10 cable canopy tour, hike to a waterfall, lunch, visit to the Maleku village, horseback ride, and butterfly and frog garden. You can also add repelling on for an extra cost. Supposedly they have the longest rappel in the area, right next to the waterfall. We did the full day tour without the rappel.

We started with the canopy tour which was really good for the adventurous client. It starts off slow and easy with 4 cables in the forest, it then gets really high and out in the open with extremely long cables. You are basically at bird’s eye level and can see all the lush forest below you plus La Fortuna waterfall on certain cables. However, b/c the cables are so long a lot of people got stuck. This could be really freaky for some clients as you basically have to dangle in the wind while waiting for one of the guides to come rescue you. If a client is really freaked out though, the guides can go with them and that usually makes them feel better and they don’t usually get stuck that way. I thought it was an extremely good canopy tour b/c of the view and it was actually an adventure tour!

We then had lunch and then did a hike down to the Fortuna waterfall. You can cross a small river and go to a lookout point at the base of the waterfall and take some pics. You can also go swimming in the lake/river that the waterfall flow into, but it’s really cold. The hike back up is a bit steep and strenuous, so it is not recommended for out of shape clients or people with knee problems.

Then we were taken in a tractor trailer (their form of transportation when it’s too far to walk) to go see the Maleku Village. This is basically a small replica village with 3 huts and one big hut where they do their ceromony for the clients and have all of their arts and crafts for sale. The Malekus are a small tribe that live about 45 km away, but rotate going to this replica village to try to bring in money for their real village. They dress in their “native” garb (which I’m not sure how authentic it is as it looks like the attire from any children’s book with the burlap colored clothing and feathers in the head, etc.). They then do a small presentation where they describe their arts and crafts and do a ceremony to the gods in their native lanugage. Then they let the clients loose on the arts and crafts. It’s cool to see this type of stuff in Costa Rica as there isn’t much of it. Plus it’s good for clients who want to see the “natives”…haaaa.

After that, there were horses waiting for us for our horse ride back to the main area. It was very nice and relaxing with nice views of the surrounding farm land. It took about 1/2 an hour. After that we saw the butterfly and frog gardens.

Overall, Mundo Aventura has a cool concept going on with their adventure park and it’s cool that a client can do a full day tour like that. They also offer some stuff (rappel, Maleku village) that other companies don’t.

Review by Sabrina and Rebecca

German Wind Farm

German Firm to Construct Wind Farm in Costa Rica | Costa Rica Travel News

German Firm to Construct Wind Farm in Costa Rica

wind
Wind, Water and Natural Steam: The Energy of the Future, Now in Costa Rica.



The German Company Juwi, based in Wörrstadt in the German state of Rhineland-Palatinate together with its European and American project partners have started the construction of what is to be the largest wind farm in Central America in Guanacaste. The project, known as the Proyecto Eolico Guanacaste (PEG), is to be Juwi’s biggest construction so far.

The Costa Rican company Saret will undertake the actual construction and German-based Enercon will supply the 55 turbines, 55E-44 models of 9000KW each with a capacity of 49.5 megawatts. The turbines are being shipped across the Atlantic by Enercon and upon their completion Juwi and Enercon will oversee operation of the machines. The structures will not be the highest of their genre but will produce an astounding 240 million Kilowatts per hour (KWh) annually, and that is no less that 55% of the utilization factor of the country, with 70,000 homes covered.

Construction is planned to finish this year and the wind farm should start generating energy around the end of 2008, beginning of 2009. It will continue to produce electricity annually from December to May, which is the dry season, when hydropower is almost out of action and most of the energy has to be imported at a very high cost.

For Juwi, this marks the beginning of a Central American alliance; with annual revenue of $590 million, it promises an affordable and safe power supply for Costa Rica and new jobs in Costa Rica for the Ticos. Although the company is well spread over the world with 300 turbines located in Germany and in France, it is planning to expand in the United States, Argentina, Poland and the Czech Republic. The PEG, however, will be its biggest project so far.
The contract was awarded to a trio of companies in 2006 after they proposed the project to the Costa Rican Insitute of Electricity (ICE) to provide the country with more energy. Wind power and water power have now joined hands in Costa Rica; maybe solar power will follow.

When nature can provide us with all the renewable energy we need, without causing danger to the environment and at a lower cost, it seems that this is indeed the energy of the future. Costa Rica is a beautiful country and its preservation is always a controversial topic these days, with the extensive development that is booming in the area and Costa Rica Tourism always growing. This is what the country depends on, yet a fine balance must be found between the conservation, eco-tourism, profits and the creation of jobs.

These developments are unlikely to stop now, but efforts have to be made in order to find harmony and preserve what is left now of the primary forests that are slowly disappearing, not only in this country but also on a worldwide basis. If nature provides us with the means, maybe it is about time we learned how to take advantage of these sources of clean, safe and cheaper energy.

Why Costa Rica

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Whether in search of the perfect vacation, business opportunities or simply an inexpensive and enjoyable place to retire, more and more people have found Costa Rica to be the ideal place for fun in the sun. Its strategic location, friendly people, warm climate, abundant natural attractions and a very competitive standard of living continue to draw people from all over the world who come looking to enjoy its many wonders.

People

‘Pura Vida’ is the expression that probably best sums up the tico (as Costa Ricans are also known) outlook on life. Roughly translated it means “life is great, everything is ok, don’t worry be happy”. This happy go lucky attitude is readily apparent to visitors exploring this friendly nation, and this combined with its wealth of natural resources probably explains why so many travelers end up making this oasis their home. In a region that historically has been a hotbed of conflict, the Costa Rican people, for the most part, have experienced relatively little bloodshed. This is due in part to the country’s unique historical, geographical and cultural circumstances, as well as to the peace loving nature of its people. This coupled with a large middle class has made Costa Rica one of the most democratically stable and prosperous countries in Latin America.

Natural attractions

In recent years Costa Rica has developed one of the world’s most successful ecotourism industries and has been praised for its attention to conservation. Costa Rica’s natural diversity is reflected in the wealth and range of its wildlife. With just 0.03% of the earth’s surface area, Costa Rica possesses 6% of its species. Almost 9,000 plant species have been found here as well as 800 species of birds. About 27% of the country is protected within national parks and protected zones. In Costa Rica it is possible for a person to spend the night in a scenic mountain lodge, then head to a lovely Pacific beach for an early afternoon swim before ending up at a Caribbean village partying the night away. Some of Costa Rica’s most popular attractions are sport fishing, white water rafting, canopy adventures, jungle lodges, volcanoes and beaches. A well developed tourism industry has had to quickly adapt to the close to a million tourists that visit the country every year. Even so, you won’t find hordes of tourists and cookie cutter resorts dotting the landscape. Costa Rica’s is still a land of virgin rainforests, unspoiled beaches and friendly smiles.

Location

Costa Rica’s proximity to the United States makes it one of the most visited eco-tourism destinations as well as a favored retirement spot. You’re just two and a half hours from Miami, five hours from New York, four hours from Houston and about six hours from L.A. Add political stability and year round spring-like weather and it’s no wonder that the U.S. contributes nearly 49% of Costa Rica’s foreign visitors with another 9% traveling down from Canada and Mexico.

Cost of Living

Known as the Switzerland of Central America because of its high growth rates, economic stability, and low crime rates, Costa Rica enjoys a per capita GDP of $6,700, literacy rate of 95%, and female life expectancy of nearly 79 years. Costa Rica may not be a cheap place to live compared to most other Central American countries, yet, if you consider its superior infrastructure, comparatively low crime rate and high standard of living, it is still probably your best option. Expect to pay less than the U.S. and Canada for properties, rent, utilities, health care, help and basic transportation. Most people can live on less than $1,000 monthly excluding rent, and this does not necessarily mean giving up on your ‘northern’ comforts. For better or worse, Costa Rica offers visitors many of the same fast-food chains, stores and services that one would find up yonder. These include McDonalds, Burger King, Taco Bell, KFC, Office Depot, Payless, as well as inexpensive Internet and cable services.

Why not?

Still not convinced? Then why not head down here and take this tiny nation for a test drive. Explore its pristine beaches, majestic volcanoes and exotic rainforests. Enjoy its friendly people and peaceful ambience as you savor its world-famous coffee. From wind-swept mountaintops, picturesque towns or a sidewalk caf?, wherever you go,
Costa Rica has a lot to offer!

William Cook is editor and writer for Info Costa Rica, an online portal that features a wide variety of Costa Rica Travel
and living information.

For Costa Rica travel advice and information, please visit www.infocostarica.com

Related Tags: natural diversity, countries in latin america, warm climate, species of

Río Secreto

Una nota interesante de nuestro estimado "colega" Cancún

Welcome to the Mayan Underground: Cancun’s Secret River by Alltournative | Cancun.travel

Welcome to the Mayan Underground: Cancun’s Secret River by Alltournative

Cancun, Mexico (August 22nd, 2008).- Only a few minutes away from Cancun, you can find what for a thousand years was considered one of the best kept secrets in the Mayan world: Rio Secreto (the Secret River).

Río Secreto opens doors into a fantastic voyage, offering a magical journey which brings alive the mystical tales from the Mayan underworld. Today its secrets are uncovered thanks to an amazing tour through an underground river, where you can admire crystal clear water hollows framed by beautiful stalactite and stalagmite formations. This live natural museum is unique in the world.

The adventure begins onboard a Unimog (al land vehicle) which takes you on a 20 minute trip into the jungle to the Natural Reserve of Río Secreto. Once there, you’ll be greeted by an expert guide who will provide you with special equipment to ensure safety and comfort so everybody enjoys this fantastic underground experience.

The trip through Río Secreto lasts about an hour and a half. In some areas, you’ll walk, while in others you’ll swim. During the trip, you’ll be able to experience and admire the unbelievable offerings of Mother Nature. You’ll discover these wonders at the rhythm of an amazing concert performed by water drops in a silent, quiet and peaceful atmosphere; undoubtedly, a unique moment to share with friends and family.

At the end of the underground adventure you’ll be able to share impressions of your magical experience while enjoying a healthy lunch, or resting in the middle of the jungle lying in our traditional hammocks.

Río Secreto is much more than a tour, its part of a fundamental and responsible development plan in a privileged natural area where a protection agreement has been signed. This agreement promotes the use of clean and environmentally-friendly technologies and a culture of respect and conservation for the region’s natural resources. Our commitment is to preserve the beauty of our state and pass it on to future generations in better conditions than it was given to us.

For all this and much more, Río Secreto is “a fantastic life experience”.

Contact:
Claudia Ayala Guzmán
PR Manager
984.803.9451 al 59, Ext. 149
rp@alltournative.com

CostaRicapages

The Pros and Cons of Ecotourism in Costa Rica | Costa Rica Travel News

Sarapiquí

Costa Rica adventures keep kids on the go - CNN.com

By Eileen Ogintz
Tribune Media Services


(Tribune Media Services) -- Soccer turns out to be the only language the kids need.
Kids slide into a natural pool in the rain forest at Sueno Azul Resort.

Kids slide into a natural pool in the rain forest at Sueno Azul Resort.
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After a morning of white-water rafting (and plenty of water fights) on Costa Rica's Sarapiqui River, and a first-rate burrito lunch made by our raft guides at the river's edge, we stop in the small town of Horquetas, about 10 minutes from where we are staying, to visit an elementary school. Some 270 kids attend the ill-equipped school, which is so overcrowded that children must attend split sessions. The students mug for our cameras and giggle.

Such school visits -- and the chance to become pen pals with the children here -- are hallmarks of the guided trips arranged to Costa Rica and other countries by Boston-based Thomson Family Adventures. "Sometimes it is a little awkward to bring kids together like this from different cultures," says our guide Gaston Trujillo. "But the awkwardness is part of the experience. It's very good for all of them to see that kids are just kids, no matter where they come from. All of them will realize that there are many things that connect them that are stronger than language."

All shyness evaporates on the soccer field where some 18 kids of all ages -- the nine in our group and nine from the school -- divide up on teams. There are no shin guards or nets in the goal posts; the field is made of cement, but they laugh and run and kick the ball as if a championship depends on it. Other youngsters from the school join us on the bleachers to watch. We wish we'd brought them some soccer equipment from home.

Afterward, several of the local children join us for a horseback ride through the rain forest at the Sueno Azul Resort and a swim at the spectacular natural pool built in the resort's private rainforest preserve, complete with waterslide and waterfall. The girls whoop and jump in the water, slide down the water slide like a giant gum chain. It doesn't matter if they speak English or Spanish, if they are from American suburbs or small Costa Rican villages. Fun is the same in any language.

Four families -- including me and two other moms traveling solo with kids, nine girls in all ages 8 to 16 -- have signed on for this high-octane Costa Rican tour with enough adventure guaranteed to keep even the most jaded teens and tweens engaged. The kids have a chance to do everything from watch sea turtles nest on a beach at night to zip line through the rain forest canopy. In the morning, time is spent learning to surf at the Manuel Antonio Surf School; the afternoon is for kayaking on the Caribbean side of the country. (It takes us just 35 minutes to fly across Costa Rica in a 19-seater plane, an adventure in itself.)

On the beach, the kids cavort with white-faced monkeys and snap numerous photos of sloths, iguanas and birds. They get up close and personal with hundreds of butterflies at La Paz Waterfall Gardens, one of the largest butterfly observatories in the world. At the remote Pachira Lodge in Tortuguero, they wake up to howler monkeys making a racket outside their room, shop at an open market in the pouring rain and, at one lodge, make friends with newborn kittens.
Don't Miss

* In Depth: Taking the Kids

"This trip is fabulous," declares Sally Garrett, a single mom traveling with her two daughters and a friend. "It's so different than anyplace we've ever been and we're doing so many different things than we've ever done."

If they were traveling solo, they wouldn't have the chance to do nearly as many different activities or learn so much about Costa Rican wildlife and culture, adds Patti Zebrowski, who has left her older daughters and husband at home in Portland, Oregon, to take a special mom-daughter trip with 12-year-old Emily Wolfram before she starts seventh grade.

There's also the advantage of having other kids the same age around. By the second day, several of the girls are eating every meal together, with the adults at another table.

Another plus: "We don't have to negotiate what time we're getting up or what we're going to do," said Jeff Purnell of Los Gatos, California, who was traveling with his wife Cathy and three teenage daughters.

No worries either about anything from snacks and drinks for the kids to towels for the beach to where we're eating dinner or what we're doing each day. Each evening, our guide tells us what we'll need for the next day down to which kind of shoes to wear. He makes sure there's always something on the menu the kids will like. A second guide, 25-year-old Shirley Sequera is on hand to do special activities with the girls (anyone want to make bracelets?) or play with Sarah Kate Garrett, 8, when she can't quite keep up with the older girls. "They make it so stress free that I can enjoy everything too," says Sally Garrett.

I'm traveling with my 13-year-old cousin Eva Weinberg -- the trip is her belated Bat Mitzvah gift -- and her friend Kayla Bratton, 14, and I, too, am more relaxed because there's someone else to lead the way, drive (the roads here leave much to be desired) and sweat the details.

It's easy to see why so many American families are discovering Costa Rica. There's the opportunity for adventure, R&R, and ecotourism in a small country so safe they don't even feel the need to have an army. English is spoken widely and the U.S. dollar is accepted everywhere. Many other outfitters, including Wildland Adventures and Costa Rica Expeditions, offer a variety of adventure trips. Many families opt to stay in the growing number of resorts like the newly renovated Hilton Papagyo Resort or Marriott's Guanacaste Resort & Spa scheduled to open later this year.

The chance for such unique experiences, specially designed with tweens and teens in mind, is what sets our trip apart. The parents agree that it makes the trip worth the price (well over $12,000 for a family of four, plus air). Ask about new itineraries for next year. That's not to say it's perfect. Some kids complain about the bugs and the humidity. Sixteen year-old Amy Purnell misses her friends. "This trip is just too long," she says.

But by the end of the week, the kids have had so much fun in so many different places that none of them can choose a favorite.

As we leave for the airport, Sarah Kate Garrett clutches her prized souvenir, a big wooden snake. "I wish the trip was just starting," she tells her mom. I know how she feels

SANTA BARBARA DE HEREDIA Costa Rica

Jetsettersblog » Costa Rica’s Expert in Sustainable Travel

SANTA BARBARA DE HEREDIA Costa Rica–

Finca Rosa Blanca Country Inn, situated above the beautiful Central Valley of Costa Rica, is an exclusive hideway that was built with the goal of creating an ecological haven and a sustainable tourism destination in a high-quality, aesthetic environment for visitors who want to experience the biodiversity of Costa Rica.

The hotel is one of the most famous and award-winning hotels, and continues to be a leader in sustainable tourism thanks to the innovation and hard work of owner and sustainable travel expert, Glenn Jampol and his wife Teri.

In 2004, Glenn Jampol was elected to the Board of Directors of The International Ecotourism Society ,the largest and oldest ecotourism organization in the world dedicated to generating and disseminating information about ecotourism.

BeachBooker Beach VillasAs a non-governmental organization, TIES is unique in its efforts to provide guidelines and standards, training, technical assistance, research and publications to foster sound ecotourism development and to make tourism a viable tool for conservation, poverty alleviation, protection of culture and biodiversity, sustainable development and educational as well as leisure travel. Glenn Jampol was also elected President of the Board of Directors the National Chamber of Ecotourism of Costa Rica, Cámara Nacional de Ecoturismo (CANAECO), a government-sanctioned institution for ecotourism affairs and an affiliation of hotels that adhere to the goals and precepts of responsible tourism in Central America.

Click Here for Your BEACH GEARThrough his hard work and experience, Glenn has created a hotel that proves that luxury and sustainability make the perfect combination. Aside from a spectacular setting, luxury amenities like an in-house spa, and organically grown gourmet cuisine, the inn has 30 acres of hard bean coffee which is certified organic by an international organization called OKO Garantie and is certified sustainable by the Rain Forest Alliance and CICAFE, the Costa Rican National Organization for Coffee. The hotel has repeatedly won recognitions for its approach to sustainability and luxury.

www.fincarosablanca.com

Brooke Shields

Brooke

Living the Pura Vida Loca

Oh Blogdammit!: Living the Pura Vida Loca - Andy and Steve in Costa Rica

Thursday, August 21, 2008
Living the Pura Vida Loca - Andy and Steve in Costa Rica

Everywhere we drove there were hawks flying overhead and everywhere we looked, nature was zooming, hopping or slithering over and under us. Costa Rica was a perfect combination, appealing to Steve's love of nature, and Andy's affection for Latin America. While Andy thought that the expression "Pura Vida" was an expression invented for the booming tourist industry (it's everywhere, on t-shirts, in brochures), it turns out to be local lingo which means, well, pretty much anything: a mood, a person, an adjective, but basically pure life = something good. Which is what we experienced for a week.

It's a country with an interesting history - a peaceful government, an educated population - and incredibly varied geography all within a few hours drive of each other. You can see a lot in short time, which we did! Lucky that Steve's a brave driver - it was a great way to get around - though amusingly, there's often few or no signs for turnoffs or even major tourism destinations. Those working in the tourist industry were warm and efficient! I was impressed by the towel art in at least two of the hotels, elaborate flowers and in one case, a pair of swans. On the many backroads we drove on, we'd occasionally receive a bright smile and wave, but generally, people seemed wary of all of these strangers driving around their backyard ("land of the suspicious look", I coined it). It's not a cheap place to travel, in comparison with say, Asia, or other parts on Latin America - but it's cheaper than Europe or North America with a high standard of living. And you can drink the water!

Andy arrived on Sunday morning and was able to catch up with Monica, a Pearson College classmate and meet her wonderful family. They took him for a typical meal up in the mountains and a drive through the centre. Steve was lead into town from the Hertz rental car headquarters near the airport that evening, in a shiny silver 4 wheel drive (later dubbed "Dulcita") with first experiences with some unusual turning lanes, lack of signs, and potholes. After a restful night at the lovely Hotel Alta we headed up Monday morning to the La Paz Waterfall Gardens where we spent the day. This nature park was an unexpected surprise - an aviary with toucans and amazing tropical birds, the world's largest butterfy enclosure, enclosures for monkeys, frogs, lizards and snakes and my favourite, an area with some beautiful native felines - two pumas, a tigrito, two ocelots, and a jaguarito, all which were only an arm's length away, and shown to us by a personal guide. In other zoos, the cats are usually hiding far away, sleeping or otherwise avoiding the humans (wouldn't you?) A walking trail took us past a few beautiful waterfalls (flush and brown with rain - our first day getting to know the rainy season), and we decided to stay the night at the hotel. The completely over-the-top and expensive standard rooms were all booked out, but we got a reasonably priced apartment right across from the aviary for Monday night.

Tuesday we made sure to be near the hummingbirds at 9:15am so we could feed them by hand (amazing and beautiful creatures) which meant by the time we got to the famous view of the Poas Volcano, we saw... nothing. Just a big mass of cloud. The nearby lagoon was not that pretty either. So we headed onto Volcan Arenal next to Lake Arenal - a beautiful area dominated by the view of a live smoking volcano. We stayed at the very reasonably priced Volcano Lodge ($60 USD) and as it started to bucket down with rain, we headed over to one of the area's famed hotsprings. One of the local guides recommended Baldi over Tabacon Hotsprings (which I'm still curious about). Baldi Hotsprings is the Caesar's Palace of Hotsprings with an enormous manmade structure looming in the background that creates a steaming hot waterfall (which Steve loved lying under) which then flows down to the various other sections of the park: waterslides, swimming pool bars, and spa areas, all to a loud soundtrack of 80s music. A good place to spend a rainy night, even though I slipped and broke my favourite pair of Crocs.

We headed up the next morning, Wednesday, to try to get a closer look at the Volcano. The next time, that's where I'd want to stay, at the Ecological reserve on the slopes of the Volcano. The morning was fairly clear - and you could see smoke streaming up from the lava flows, but I wish I could have seen it glowing at night. We had a good breakfast there (including fried plantains, yum, and the local breakfast specialty, Gallo Pinto (rice mixed with black beans) and went for a walk on the grounds. As Volcano Lodge was booked up that night, we headed for a drive around the lake - a man-made one, the scene could have been from may countries: Canada, Scandinavia, England... but particularly Switzerland, as the further we got around the lake, there were these crazy hotels and lodges with Swiss themes and decor (the guidebook mentioned a revolving restaurant but we couldn't see it). We took a little detour to stay at the Mystica Lodge past Nuevo Arenal - a gorgeous little place where we were the only guests. There was a yoga and meditation room a short walk away from the restaurant, beyond that a path to an enormous Ceiba tree. On Steve's hike there, he met a family of howler monkeys in the wild. Back near the room were iguanas, hummingbirds and more butterflies.

Thursday was adventurous driving on really rough roads to get us to Volcan Tenorio. We decided to seek adventure and followed a sign which promised hotsprings and pools (but basically got us to a pretty river and a dead end) - and afterwards spent rather a lot of time trying to decipher instructions from the Lonely Planet guide (incomplete) to get us to the entrance of the National Park. The road was the roughest we experienced, rocks and potholes galore, but it was perhaps the biggest reward: swimming in perhaps the most beautiful waterfall I've ever seen, then hiking along a crazy blue river, and to an area with a natural hotspring. Fantastico. Then we headed to the famous Monteverde/St Elena region of the Cloud Forests and while I was worried about reaching it by nightfall, over bumpy roads and with striking views, we made it to the Hotel Sapo Dorado, named for a poor golden toad that no one has seen for years. Monteverde is a really strange area, the roads around it purposely kept unpaved to keep tourism low, two major parks protecting the rainforests, and a significant Quaker population. It was dark and quiet and tiny yet had some of the best and most reasonably priced food (Sophia's and Chimera - Nuevo Latino Cuisine. Rico. Rico. Rico) and has an extensive adventure tourism infrastructure (and a yummy cheese factory).

Friday morning, we had a nice walk in the St Elena Nature Reserve - lush and green and tropical, bromeliads everywhere, yellow breasted birds darting here and there. We saw a sloth (which looked, high above, like a pile of moss) and in the parking lot a local pig, a pecarry, and an anteater-like creature called a coati. In the afternoon, without either of us really planning it, we ended up on one of Costa Rica's famous Canopy Tours, which was basically an hour and a half of zipping through and over the top of the rainforest harnessed to a zipline. Unlike rollercoasters (which we love), the adrenaline rush is not limited to one hill or loop, but is sustained for rather a long time as you speed down a length of 40 to 770 metres (the longest), and as high up as 130 metres. That night we took a chance on a night walk through the Monteverde nature reserve. It was pouring for most of the two hours, and while it started well - seeing a tarantula, and crazy stick insects in the wet night, it ended up not a full success. Though we shined our flashlights in earnest in every direction, we saw little else, a few sleeping birds, one frog, some spiders. We knew the guide was desperate when he started pointing out the local cockroaches, and Andy eventually started pointing out more Ocelots. "...'At's a lot of stick insects..."

Saturday, before heading back to the big smoke, we drove down to the coast and got a taste of the humidity there - we drove through an awful tourist beach town called Jaco (like Kuta in Bali, or Pattaya in Thailand), past a huge muddy river which had a busload of tourists walking over it and pointing into it inexplicably (we dubbed it El Rio Feo, the Ugly River), ah, and we saw a last waterfall, supposedly one of Costa Rica's tallest, Bijagual, but from the tourist trap lookout at "Pura Vida Garden" (USD 20 entrance, big ugly concrete paths around a sculpted tropical garden, though we did get photos with a toucan and blue macaw), the view of the waterfall was only mediocre. We spent most of the afternoon on crazy, winding backroads, with more dramatic views of hills and valleys, to get back to San Jose and finished our last night recounting our adventures to Monica and Roger over delicious pizza. Pura Vida!

Tamarindo Beach Marathon

Source: CostaRicapages

Costa Rica's Tamarindo Hosts 2nd Annual Marathon | Costa Rica Travel News

Costa Rica’s Tamarindo Hosts 2nd Annual Marathon

marathon
Hundreds of People Participated in the 2nd Annual Tamarindo Marathon.

This past weekend, more than 700 national and international athletes took part in the second annual “Tamarindo Beach Marathon” in Tamarindo, Guanacaste. The event brought together some of the most dedicated marathon runners in the world and helped to put Tamarindo on the map in the running world.

The competition began on Saturday, Aug. 9 at 5 a.m. with the trial run of 30 kilometers and was followed by a full marathon, in which Bernard Zongoka from Kenya came in first place along with fellow Kenyan, Moisés Saina.

The event, which was sponsored by the Guanacaste Chamber of Tourism (CATURGUA) and other local companies, attracted a large amount of foreign tourists as well as Ticos who are dedicated to the sport of running. About 300 foreigners were signed up for the marathon, but it is estimated that more than 1,000 tourists came overall as the runners brought friends and family for support and to enjoy the Costa Rica beaches. More than 100 U.S. runners and about 1,000 Costa Rican runners have already confirmed their participation in next year’s event, and it is expected that at least 200 more foreigners will participate.

Both marathons held in Tamarindo have been extremely successful thanks to favorable topographic conditions as well as the amount of hotels available to house the visitors. As marathon committee director Victor López pointed out, the type of visitors that the event attracts are very beneficial to the area; not just economically, but also thanks to their interest in a healthy lifestyle and respect for nature.

In the future, the marathon will continue to take place during the low tourist season between August and September, to take advantage of the room availabilities in local hotels, lower prices and less traffic.

From the point of view of CATURGUA’s Executive Director, Mauricio Céspedes, the repetition of this event now and in the future is a way to focus on a new tourism niche. As Costa Rica has succeeded in other specific areas such as eco-tourism, medical tourism and adventure tourism, among others, by offering something unique for dedicated athletes and gaining popularity in the marathon scene, the country will be able to attract tourists that might not have considered Travel to Costa Rica in the past.

CATURGUA is just several years old and dedicates itself to promoting tourism to the region. The members are all business owners or executives involved in tourism in the area and work together to improve the region’s tourist offerings. One important focus is the region’s work force and service industry. The chamber works to help small and medium size companies as well as to educate and train personnel to help them improve their services and qualify for positions in the local tourism industry.

Photo courtesy of Fabio Madrigal.

Horseback Riding in Costa Rica

Costa Rica Horseback Riding

Horseback Riding in Costa Rica








Costa Rica is an excellent destination for adventure travel and the best way to see the most fascinating parts of the country is on horseback. One has the double advantage of getting to remote places and enjoying one of the world's great sports which has intrigued and rewarded mankind for thousands of years.

Costa Rica stands out in Latin America as a haven of political stability, freedom and ecological responsibility. It is blessed with a tremendous variety of ecosystems from the Caribbean to the Pacific and an unprecedentedly high percentage of it is given over to national parks. The bio diversity is tremendous and goes from coast line to highlands to volcanic peaks. In a short time one can change from a gallop on the beach to walking along a trail through the cloud forest with its lush jungle life. This is the home of monkeys, tree frogs, lizards, butterflies, orchids and countless other fascinating flora and fauna.

Costa Rica is comparatively easy to reach with many short flights from the US and no jet lag. Ticos, as the local people call themselves, are friendly and welcoming. They are proud of their rich culture and the beauty of their landscape which they have made such efforts to protect. It is easy to see why this attractive country has become such a popular tourist destination.

"This adventure wasn't long enough. I can't put into words how much I enjoyed Costa Rica. It was just awesome. I loved the monkeys, birds, butterflies - just everything."
Elsie Beachey, Ohio

Costa Rica - ODYSSEY - On this ride you will explore some of the top riding destinations in Costa Rica. Ride through dramatic river canyons towards the arid Pacific Coast with its beautiful beaches, then on toward the Template Mountain slopes, passing through the mystical Cloud Forest Valleys and descending toward the majestic Arenal Volcano.

Costa Rica - RAINFOREST ADVENTURE - is a stationary program on the Pacific coast featuring a variety of non-riding activities as well as fascinating trailriding. This is particularly well suited to families or groups of varied riding levels, and with interests beyond riding.

Richness of California wine is just a few days away

A.M. Costa Rica: Your English language daily news source

Away goes that restrictive tariff

Richness of California wine is just a few days away








By the A.M. Costa Rica staff

Ladies and gentlemen, start your corkscrews.

It is time to begin the countdown to the day when Costa Rica drops its 40 percent import tariff on U.S. wines. And the California wine industry is
standing by to fill the demand.

That day may come sometime in September when the United States certifies that Costa Rica has met its part of the bargain by passing a baker's dozen of legal changes that brings local law into conformity with what was promised under the free trade treaty. There are just a few loose ends to tie up.

Joseph Rollo is an expert on U.S. wine exports. He is director of the Wine Institute
wine glass
International Department in San Francisco, California. Rollo confirmed Monday that under the free trade agreement the tariff here on bottled wine will drop to zero.

In 2007 Costa Rica imported $683,000 worth of U.S. wine, already a 22 percent increase from the previous year, according to statistics from the U.S. Department of Commerce via the wine institute.

"The long-term sales trend continues to be positive. Over the last decade, U.S. and California wine exports increased 77 percent in value and were shipped to 125 countries," said Rollo, in a recent release.

Rollo said in an e-mail that he didn't expect a huge surge in growth, but other indicators would point to the contrary. “I would guess that Chile and, perhaps Argentina, also have FTAs with Costa Rica so our duty reduction may now allow us to be competitive,” said Rollo.

It is true that most wine here comes from Chile, which has a trade agreement dating to 2002, but many wine connoisseurs, especially North

Americans and Europeans are craving something better but not budget-busting.

And the producers are ready to respond. Less than a year ago, representatives from 11 Lodi, California, wineries came to the capital to show off their products. The group was anxious for the treaty to be ratified.

California is the major wine producing area in the United States, although other states have commercial production.

Basic economics says that a more reasonable price for a product will result in greater demand that could translate into greater variety at the store. Most U.S. wine now is low end, although specialty wine shops still offer top-shelf bottles at top-shelf prices.

The tariffs on other wine categories will phase out to zero either in 5 or 15 years, according to the treaty's stipulations. That would include bulk shipments. Some wine producers ship in bulk to save the costs of shipping the bottle weight. These shipments are sent in tanks and bottled overseas. Other producers may ship a powder that can be reconstituted into wine at the destination. Several types of Italian wine were on sale several years ago at PriceSmart that had been liquefied with local water.

U.S. wine exports, reached a record high of $951 million in 2007, an 8.6 percent jump from the previous year, according to the wine institute. Volume shipments in 2007 increased 12 percent to 453 million liters, compared to 2006, said the institute release.

Currently about half of U.S. wine exports are shipped to the European Union, accounting for $474 million, followed by Canada, $234 million; Japan, $63 million; Switzerland, $26 million; and Mexico, $24 million, reported the institute.

In addition to wine about 80 percent of other U.S. exports will be duty-free when the treaty goes into effect. Other products have reducing tariffs, some for as long as 15 years.

James Kesel: Airlines That Travel Inside Costa Rica

This is taken from this site:

http://find-motel-room3667.blogspot.com/2008/08/airlines-that-travel-inside-costa-rica.html



Find Motel Room: Airlines That Travel Inside Costa Rica

Airlines That Travel Inside Costa Rica
Published Monday, August 18, 2008 by blogger39187 |




image from : https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiXVlPakNYVkKvNXt9H7GJYU9EoZyGUsz104ayrBtyT0RzNSa1jIP9_6AGca018eLo1VcSg2amT6_rbr-woXpnvtkpE2mjY95R1N5zj_MdzoLo5WekYi3wmmTKXdXrp65LL6hlDBjSFI4Q/s1600-h/Fgallery1-1.jpg






Costa Rica is one of the major Latin American countries in Central America where tourism is booming. Thus, the need for airlines that travel inside Costa Rica is increasing and the government is working its best to supply the demand.

There are various airlines that travel inside Costa Rica both international, domestic, and even charter flights. The official flag carrier is Lacsa (Lineas Aereas Costarricenses SA), which has been established since 1945 and is based in the country's major airport in San Jose.

Lacsa operates international scheduled flights to more than 20 major destinations in Central, North and South America. Among those destinations are Bogot, Tegucigalpa, Guatemala City, New York, Buenos Aires, Mexico City, Toronto, Havana, Lima, Panama City, Chicago, Los Angeles, Miami, and San Salvador.

Sansa Airline is a full owned subsidiary of Lacsa and started its operations in 1980. It has approximately 9 Cessna 208B Grand Caravan and 1 Aerospatiale ATR-42-300. It flies to around 18 destinations within Costa Rica.

Another long running airline in Costa Rica is Air Charter Service. It has been in operation since 1970 and is divided into two major but different divisions: Aviones Taxi Aereo and Taxi Aereo Centroamericano. Nature Air Airline is based in Tobas Bolaos International Airport, San Jos. It has been operating since 1991 to provide domestic flight services and it was formerly known as Travelair.

Paradise Air travels to approximately 33 destinations in Costa Rica and is one of the leading Air Charter operators within Costa Rica, Panama and also in Nicaragua. Another one of the airlines that service Costa Rica is Aeropostal Alas de Centroamerica. It is a relatively new budget airline based in San Jos. It was established in 2003, although it began its operations in 2005.

There are two major airports in Costa Rica. First is the Juan Santamara Airport which is accessible to the cities of San Jos, Alajuela and Heredia. The second is the Daniel Oduber Quirs International Airport located in Liberia in the Guanacaste Province.

Although the airport in Liberia is considerably smaller than the former, it impressively receives flights from major airlines like American, Air Canada, Delta, Continental, and United. These airlines that travel inside Costa Rica connects the country to international cities like Atlanta, Calgary, Chicago, Dallas, Houston, Los Angeles, London, Miami, Newark, Vancouver, and more.

There are also several domestic airports in other major cities of Costa Rica. In Limon, there is one in the city itself and one each in Barra del Colorado and Tortuguero. In South Puntarenas, there are five domestic airports like the Carate, Coto 47, Drake Bay, Golfito, Palmar Sur, and Puerto Jimnez.

In North Puntarenas, there are two others namely: the Quepos Domestic Airport and the Tambor Domestic Airport. Because Guanacaste is the gateway to Costa Rica's fantastic beaches, they have for domestic airports which are in Carrillo (Samara), Nosara, Punta Islita and Tamarindo. Other domestic airports are Pavas Domestic Airport in San Jose and La Fortuna Domestic Airport in Alajuela.

As you can clearly see that access to air travel within Costa Rica is very easy and convenient to both the traveler and resident.

James Kesel, MS, is the publisher of the Inexpensive Costa Rica Vacation website at http://www.costa-rica-source.com, providing great information on vacations and travel in Costa Rica. Airlines that travel inside Costa Rica are readily available to both visitors and residents.
Los Angeles Criminal Attorney

Costa Rica is strategically located in the middle of the Americas

Costa Rica Daily News!

Monday 11 August 2008, San José, Costa Rica
Majority Of Costa Ricans Reject High Rise Living
ICE Contemplating Offering Services Outside Costa Rica
Outstripping Tourism
Brazilian Investors
Restricted Spending, Improved Economy For 2009 Expected

Outstripping Tourism
Currently, tourism leads in service exports in Costa Rica, but in seven years it will have lost that first place to the international service firms which operate in free zones.

The Coalición Costarricense de Inciatives de Desarrollo (CINDE) - Costa Rican Coalition for Development Initiatives - forecasts that by the year 2015 service exports will reach us$4.6 million, while tourism sales will be at us $4.5 billion.

According to CINDE, Costa Rica is strategically located in the middle of the Americas, has positioned itself as a key destination for operations and its stable and transparent business environment allows companies in a variety of industries such as advanced manufacturing, medical devices, and services, to operate in an ideal location from where to supply or service the global market.

Over 200 transnational companies are currently operating in Costa Rica and are benefiting from a highly-skilled and qualified labor force, along with a solid infrastructure which has ultimately helped them with their bottom line: overall efficiency and easy market access.

Costa Rica is among the world’s top 4 high-tech exporters (World Development Indicators 2008, World Bank) and is the most attractive country in terms of Government support in Latin America (A.T. Kearney, Destination Latin America: a Near-shore alternative).

Costa Rica facts, Costa Rica travel videos, flags, photos - National Geographic

Costa Rica Information and History

Located in Central America, Costa Rica has coastlines on the Caribbean Sea and Pacific Ocean. The tropical coastal plains rise to mountains, active volcanoes, and a temperate central plateau where most people live (San José, the capital, is here). The only country in Central America with no standing army, it enjoys continuing stability after a century of almost uninterrupted democratic government. Tourism,which has overtaken bananas as Costa Rica's leading foreign exchange earner, bolsters the economy. A quarter of the land has protected status; the beauty of rain forest preserves draws more and more visitors.
ECONOMY

Industry: microprocessors, food processing, textiles and clothing, construction materials.
Agriculture: coffee, pineapples, bananas, sugar; beef; timber.
Exports: coffee, bananas, sugar, pineapples, textiles.

Text source: National Geographic Atlas of the World, Eighth Edition, 2004
Costa Rica Flag and Fast Facts
Flag of Costa Rica
Population
4,331,000
Capital
San José; 1,085,000
Area
51,100 square kilometers
(19,730 square miles)
Language
Spanish, English
Religion
Roman Catholic, Evangelical

Currency
Costa Rican colon
Life Expectancy
79
GDP per Capita
U.S. $8,300
Literacy Percent
96

This is not about Costa Rica

"Teen Sex" Rising for Cancer-Affected Tasmanian Devils

"Teen Sex" Rising for Cancer-Affected Tasmanian Devils
Ker Than
for National Geographic News
July 15, 2008




Tasmanian devils affected by a deadly cancer epidemic are engaging in teenage sex as a matter of survival, a new study finds.

The famously feisty mammals found on the Australian island of Tasmania typically live for five to six years and don't begin mating until age two. But in some populations threatened by the contagious and disfiguring facial tumor disease (see video), more than half of females one year old or younger have begun breeding.

"Teen Sex" Rising for Cancer-Affected Tasmanian Devils

"This represents a sixteen-fold increase in precocious sex for the species," said study leader Menna Jones of the University of Tasmania in Australia.

The team believes some females are reaching sexual maturity faster and reproducing sooner because the hefty toll of the disease has freed up food and created less competition for mates.

The finding is detailed in this week's issue of the journal for the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Survival Advantage

Early breeding could help explain how some devil populations have survived despite being ravaged by the rare facial cancer for more than a decade, said study co-author Clare Hawkins, also of the University of Tasmania.

Yet "despite these compensations, the numbers in all diseased areas are continuing to steadily decrease," Hawkins added. "The compensation doesn't appear—at least so far—to be sufficient."

Scientists fear that, if trends continue, wild Tasmanian devils could disappear as soon as 2030. (See story.)

While early breeding alone may not be enough to prevent extinction, it could buy the animals enough time to adapt to the disease.

"Because the disease is consistently fatal, devils are under very, very strong selection on a number of fronts," Jones said.

The natural selection could be for "disease resistance, early breeding, or behaviors that keep the devils out of trouble," Jones said.

"Teen Sex" Rising for Cancer-Affected Tasmanian Devils

For example, scientists think the facial tumor disease is spread by devils biting each other while mating.

If the species can hang on long enough, devils that bite less or that are better able to avoid bites will have more chances to reproduce, Jones said.

"Teen Sex" Rising for Cancer-Affected Tasmanian Devils

Eventually these milder-tempered devils could form the bulk of their populations because they are less likely to pass on the disease.

"Teen Sex" to Stay?

Since early breeding allows female devils to give birth at least once before falling victim to the disease, it could become an "evolutionarily fixed" trait for the species, scientists say.

"Most animals are dying at about two-and-a-half years old, so they may die halfway through raising their young," Jones said. "Any animal that breeds as a one-year-old is going to have a better chance of passing on its genes."

This trait makes sense, said Esben Moland Olsen, a biologist at the University of Oslo in Norway who was not involved in the study.

Olsen has documented a similar shift toward younger breeding in populations of cod threatened by overfishing. His studies suggest early reproduction is already becoming a fixed part of the fish's life cycle.

"Based on the latest data I have seen, the change seems to be holding," Olsen said.

"Although cod populations have not fully recovered, I tend to think that things would have looked even worse in the absence of a life-history change towards early maturation."

Pura Vida

Tushar: Costa Rica

The Future of Life: Lecture

The Future of Life~ Lecture - Encyclopedia of Earth

Thank you Steve Hubbell. And I can say without hyperbole, because I said it with complete sincerity at the time of its pub­lication, his neutral theory of community organ­ization is revolutionary in its own right and is, as one reviewer has called it correctly, an instant classic. He is surely in the foremost rank of our ecologists, a rarity who has made major contributions in theory and also through a lifetime of field research composed empirical studies of diversity as it actually exists. Friends, colleagues, thank you for giving me this opportunity to present the Chafee Memorial Lecture. I take it as a signal honor to present a lecture in memory of John Chafee, a great patriot (what pleasure it gives me to be able to use that word unabashedly), a great senator, and a great environmentalist. I consider it an excep­tional honor to do so here in the Smithsonian, and in Washington — from which emanate so much policy and action that affect the world environment. As we peer forward, well into the 21st century, which is really the business of this conference, it will serve well to ask this question: What might we have overlooked about our place in history? What are we most at risk of forever losing, most likely toward the end of the century? The answer, I think, is this: much of life, the rest of life, or the creation if you will, a lot of our environmental security, and just as important, part of what it means to be human. Our relations with the rest of life can be put in a nutshell: scientists have found the biosphere (and this has been due in good part to work just in the last few decades) to be richer in diversity than ever before conceived. And that biodiversity, which took over three billion years to evolve, is being eroded at an accelerating rate by human activity. The loss, to conclude this synopsis, will inflict a heavy price in wealth and security and spirit.

The bottom line in global economics, I suggest, is different from that widely assumed by our leading economists and public philosophers. They have mostly ignored the numbers that count. Consider the following: the world population has now edged well past six billion and is on its way to nine billion or more by mid century, before mercifully peaking and starting to descend. Per capita fresh water and arable lands are dropping to levels that resource experts consider very risky. The key statistic is the ecological footprint — which is the average amount of productive land and coastal marine environment appropriated by each person (not in a single block, for example, around where you might live in Maryland or Texas, but in bits and pieces from around the world) needed for your food, water, housing, energy, transport, commerce, and waste management. Each person, for example, on average draws down a little bit of Costa Rica for coffee, a little bit of Saudi Arabia for oil, and so on. In the developing world, with five billion of the six billion people, the ecological footprint is about two-­and-a-half acres. In the United States it is ten times as much: about 24 acres. For every person in the world to reach present American levels of consumption with existing technology would require four more planet Earths. The people of the developing countries may never want to attain our level of profligacy, but in just trying to achieve a decent standard of living, they have joined the industrial world in converting the last of the natural environment and reducing a large part of the planet’s fauna and flora to endangered status or final extinction.

At the same time, Homo sapiens have become a geophysical force. We have driven atmospheric carbon dioxide to the highest levels in at least the last 200,000 years, unbalanced the nitrogen cycle, thinned the pro­tective ozone layer of the atmosphere, and initiated global warming that will ultimately be bad news everywhere. Our unbalanced relation to the natural environment began a long time ago as a mistake in capital investment. Humanity, having appropriated the Earth’s natural resources during the Neolithic Revolu­tion (starting 10,000 years or so ago) chose to annuitize the resources with a short term maturity reached by progressively increasing payouts. That’s basically what we have done and are doing. At the time that seemed a wise decision, and viewed in the short term it still does. After all, the result is rising per capita pro­duction and consumption markets awash in oil and grain — and also in opti­mistic economists cheerfully monitoring GDPs and competitive indices.

But there is a problem. The key elements of natural capital, as opposed to market capital (in other words, Earth’s arable land, groundwater, forests, marine fisheries, and petroleum) are finite and not subject to proportionate capital growth. They are furthermore being decapitalized by over-harvesting and habi­tat destruction. Therefore with population and consumption continuing to increase up and up, the per capita amount of resources left to be harvested is falling and destined to be harvested at a faster and faster pace in the future. The long-term prospects are not promising.

Humanity, awakened at last to the realities of the natural economy that underlies the market economy, has begun an earnest search for alter­native sources of materials and energy. Altogether the 21st century is destined, in my opinion and that of many here I suspect, to be the century of the environment. The immediate future is usefully conceived as a bottleneck. Science and technology, combined with a lack of self-understanding and a pale­olithic obstinacy that led to our ruinous environmental practices, have brought us to where we are today. Now science and technology combined with foresight and moral courage and common sense, both drawn from a more enlightened ethic than has hitherto ruled public philosophy, must see us through the bottle­neck and out, one hopes, by the end of the century.

There are two collateral effects of the bottleneck phenomenon worth reminding even this exceptionally well-informed group. The first is: the rich grow richer and the poor grow poorer. The income difference between the fifth of the world’s population in the wealthiest countries and the fifth in the poorest countries was 30 to 1 in 1960, 60 to 1 in 1990, and it’s now 74 to 1. Eight hun­dred million people remain in what the United Nations classifies as absolute poverty: no sanitation, no clean water, rampant disease, and periodic starva­tion. Even if the income differential is dismissed as a humanitarian issue, it should be considered a security issue. It is a setting for resentment and fanati­cism and the arrival of suicide bombers seeking a better world somewhere else.

But the second collateral effect (and the one to which I’ve personally paid a great deal of attention and want to address more fully tonight) is the accelerating destruction of the natural environment leading to the mass extinction of ecosys­tems and species. The damage already done can’t be repaired within any period of time that has meaning for the human mind. The more it is allowed to grow, the more future generations will suffer for it in ways both well understood now and still unimagined. “Why,” future generations will ask, “by needlessly extinguishing the lives of other species, did you diminish our own?” The radical reduction of the world’s biodiversity is the folly our descendants will least likely forgive us.

Let me review some of the basic facts now concerning biological diversity (or biodiversity for short). First of all, what is biodiversity? It is all of heritable variation of life on Earth. To rescue that from banality, biologists recognize and analyze separately biodiversity at three great levels of organization, starting with ecosystems. The next level down is species, which compose those ecosystems and range enormously in size and ecological function. And the third level is genic variability within the species.

How much biodiversity is there? We now estimate that about 1.5 million to 1.8 million species of plants, animals, and microorganisms have been described. And it’s a bit of a scandal, as Steve Hubbell was indicating, that we don’t even know how many species we’ve already accounted for. Among those species we know, of course, the insects and the flowering plants dominate in diversity, that is, in numbers of species. The reason for that is simply that they formed a partnership toward the end of the Mesozoic on the land (which has such highly diverse topography and opportunities for isolation of populations and species formation) and together pumped the world’s biodiversity up to the high level that we have today. If you were to look at this in what we call the speciesscape, where each major group is represented by a single organism in pro­portion to its group’s size, insects would be represented by, for example, a beetle, which would loom like a Goodyear blimp over a minute elephant (representing the paltry 4,500 species of mammals, the group to which we belong). And then of course there are the fungi: 60,000 to 70,000 species known, but experts esti­mate that there are over one and a half million species out there, and there­fore they have considerable representation in the speciesscape. This brings me to the point of the exploration of this planet.

We do not know to the nearest order of magnitude how many species of plants, animals, and microorganisms there are on Earth. It’s almost certainly more that 5 million, it could be 10. But it could be, particularly due to the unknown depths of variation of species composition of bacteria and archeans (the single cell, very primitive organisms that form the foundation of all ecosys­tems), as high as 100 million. We don’t know. We just haven’t begun to explore the biosphere. We live on a little-known planet with a razor thin biosphere, so thin you can’t even see it edgewise from a space shuttle, that contains such enormous complexity that we haven’t really explored it properly. We know less about it than we do the surface of Mars and the moon.

The black hole of biodiversity is the bacteria. And the next level down is the diversity of genes we have just begun to explore, the genetic variation with­in species. Just to give you a feeling of how great that variation is, or the amount of genetic material, if you took the four strands, the four molecules that make up the total composition of a single genetic composition from the nucleus of a single human cell (somatic cell), and you put them end on end, you get in real space a molecule about a meter long, but it’s only two billionths of a meter wide — you can’t see it. If you could magically enlarge that molecule to the size of the width of wrapping string, then our single cell material would stretch approximately 1,820 miles. That would be from New York to Dallas. And if you walked along that string, ticking off the base pairs that make up the letters of the code, you’d be counting about 100 every inch. A lot of that is unique to Homo sapiens, as it would be to a fungus, a small insect, a Sequoia, and so on. This image will give you an idea of what we lose when we allow one species to go extinct. The average age of a species before the coming of humanity was very roughly 1 million years. We’ve speeded up extinction and thus shortened that span by roughly 1,000 times. The amount of information that is lost is approximately equal in pure bits to all of the editions of the Encyclopedia Brittanica published since the eighteenth century.

Where is biodiversity located? Everywhere there is liquid water or the potential for liquid water. Pole to pole from the summit of Everest to the challenger deep at 36,000 feet below the ocean surface, there are at least bacteria and other microorganisms. These include microscopic fungi, some of which also thrive in water above the boiling point in the thermal vents from the sea floor, supercooled water in the Antarctic ice gardens, and two or more miles below Earth’s surface drawing energy from the metabolism of inorganic chemicals and therefore independent of life above. (The organisms down there incidentally — to make them easy to remember — are called the SLIMES. That stands for Subterranean Lithoautotrophic Microbial Systems. That will be on the exam.)

Most of the species of known organisms occur in tropical moist forest — tropical rainforest. It covers about 6 percent of the Earth’s land surface and is down to about half of what it was before humanity began cutting it. The tropi­cal rainforest is still largely unexplored. The part that is least explored is the canopy, where the photosynthesis occurs and where we know there is an enor­mous amount of biological diversity. It’s been very hard to get into because of the difficulty of climbing trees in the tropical forest. These typically go straight up until they begin to branch near the canopy. Their surfaces are typically smooth or have spines, and when you get up to the top there are these gardens of epiphytes — gesneriads and orchids and even cacti — that are densely packed together on the branches. These are homes to swarms of stinging wasps and ants. Tarzan would not have survived 15 minutes. So it’s been a challenge for our more athletic young men and women who want to get up there. One of the methods that are being developed include using a crane, as is being done in a pilot experiment of the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute (STRI). When the investigator gets out onto the arm of the crane it circles around, and the investigator is able to lower himself up and down. An enormous volume of rainforest canopy can be reached. But the investigators just can’t hang there, they’ve got to have a protected cage with a door — because the Africanized, so-called “killer,” bees are very abundant, and you don’t want to bump into a nest hanging 100 feet above the rainforest floor. Investigators are able to travel around almost as though floating through air and get out to the tips of the trees — the branches — where people have never been before and so much of life is concentrated and the productivity of the forest is based.

The diversity of these rainforests is legendary. From a single tree I identi­fied, for example, 43 species of ants living in the tree including 26 gen­era (and that’s about equal to the total diversity — total number of ant species — found in all the British Isles). But one doesn’t have to go to tropical rainforests to see great and unexplored diversity. In just an ordinary forest, say mixed hardwood and conifer forest around here, you can see a world that is still far beyond our understanding. The forest floor looks two dimensional as we walk over it and look down (like Godzilla in New York City), but it’s not. If you cut it — come into it from the side, magnifying it greatly so you’re looking at a cross section from the dead leaves at the top of the litter and down a few centimeters — you can see a number of zones in which the size of the space is declining and in which the leaves are being increasingly chopped up and con­verted. You’re also getting changes in chemical composition, in nutrients avail­able, in temperature, in light. You therefore have an immense array of niches at a micro level. These are real niches into which vast numbers of species have radiated in their evolution and specialized to fill. Their existence is what keeps these forests healthy. These are what we lose — this diversity — when we, for example, convert old growth forests by clear cutting in favor of second growth or tree farms.

Now on a personal note, here is the way to get many young people into sci­ence. Most young people have a “bug period” — or they are capable of having it. They have a true and unabashed sense of wonder, and they can still work direct­ly in nature and derive enormous pleasure from it. And then not only can they live a more fulfilling life by knowing what lies out there to see and wonder about and explore as they reach maturity, but also if they want they can go into a sci­entific career — this is one of the broad pathways into a scientific career. And believe me, it’s environmental science that’s going to count in this century.

It is the destruction of habitat where we are doing the most damage to the diversity of life. Habitat destruction is at the top of the ways human activity is destroying biodiversity. NASA has found that about five percent of the Earth’s land surface is burned every year. Five percent. And that includes vast areas of the Amazon Orinoco basin and the Congo basin, which are still mostly sparsely inhabited. The destruction has been — terrifying is the only word I can use to describe it when you see the maps through time of how the forests have been reduced in some of the biologically richest areas of the world. For example the magnificent Mata Atlantica, the Atlantic forest of Brazil, one of the real hot spots of the world, has been reduced to less than ten percent of the original forest cover. Fortunately, the Brazilians now have begun serious conservation and restoration projects for this particular forest area.

I wish I could say the same for the Philippines. In the last hundred years, the forest there has been mostly destroyed. Now we know with a fair degree of precision how much of the biodiversity we lose as the area comes down in size. This is a subject that both Steve Hubbell and I have worked on, for example, among other investigators. As you go from the large islands of the West Indies — we can use this as a model field situation — the large islands such as Cuba and Hispaniola down to the smallest islands like Saba, the number of species drops off, depending on the group and the geographic area, between the third and sixth root for the most part. The fourth root is a very commonly used fig­ure. Now if you take the fourth root just as an example, this means that with a 90 percent reduction in area (to 10 percent of the original cover) you will eventually lose roughly half the species. They will be either eliminated immedi­ately or doomed to early extinction.

We can see this occurring for example in our national parks, which are “habitat islands.” They are well protected, but you can picture them as islands of natural environments in an increasingly hostile sea of ranch land and other con­verted forest and grassland. And sure enough, the species have been declining. They’re declining to a new level which may or may not be equilibrial now, but in time it probably will be equilibrial. There is an actual decline overall of mam­mal species in 14 national parks in western North America. None of the 299 mammal species in these parks has yet become globally extinct, that is extinct in all the national parks and elsewhere. But there is a cumulative curve leading toward extinction in all of these parks combined. The tropical rainforest is dis­appearing worldwide at the rate of about one half a percent to one percent a year. The remaining cover of rainforest is about equal to the coterminous 48 states, and the rate of destruction is equal to from half to all of the state of Florida each year. This translates to as much as a quarter of one percent of the species in these rainforests extinguished or doomed to early extinction each year.

In addition to the destructive effects of habitat loss should be added inva­sive species. Invasive species are alien species that are destructive in some way either to humanity or to the natural environment. And they include the “friendly” fire ant from South America, a gift of Brazil and Uruguay to the southern United States, a major pest. I don’t know if it’s actually extinguished any species yet, but it’s markedly modified much of the insect fauna from the Carolinas to Texas. Another example of an invasive species — and probably the most repellent — is the brown tree snake from the Solomon Islands or New Guinea, which was introduced to Guam shortly after the Second World War and proceeded to build up enormous populations of a thousand or so per square mile. It grows to about eight feet long. It’s poisonous and it specializes on birds as prey — it has wiped out virtually all of the native land birds of Guam.

The flood of invasive species around the world is growing, partly as a result of globalization. And every part of the world is receiving invasive species from somewhere. Hawaii has been largely taken over in the lowlands by invasive species. What you see in Hawaii is largely a fauna of alien species. Rarely would you ever see a native bird on the islands. You see a few native plants and a few native insects, but mainly the biota is reconstituted from species that occur in other parts of the world, a synthetic fauna. To give you an example of how extensive it is, I recently sent two assistants to the Juan Fernandez archipelago, which is this remote group of islands off the coast of Chile. It had never been collected for ants, and I had to know, I just had to know what was out there! They brought back collections, which included the fearsome Argentine ant (which is such an enormous pest in California and Australia and really destructive in South Africa). They discovered that the species has taken hold on these remote islands and appears to be spreading rapidly.

How fast are species going extinct? By two separate measures, the area-species curve, and by tracking individually the velocity of species travel­ing through the IUCN red data for 40 years, we have estimated the cur­rent rate of extinction worldwide of species is conservatively between 100 to 1,000 times higher than it was before the coming of humanity — when it was very roughly one species per million per year. And some believe that those brackets are too low, that the increase could be on the order of 10,000 times higher. Because as entire ecosystems are eliminated, as in those Philippine forests, the rate jumps dra­matically up as you approach the end game, and the forest or whatever it is, is shrinking toward unsustainable amounts of resource. It’s entirely possible then, some analysts say even likely, that if the present rate of habitat destruction and spread of alien species continues, and that’s a big if, because it depends on how committed we are to doing something about our living environment, we could lose half the species of plants and animals on Earth by the end of the century.

Hawaii is a dramatic example of how drastic local extinction can be. We now know, due partly to excellent work done here at the Smithsonian, that there were upwards of 140 species of birds on Hawaii before the arrival of the Polynesians in 400 A.D. And they included Hawaiian eagle, flight­less ibis, huge gooselike birds with bills like those of a tortoise, and many other remarkable forms — including many beautiful honeycreepers. Now only 25 are left. The Polynesians wiped out quite a few and European and other colonists after the 18th century wiped out a great many more. Of the 25 that are left, most are endan­gered to some degree and a couple of them are so endangered they’re not expected to survive more than a few more years.

Let me turn to the bottleneck, the period we are now in, in which the greatest challenge is to raise the lives of people everywhere to a decent level, while bringing through intact as much of the natural environment as possible. That would be my suggestion as the great goal of the 21st century. Its two objectives are intertwined. They are synergistic in such a way that progress in one enhances progress in the other.

I’ll close then with a dispatch from the global biodiversity front, where I’ve been active on the Boards of Directors of several of the major conservation organizations, to tell you a little of what is being done about the hemorrhag­ing of ecosystems and species and how the problem can be partly solved. First, it turns out that large blocks of the last remaining natural environment and wilderness areas can be preserved at surprisingly low cost and in such a way as to yield greater profit. This is what counts also to the countries owning them. It’s as simple as this: logging companies, which we have sort of intuitively thought must be economic juggernauts that cannot be stopped, are actually operating on a very thin profit margin and they can be out-bid by conservation groups using private gifts which are then leveraged by grants from the Global Environment Facility, the World Bank, and other organizations for as little as $10 an acre and often much less. Conservation concessions, as opposed to logging concessions, can be established in countries otherwise prepared to give away logging rights cheaply. It is possible to turn the policy around 180 degrees to preserve the forest instead. Or a trust fund can be set up the same way with the proceeds being paid to the country for preserving and managing large reserves. Or the logging rights can be purchased, in some cases for as little as $1 an acre. Or finally the land itself can be purchased outright. By these means, for example, Conservation International and The Nature Conservancy have recently added over 2 million acres to the parks and reserves of Bolivia, Guyana, and Suriname. They and the World Wildlife Fund are also offering research and management expertise to promote the use of this land to the countries that own them. Income from tourism and other non-invasive income sources can quickly be made more prof­itable than timber leases and agricultural conversion. Other developing coun­tries around the world are now exploring similar arrangements.

Another point of entry is the preservation of “hot spots,” those particular forests and coral reefs and other local habitats that are both endangered and contain the largest number of plant and animal species found nowhere else. Twenty-five of the terrestrial hot spots cover only 1.4 percent of the land area of Earth but are the exclusive home of an astonishing 45 percent of all known species of vascular plants and 36 percent of mammals, birds, reptiles, and amphibians. In other words, a large minority of the world’s known fauna are limited to 1.4 percent of land, which is not overwhelmingly expensive to pre­serve. This is an approach promised by Conservation International and the World Wildlife Fund among American-based NGOs to provide the means for moving swiftly to save, or at least put in a holding pattern, a substantial amount of the world’s biodiversity.

Not all of the hot spots are in remote jungles. Some are close at home, the Hawaiian rainforest for example, the temperate rainforest in the Pacific Northwest, the coastal sage scrub of California, and the Lake Wales Sand Ridge of central Florida are among America’s leading hot spots. These are among the parts of the U.S. on which resources should be focused immediately and with some urgency in order to save a large part of the diversity of life — and it can be done.

It is clear that progress in global conservation — and I think this is a concep­tion that has been very well and repeatedly illustrated today and in today’s session — is dependent on joint enterprises of the private sector, govern­ment, and science, a true iron triangle. We have to know exactly what is at stake, what is the status of many of the endangered species, what most needs to be done to save them, how to do it, and how to develop a strategy of aid and development attractive to people everywhere and to their governments. And to allude to the bumper sticker problem posed by Science Editor Don Kennedy this morning, we have to learn how to sweep constantly back and forth between local and global to get the job done. Right now it’s the private sector, working through environmental non-governmental organizations, that forms the spear­head of the global conservation effort, particularly by invention of new and cost-effective methods. The largest of these organizations, including Conserva­tion International, The Nature Conservancy, IUCN, World Wildlife Fund US, and World Wildlife Fund International are reaching operating budgets in the $100 million level. They are acquiring enough influence to form partnerships with the World Bank and the United Nations, as well as to work with the CEOs of larger corporations. They are backed by hundreds of smaller NGOs, operating in cities, countries, and internationally. The NGOs are in general more entrepreneurial, innovative, and flexible than governments. But make no mistake: governments, especially those of the industrialized countries, still must do the heavy lifting and will have to assume a much larger role in the future. At the present time about $6 billion a year is spent worldwide on conserva­tion. Proceeding from both private and government sources, most of it ulti­mately from government, a recent estimate suggests that about $28 billion annually is needed to sustain a sample of all the world’s natural ecosystems, marine as well as terrestrial, and a large part of the biodiversity. But as a first step, $28 billion in one investment, as estimated by economists and biologists in the Defying Nature’s End Conference held at Cal Tech last year, wisely placed in hot spots and tropical wilderness areas could save upwards of half or more of the species. One payment. And if that seems a large price to save so much of nature and biodiversity, keep in mind that it is only one thousandth of the combined gross domestic product of the world, that is, the annual com­bined gross domestic product. One thousandth.

The central problem of the new century, in my opinion and to repeat, is therefore how to raise the poor to an endurable quality of life, making them partners in the conservation effort worldwide while preserving as much of the natural world as possible. Both the poor and biological diversity are concentrated in the developing countries. The solution to the problem must flow from the recognition that both depend one on the other. The poor, espe­cially the nearly one billion who remain absolutely destitute, have little chance to improve their lives in a devastated environment. Conversely, the natural environment, where most of the biodiversity hangs on, cannot survive the press of land-hungry people who have nowhere else to go. I hope that tonight I’ve added to the conviction, which I know is widely shared here and by growing numbers of other thoughtful people of all walks of life, that this problem can be solved. We can now concentrate on solutions. We cannot afford to accept any­thing less than proposed solutions with a timeline and a concrete goal and a budget and a way of recruiting people. These are the prerequisites to shifting the paradigm of the economy of the world, in which the market economy is joined sustainably to the natural economy. Those who control the resources to do this must be recruited. They have many reasons to accept that goal as a necessity, not least their own security. At the end of the day, however, the direction we take will be an ethical decision. All politics is ethical, even if just in lip serv­ice, and it will be an ethical decision to launch a true and effective global and environmental res­cue operation. We should, as a matter of princi­ple, save every scrap of biodiversity that we can hold on to. A civilization able to envision God and an afterlife and embark on the coloniza­tion of space will surely find the way to save the integrity of this planet and the magnifi­cent life it harbors. Thank you.



This is a chapter from The Future of Life (Lecture).