Ecotourism in Costa Rica; pros and cons: "Ecotourism in Costa Rica; pros and cons
Costa Rica has gained the reputation of being a country that cares for the environment, over the years, and for being a country that is actively involved in conserving its natural heritage. Indeed, it is considered to be a pioneer in this field, with certain activities that are related to conservation, and one of these is called Ecotourism.
Costa Rica is like a dream world for travelers who are in love with nature and natural beauty, with its combination of lush and undisturbed primary forest mixed with a community that is far more developed than the one of its neighboring countries, and cultural history with isolated groups of indigenous tribes. The total of the protected area of Costa Rica stretches over 1 million hectares. Ecotourists reach paradise when they land here, finding more than 500 species of trees and 200 fern species, an astonishing 300 types of orchids, 400 types of birds, 600 of butterflies, and 100 of mammals and 120 of reptiles and amphibians! All this grouped on a relatively small area and easy to reach. There is no other country on earth like it.
Ecotourism is a funny word; indeed it may be said that there is nothing ecological about tourism, whichever way you look at it. It has been defined as being ” responsible travel to natural areas that conserve the environmental and sustain the well-being of local people.” Does it really live up to its name, and definition? Is it really responsible and caring towards the environment, and does it really help the travelers to understand and respect mother earth, does it indeed promote conservation? And does it benefit the locals the way it claims to do? Can tourism in any form really be of low impact? How can a herd of visitors wandering in the primary cloud forest not disturb its fragile balance, and are all those who come here really understand all this? What about these eco lodges, eco hotels, built on the edges of these protected area, how could they not provoke some kind of repercussion?
While tourism exploits the nature, ecotourism tries to cultivate a relationship between nature, culture and the travelers. Ecotourism wants to show and teach. To be successful however, eco tourism needs to be able to survive economically speaking, it needs to be accepted by the native indigenous people, and it needs to be ecologically protective. Some communities take on the wrong turn and become greedy when confronted with the outside world, especially with foreigners. Envy, jealousy is to often the result seen with a sudden turn of events and rapid changes in the way of looking at life. The very ones who loved and care for nature become those who become careless while becoming obsessed with material gain, something that was up to them alien to their ways of life. Even those who genuinely care for the environment have too little knowledge to fully realize what can be and what cannot, and how; seasonal packs of tourists invading a primary forest, for example, has a very strong impact on the feeding and breeding habits of the fauna. Ecotourism in Costa Rica evolves around some ecosystems that have maintained the same routine for thousands of years, and the sudden appearance of a bunch of tourists does leave a mark.
More research and efforts have to be done. Ecotourism doesn’t stop in the jungle either; Hotels in San Jose have to become even more eco friendly, using solar power maybe, and learn to recycle and offer information to the travelers as how to travel and get to learn this beautiful country without disturbing its fragile beauty. It time the government needs to take harsher measures and severely penalize businesses that do not meet an ecologically sound agenda. The local communities play a big part in ecotourism, but they must be educated first, and ecotourism should be presented to them as something from which we can all benefit, rather than just something that is imposed to them.
Of course ecotourism is still a business and many will and need to profit from it, as long as enough is generated into the ecology. Yet, is this money really fairly generated? Aren’t those who truly care often found at the bottom of the ladder? Ecotourism can attribute its popularity to the way it proposes to make money while at the same time it attempts to maintain the ecological integrity of this country. Those who truly care can do it and have done it because there is a way, it just takes a little care, and love; it is more difficult to organize at first than straightforward tourism, however it is only something to get used to, in a worldwide basis. It seems that at this point, us humans have no choice, if we want tourism to exist at all within a couple of decades. Ecotourism can indeed be a sustainable tool, if handled properly, honestly and with intelligence. We can learn from our mistakes, and we do, but we are now in a situation where we need to learn fast. We know what can happen if we do not progress.
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