It began with Teddy Roosevelt and started at the Matterhorn. Today we call it eco tourism and what started as the germ of an idea on a cold, forlorn Swiss mountain now leads thousands of people each year to a tiny gem that Christopher Columbus named "Costa Rica" over 500 years ago.
Two decades before he was to become one of America's finest presidents, Roosevelt traveled to Switzerland. He was one of the world's great adventurers who loved nature. So it was that he decided to climb the famous Mount Matterhorn. When he did so, however, he was chagrined by what he encountered on the mountain or, more accurately, what he did not see.
The mountain was nearly lifeless. Where once there had been many, there were no longer bears, wolves, goats, mountain sheep, or other wilderness creatures. Ghosts of creatures. But only memories.
Though the phrase "eco tourism" was nearly 100 years away from being coined, Theodore Roosevelt was the world's first eco tourist and in a very real way, he is responsible for today's eco tourism that brings thousands of people each year to Costa Rica.
What do Roosevelt and the Matterhorn have to do with Costa Rica eco tourism? More than you might imagine. The Matterhorn brought home to him the need to set aside vast tracts of land to preserve life and, when he became President, he took on the robber barons and vested interests to set aside 230 million acres as wilderness and parks: an extraordinary achievement for America and singular achievement for the world.
Teddy Roosevelt's singular vision led to the birth of eco tourism. Americans quickly demonstrated that they will gladly pay money to visit wilderness and photograph wildlife---at least in the United States.
But, that was America's experience. What about Costa Rica, a place that in 1519 its Spanish Governor called "the poorest and most miserable Spanish colony in all Americas"? By the middle part of the 20th century, most of its forests had been cut or burned to make farm land and the country was primarily dependent upon the export of bananas, coffee, and other agricultural products for its economic life. Its future looked bleak, particularly when the world coffee market crashed in the early 1970s.
But , nothing in life is predestined and from the economic crisis was born Costa Rica eco tourism. Its parents were challenge and opportunity. Challenge always breeds opportunity. For utterly different reasons, conservationists and business interests argued that sustainable development needed to be given an opportunity rather than simply continuing exploitation of rapidly declining resources. In a bold step that Roosevelt would have applauded, the government joined forces with conservationists and businesses and changed course, ultimately setting aside nearly 25% of the country for parks and preserves over the ensuing years.
By any measure, and in the span of just three decades (about as long as The Simpsons have been on television!), the results have been stunning. While many countries were slashing, cutting, and burning their forests, Costa Rica chose to reforest. Today, there are 20% more forests than only 25 years ago. Jaguars, peccaries, and other wildlife are returning to places where they haven't been seen for more than a generation. The country has enthusiastically embraced sustained development, refusing to allow off shore drilling for oil and building renewable power plants. In fact 99% of its electrical power now comes from hydro-electric plants---and it is beginning to install wind turbines as well. Columbia and Yale researchers now categorize it within in the top five of all environmentally sensitive countries on earth.
Costa Rica tourism and eco tourism have soared and the country has vaulted into the top position on the Happiest Place in the World Index. Turns out that Columbus was prescient when he named this place "the rich coast" or "Costa Rica" and the Spanish governor who derided it as "the poorest and most miserable Spanish colony in Americas" was dead wrong. Somewhere, Roosevelt smiles in triumph.
Finally, I want to return to the Swiss Matterhorn, the place behind Roosevelt's vision that parks and preserves were essential to saving wildlife and Costa Rica's courageous extension of that idea leading to today's incredibly successful Costa Rica eco tourism. Costa Rica is sometimes called the "Switzerland" of the tropics but Switzerland can learn from Costa Rica---not the other way around---that life-filled mountains (Costa Rica) are eminently more valuable than lifeless mountains (Switzerland). And it is possible to reverse fortunes with a change of attitude.
Two decades before he was to become one of America's finest presidents, Roosevelt traveled to Switzerland. He was one of the world's great adventurers who loved nature. So it was that he decided to climb the famous Mount Matterhorn. When he did so, however, he was chagrined by what he encountered on the mountain or, more accurately, what he did not see.
The mountain was nearly lifeless. Where once there had been many, there were no longer bears, wolves, goats, mountain sheep, or other wilderness creatures. Ghosts of creatures. But only memories.
Though the phrase "eco tourism" was nearly 100 years away from being coined, Theodore Roosevelt was the world's first eco tourist and in a very real way, he is responsible for today's eco tourism that brings thousands of people each year to Costa Rica.
What do Roosevelt and the Matterhorn have to do with Costa Rica eco tourism? More than you might imagine. The Matterhorn brought home to him the need to set aside vast tracts of land to preserve life and, when he became President, he took on the robber barons and vested interests to set aside 230 million acres as wilderness and parks: an extraordinary achievement for America and singular achievement for the world.
Teddy Roosevelt's singular vision led to the birth of eco tourism. Americans quickly demonstrated that they will gladly pay money to visit wilderness and photograph wildlife---at least in the United States.
But, that was America's experience. What about Costa Rica, a place that in 1519 its Spanish Governor called "the poorest and most miserable Spanish colony in all Americas"? By the middle part of the 20th century, most of its forests had been cut or burned to make farm land and the country was primarily dependent upon the export of bananas, coffee, and other agricultural products for its economic life. Its future looked bleak, particularly when the world coffee market crashed in the early 1970s.
But , nothing in life is predestined and from the economic crisis was born Costa Rica eco tourism. Its parents were challenge and opportunity. Challenge always breeds opportunity. For utterly different reasons, conservationists and business interests argued that sustainable development needed to be given an opportunity rather than simply continuing exploitation of rapidly declining resources. In a bold step that Roosevelt would have applauded, the government joined forces with conservationists and businesses and changed course, ultimately setting aside nearly 25% of the country for parks and preserves over the ensuing years.
By any measure, and in the span of just three decades (about as long as The Simpsons have been on television!), the results have been stunning. While many countries were slashing, cutting, and burning their forests, Costa Rica chose to reforest. Today, there are 20% more forests than only 25 years ago. Jaguars, peccaries, and other wildlife are returning to places where they haven't been seen for more than a generation. The country has enthusiastically embraced sustained development, refusing to allow off shore drilling for oil and building renewable power plants. In fact 99% of its electrical power now comes from hydro-electric plants---and it is beginning to install wind turbines as well. Columbia and Yale researchers now categorize it within in the top five of all environmentally sensitive countries on earth.
Costa Rica tourism and eco tourism have soared and the country has vaulted into the top position on the Happiest Place in the World Index. Turns out that Columbus was prescient when he named this place "the rich coast" or "Costa Rica" and the Spanish governor who derided it as "the poorest and most miserable Spanish colony in Americas" was dead wrong. Somewhere, Roosevelt smiles in triumph.
Finally, I want to return to the Swiss Matterhorn, the place behind Roosevelt's vision that parks and preserves were essential to saving wildlife and Costa Rica's courageous extension of that idea leading to today's incredibly successful Costa Rica eco tourism. Costa Rica is sometimes called the "Switzerland" of the tropics but Switzerland can learn from Costa Rica---not the other way around---that life-filled mountains (Costa Rica) are eminently more valuable than lifeless mountains (Switzerland). And it is possible to reverse fortunes with a change of attitude.
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