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The Biological Corridors of Costa Rica

Introduction to The New Key to Costa Rica, 18th edition

Contents:

• The evolution of conservation and ecotourism in Costa Rica
• The evolution of the Meso-American Biological Corridor
• Costa Rican communities and conservation
• Community-based ecotourism

Campesinos, Conservation, and Your Vacation

When I first came to Costa Rica in 1971, it was easy to experience how the people lived. More recently, when prospective tourists would ask me to recommend a place where they could see "how the people live", I was hard pressed to think of a community that had not given itself over to tourism in a way that obliterated "how they live". Or else the emphasis was on ecology, and the ticos were excellent guides, but usually not in their own territory.

Now there are whole rural communities that are proud of their commitment to conservation and willing to share their humble way of life with interested tourists. I am hoping the community control of these projects and their relative isolation will help them be able to pick and choose what they want from tourism, while letting it supplement their farming incomes. Family farms get very little support on this planet. In many of the projects highlighted on this website, organic agriculture, appropriate energy technology, and preservation of forests and rivers are combined with tourism in a way that holds great promise for the future.

By visiting these communities, you will not only meet some lovely people, but you will be inspired by their ability to put innovative principles into practice. You will also see the results of the intelligent, dedicated work of the United National Development Program, COOPRENA, ACTUAR and other NGO’s who, in a time of worldwide chaos, are faithfully sowing the seeds of peace.

The Evolution of Conservation and Ecotourism in Costa Rica

Because it contains 4% of global biodiversity in its very small territory, Costa Rica has been a Mecca for tropical biologists and ecologists for the last 50 years. These scientists worked with visionary Costa Ricans to establish the famous National Parks Service in the 1970's. As protected areas were established and research was carried out, biologists observed that most animals migrate from one altitude to another during the year. That led to the creation of more and more parks and protected areas during the 1980s.

The National Park Service began a concerted effort to teach environmental education in the schools. Costa Rica also made a decision to rely on its biodiversity to attract tourism, instead of becoming yet another fun-and-sun tropical destination. Word spread, and soon Costa Ricans were seeing that their commitment to the protection of nature was providing jobs and opportunities for advancement.

At the same time, farmers who were struggling to make ends meet saw the tourism boom around them, and often decided to sell their farms in order to get funds to build tourist lodging, or to sell to foreigners who were paying exaggerated prices for land. Often foreigners knew how to establish and publicize nature tourism to people in North America and Europe, making for successful businesses. Setting up a B&B or an ecolodge became a dream for many foreigners who migrated here. Costa Rican families with large tracts land also set up reserves to preserve wildlife habitats and gain government protection against squatters. Conservationists, farmers and loggers often found themselves in a bitter race to gain control of the country's remaining unprotected forests.

In 1994, Costa Rica conducted a thorough survey of its richest ecosystems to determine how to conserve its remaining biodiversity. But the government, with 25% of national territory under some kind of protection, could not afford to buy and maintain more land. The government acknowledged that many privately owned reserves supported conservation by forming buffer zones and biological corridors around and between existing national parks. In 1995, the National System of Conservation Areas (SINAC) was formed. This divides the country into eleven conservation areas, ignoring provincial boundaries, and concentrating on related ecosystems. In each area, private- and state-owned conservation activities are interrelated. SINAC's goals are to manage and promote the sustainable use of natural resources along with economic and social development.

Costa Rica's 1997 biodiversity law authorizes a tax on gasoline in order to compensate the owners of forested land for the environmental services that their forests offer to society. These services are:

• reduction of greenhouse gases
• protection of drinking water
• protection of rivers that can be harnessed for hydroelectric power
• protection of biodiversity and its sustainable use for pharmaceuticals and science
• protection of ecosystems, life forms and scenic beauty.

Article 50 the Costa Rican Constitution states: "All people have the right to a healthy and ecologically balanced environment." Citizens have lived with environmental education, conservation and ecotourism for a generation, and today it is rare to find Costa Ricans who are not wholeheartedly in favor of protecting nature. At the same time, poverty and lack of jobs still lead to illegal poaching. The struggle between exploiting nature and conserving forests and wildlife continues.

The Evolution of the Meso-American Biological Corridor

Research biologists have discovered that many wild felines like panthers, jaguars and pumas, need hundreds of square miles of habitat in order to hunt and reproduce successfully. In fact, they have found that, in order for large cats to sustain their populations, each species requires a preserve big enough to support at least 500 to 5000 individuals of each species. If, through careless development, the original habitat is degraded into small, isolated pieces, the cats rapidly face extinction.

The end of the civil wars that plagued the rest of Central America in the 1970s and 80s has given these countries the opportunity to join Costa Rica in an organized effort to set aside land for conservation of native species of flora and fauna. In 1989 the countries of Central America formed a commission to promote and coordinate sound environmental policy throughout the isthmus.

In the early 1990's, area governments entertained the idea of the Paseo Pantera (Panther’s Path): an unbroken strand of protected forest lands stretching along the Caribbean coast of Central America, which would guarantee the range that wild animals need in order to survive. Although this project was funded by a consortium of conservation organizations, it foundered in the face of opposition from indigenous and campesino groups. Indigenous lands often have extensive forests, and governments have rarely been concerned with giving native people legal title to them. Poor farmers often lacked title a well. Both groups were aware of Central American history in which elites have taken the most desirable lands, and pushed native people out. They feared a land grab that would banish them, once again, from their homes.

With time, even strict conservationists came to see that it was unnecessary to prohibit all human activity in order to preserve nature. They also began to understand that large tracts of land could never be assembled if the needs of local residents were not met. In 1998, a regional group of indigenous people and farmers asserted their role in the planning of a large, unbroken habitat for native animals and plants. And, by this time, southern Mexico, wanting to preserve the biological riches of the Yucatan peninsula, had joined the conservation activities of Central America. Through this coalition of governments, NGO’s and peoples, the Paseo Pantera expanded to become the Mesoamerican Biological Corridor.

Today, the aims of the Mesoamerican Biological Corridor are:

a) to protect key biodiversity sites

b) to connect these sites with corridors managed in such a way as to enable the movement and dispersal of animals and plants

c) to promote forms of social and economic development in and around these areas that conserve biodiversity while being socially equitable and culturally sensitive.

Costa Rican Communities and Conservation

In order to make the Meso American Biological Corridor work, local communities must be active and well organized. Costa Rica's vital grassroots democracy lends itself to the task. In contrast to most Latin American countries, Costa Rica celebrated it's first democratic election in 1889. Elections have continued almost uninterrupted through the present day. But what is truly impressive is the level of community organization.

In the 1970’s, President Daniel Oduber (1974-78) said, "Humans must not be the object, but the subject of their own development." He believed that the wellbeing of rural communities was intimately linked to the health of the nation. He formed the National Directorate for Community Development (DINADECO) to help communities organize themselves to address their needs for water, electricity, healthcare and cultural activities. Advisors would travel by jeep, motorcycle or horseback to make sure that communities had the tools they needed to form successful organizations. Today, DINADECO is no longer very active, but the culture of community involvement persists.

Building on its traditions of grassroots democracy, the Ministry of the Environment has encouraged citizens to form Natural Resource Vigilance Committees (COVIRENAS). These volunteer groups are active in almost every rural area of the country, educating their neighbors about illegal logging, poaching, fishing, trade in endangered species, water protection, and how each person’s actions can make a difference. They work with art and theater to encourage children’s awareness, carry out clean-up campaigns, and report environmental infractions to the authorities. They are given official I.D. cards as environmental inspectors ad honorem.

Community-Based Ecotourism

Through its Small Grants Program, the United Nations Development Program has funded COVIRENAS groups, local conservation and development associations, and farmers’ cooperatives so that rural communities with limited resources can have their own ecotourism businesses. This enables farmers to conserve their forests and rivers, keep their families on the land, and supplement their farming incomes. Many are turning to organic agriculture and are planting crops that provide habitat for a diversity of birds and wildlife.

In each chapter of The New Key to Costa Rica, you will learn more about the biological corridors in each area, and you’ll find highlighted reports on our adventures traveling to these communities.

Costa Rica still has the dreamy ecolodges that made it famous, where, after your massage and your yoga class, you can sit sipping rum-laced tropical smoothies and nibbling on delicate fish carpaccio while gazing out over the ocean. The extensive rainforest reserves owned by many of these lodges are also part of the conservation system. But make the effort to spend some time at the community-based places as well. Several travel agencies, like ACTUAR, organize tours to these destinations. You can find out more at this website, or by reading the colorful, bilingual guidebook to community-based tourism called The Real Costa Rica (Costa Rica Autentica) published by the Small Grants Program of the United Nations Development Program (more information through beatrice@keytocostarica.com

We all know that clean air, water, soil, and trees are limited, and yet they are among our most precious assets. Costa Rica is leading the way in valuing these resources and in finding ways for humans to live in harmony with nature. Just by vacationing, adventuring, and learning at places that are involved in the Mesoamerican Biological Corridor in Costa Rica, you will be contributing to this world-changing work.

Sources:

Ministerio del Ambiente y Energia: El Sistema Nacional de Areas de Conservacion: Evolucion y Perspectivas, San Jose, Costa Rica, 2000

Dr. Kenton Miller, Elsa Chang, Nels Johnson, World Resources Institute, Defining Common Ground for the Mesoamerican Biological Corridor, www.wri.org/pdf/mesoamerica_english.pdf, 2002

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