Since December 20th, 2013 the United Nations General Assembly has designated March 3rd to commemorate the importance of the animals and plants that comprise our ecosystems. The main objective of this celebration is to shine a light on the importance of joining the fight against climate change and the loss of biodiversity. Costa Rica has taken action and keeps positioning itself as a world leader in the protection of biodiversity, setting an example for other countries to reap the benefits of protecting natural resources.
Costa Rica’s land size is only about 51.100km2, and it is eclipsed by a whopping 572 877km2 of sea surface. In spite of this, the country hosts approximately 6% of the world’s biodiversity, including 3.5% of the world’s marine species. Its geographic location, connecting South America with North America, allows it to have pleasant weather and a myriad of ecosystems, thus making it the perfect place for an abundance of wildlife to flourish and settle here.
Rainforests, beautiful beaches, colossal volcanoes, pristine rivers, and turquoise waterfalls make this piece of land into a nature sanctuary that keeps bringing millions of visitors. Costa Rica is well aware of the richness that has made its name a world-class destination for visitors all over the world, which is why conservation is an important topic driving the latest tourism trends. This has taken tourism businesses to incorporate eco-friendly practices into their operations in order to ensure the beauty of the different areas where they are being developed.
A lot of these practices are designed with one objective in mind: giving tourists the rawest experience without compromising the safety of the natural surroundings. One of the projects that have yielded tremendous results in terms of preservation in Manuel Antonio was a program designed to bring back the scarlet macaw, since development, deforestation, and poaching wiped them out some decades ago. It started in 2013 and has been supervised by the government in partnership with a local hotel. The program consisted of bringing the birds back into the national park, and freeing the specimens when specialists felt they were ready to go back to nature.
Now, eight years later, and thanks to the efforts of the environmental ministry (MINAET) along with local agencies, the scarlet macaw can be seen again from different points of the Central Pacific, embellishing the skies and wowing tourists and locals alike.
Actions like these have paved the way for many other projects to take place, giving ecotourism an important stance in the economy sector. Places like Valle Pura Vida and Finca Se Ve Bien have kept up with the demand and managed to combine development with the surrounding wildlife, giving their visitors the closest experience to wildlife, from the comfort of their luxury villa or private estate, without disturbing the natural habitat.
Other efforts are taking place all over the country in order to ensure that development and biodiversity understand the symbiotic relationship between them. More recently, the government banned the use of single-use plastic in all national parks and forest reserves, a measure which aims to decrease pollution and at the same time preserve the ecosystems that many species call home.
In 2019, the government declared their goal of becoming the first carbon-neutral country in the world by turning their power grid to all renewable sources, and making their public transportation system into zero emissions, among other measures. The beauty of Costa Rica is not just a lucky coincidence. It is in fact the results of a land that keeps betting on its natural resources, and sets the bar for other nations to do the same.