Terrific Travel Tips

Like many of life’s greatest accomplishments, it began by accident. It started with one unique visionary on a intriguing but beautiful mountain. The man was Teddy Roosevelt; the Matterhorn was the mountain where an idea that changed our world germinated. Today, we call it “eco tourism” and every year it leads thousands of people to a small sapphire that Christopher Columbus named ‘Costa Rica’ five centuries ago.

About 20 years before he became one of America’s greatest presidents, Roosevelt, always the explorer, went to Europe to climb the famous Matterhorn Mountain in Switzerland. He was distressed by what he encountered on the mountain or, more accurately, what he did not see.

You see, the mountain was just about without life. Where once there had been many, now there were no more bears, wolves, or other wilderness creatures. Ghosts of creatures. But merely memories.

Though “eco tourism” was still about a century away from being coined, Theodore Roosevelt was the world’s first eco tourist and the father of modern eco tourism.

So what on earth do Roosevelt and the Matterhorn have to do with Costa Rica ecotourism? More than you might think. The Matterhorn made him see the need to be able to put aside large tracts of Mother Earth to preserve life and, when he became President, he took on the robber barons and vested interests to set aside 230 million acres as wild animals,turbulent rivers,forests and parks: an extraordinary achievement for America and singular achievement for the planet we all share.

Roosevelt’s vivid prescience resulted in an extraordinary discovery: people would happily spend money to see the outdoors. Sustained use of land through eco tourism had important economic consequences, often more valuable than exploitation in many cases—in the United States.

But, America’s experience was one thing. It was rich and developed. Costa Rica was, seemingly, very different. Here was a place that in 1519 its Spanish Governor called “the poorest and most miserable Spanish colony in all Americas.” Nearly 450 years later, now independent and free, most of its forests had been cut or burned to make pastures and farmland. Big American business dominated its primary product, bananas, and the country was almost completely dependent upon the export of bananas, coffee, and other agricultural products for its economic life. United Fruit Company controlled the banana market and its relations with Costa Rica were often stormy, sometimes icy. Then, in the early 1970s, prices for coffee collapsed during a glut of the product on the world market. The country’s future looked bleak.

Now, nothing in the world is predestined and from the economic crisis arose Costa Rica ecotourism. Challenge always brings with it opportunity and, in a seemingly unlikely alliance, conservationists and business interests argued that sustainable development needed to be given a chance rather than simply continuing to exploit the country’s rapidly declining resources. The government joined forces with conservationists and businesses and embarked on an ambitious experiment, ultimately setting aside nearly 25% of the country for parks and preserves over the following years.

In the span of just 30 years, the results have been spectacular. While most countries were burning and cutting their forests, Costa Rica was reforesting. Today, there are 20% more forests than just 25 years ago. Birds and mammals are returning to places where they haven’t been seen for a generation or more. Costa Rica has enthusiastically embraced sustained development, rejecting the siren’s call of Big Oil by refusing off shore drilling for oil. Indeed almost 100% of its electricity now comes from renewable, non-polluting hydro-electric power and it is embarking on wind turbines for additional generation. Researchers from Columbia and Yale researchers now categorize it in the top 5 of all environmentally sensitive countries in the world.

From “the poorest and most miserable Spanish colony in Americas” it has vaulted into the #1 position on the Happiest Place in the World Index. The Spanish Governor was dead wrong. Columbus was prescient when he named this place “the rich coast” or “Costa Rica”. And, somewhere in the heavens, Theodore Roosevelt is smiling in delight.

To close, we need to end with 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. Consider the irony here. Costa Rica is often called the “Switzerland” of the tropics but it learned from Swiss failures. Ironically, Switzerland has learned nothing. Costa Rica’s mountains are today filled with life and eco tourism helps fuel its economy. One of every twenty species of plants and animals on earth are found there. Meanwhile, the magnificent Matterhorn remains silent because its life was exploited and destroyed, not cherished and preserved.

About this author: Victor Krumm writes from sunny Escazu. Visit his acclaimed website about Costa Rica Vacationsand be sure to check out Retiring in Costa Rica.