Like so many of life’s greatest success stories, it began with an observation, so simple one wonders why nobody saw it earlier and so powerful it is still changing the world. It started with a unique visionary on a desolate and beautiful mountain called the Matterhorn. The world’s first eco tourist was Theodore Roosevelt and what we call “eco tourism” today leads thousands of people a year to a little gem named by Christopher Columbus five centuries ago: Costa Rica, the “rich coast.”
About 20 years before he became one of America’s greatest presidents, Roosevelt, always the outdoors man, went to Europe to climb the famous Matterhorn Mountain in Switzerland. He was distressed by what he saw on the mountain or, more accurately, what he did not find.
You see, the mountain was virtually lifeless. Where once there were many, there were no more bears, wolves, or other wilderness creatures. Ghosts of life. But merely memories.
Though “eco tourism” did not get into the language lexicon for almost 100 more years, Teddy Roosevelt was the world’s earliest ecotourist and, I should mention, the man responsible for modern eco tourism.
How do Roosevelt and the Matterhorn relate to Costa Rica eco tourism? Perhaps more than you might imagine. From what he saw at the Matterhorn, Roosevelt instinctively understood that unless vast tracts of land were set aside, relentless exploitation would ultimately lead to disaster. So, when he became President and, despite the powerful robber barons and vested interests who joined forces to resist him, he was the first to set aside wilderness and parks, an incredible 230,000,000 acres, an extraordinary achievement for America and singular accomplishment for the world.
President Roosevelt’s wonderful vision led to an extraordinary revelation. The American public would gladly pay to see wilderness and wildlife. Sustainability can bring more long-term value to more people than exploitation—in the U.S.
But, that was America’s experience. What about Costa Rica, a place that in 1519 its Spanish Governor declared “the poorest and most miserable Spanish colony in all Americas”? By the middle part of the 20th century, most of its forests had been decimated 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 must have seemed bleak, particularly when the world coffee market crashed in the early 1970s.
However, nothing in the world is preordained and from the economic uncertainty arose Costa Rica eco tourism. Difficulty always breeds opportunity and, from a seemingly improbable alliance, conservationists and business interests argued that sustainable development needed to be given an opportunity rather than merely continuing to use the nation’s rapidly declining resources. The government joined forces with conservationists and businesses and set out on an ambitious experiment, ultimately setting in reserve almost 25% of the land for parks and preserves over the following decades.
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 put it within in the top five of all environmentally sensitive countries on the planet.
From “the poorest and most miserable Spanish colony in Americas” it has vaulted into the top 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 revisit the Swiss Matterhorn, the place behind Roosevelt’s vision that parks and preserves were essential to saving wildlife and Costa Rica’s bold 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 beautiful website about Costa Rica Vacationsand be sure to check out Retiring in Costa Rica.
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