Like many of life's greatest achievements, it began by accident. It started with one unique visionary on a desolate 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 tiny sapphire that Christopher Columbus named 'Costa Rica' five centuries 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 outdoors man 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 found 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 "eco tourism" didn't enter the language lexicon for nearly 100 more years, Theodore Roosevelt was the world's first eco tourist and, I would say, the responsible for today's eco tourism.
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 necessity 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.
Roosevelt's bold vision led to an extraordinary discovery: the public would gladly pay money to visit nature. Sustained use of land through eco tourism had important economic consequences, perhaps more valuable than exploitation in many cases---in America.
But, America's experience was one thing. It was wealthy 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." Four and a half centuries later, now independent and free, most of its forests had been cut or burned to make farm land. 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.
However, 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 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. Amazingly 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 rate it in the top 5 of all environmentally sensitive countries on the planet.
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.
Finally, I want to return to the Swiss Matterhorn, the place behind Roosevelt's sudden clarity that parks and preserves were essential to saving wildlife and Costa Rica's wise 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.
About the Author:
Writer Victor Krumm posts from his home in Costa Rica. Visit his very popular website about Costa Rica Vacations and be sure to look at the spectacular Seven Wonders of Costa Rica Get a totally unique version of this article from our article submission service
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