Ecotourism in Costa Rica - Report Example

Ecotourism in Costa Rica Teacher 4th April Introduction The world is really a global village in true sense. Man has overcome huge barriers in the recent past. Human beings have been facing numerous challenges until recently. The world is more connected with the advent of information technology and advanced ways of communication. Man is making strides in science and technology at a very fact speed. Due to the dramatic increase in the speed of development in the world, environment is getting disturbed and damaged at an equal speed. So in this era of being mad about growth and economic development, we have forgotten the impacts of our actions on our environment. It is not too much late and there is still light at the end of tunnel. Before it is too late and before reaching to point of no return, we must realize the importance of our environment. Ecotourism is also a kind of sustainable development that can easily be contributed by all. Ecotourism is a solution to the increasing degradation in environment and natural habitat of the countries. Ecotourism is the best tool for developing economies to conserve their natural habitat and by boosting their tourism industry. Costa Rica is country with constant peace and stability. Moreover, it has achieved highest level of human development indicators. It does not maintain armed forces. It spends all money to its people. Costa Rica is one of the oldest ecotourism destinations in the world. Following are the top five and famous ecotourism destination in the world1 Top Five and Famous Ecotourism Destinations Costa Rice, North America Palau, Oceania Kenya, Africa Norwegian Fjords, Norway Kerala, India Globalization and Ecotourism All countries want to preserve their resources of international importance and tires to achieve highest levels of economic growth simultaneously. Nevertheless, there is increasing number of incidents of degradation of environment in this civilized world. We are losing important historical and natural resources due to phenomenon of terrorism, negligence of authorities and due to industrial wastes. Ecotourism is result of globalization. Ecotourism was evolved due to the dissatisfaction with mass tourism which results in environmental degradation. Ecotourism is part of the process of sustainable development approach to growth in developing countries. Hence, ecotourism is an important tool for developing world to increase their economics activities and at the same time by conserving natural habitat and environment2. Generally we only consider the positive effects of ecotourism and ignore the negative effects of ecotourism. It is due to the reason that the positive effects of ecotourism are always present but it is not necessary that a country face the negative effects of ecotourism. The best thing is to consider both positive and negative effects of ecotourism to a particular country to prevent ecological and cultural costs. How to balance the positive and negative effects of ecotourism is the challenge faced by many nations. It is true that ecotourism is a sustainable development concept and it contributes to the tourism in a country thereby conserving the natural habitat of that particular country. But ecotourism can render best results only if it is regulated by government. It is not easy to manage at the peak time of tourist season. A country must not solely depend over the revenue generated through ecotourism because the volume of tourists can dramatically vary from year to year. This may occur due to some changes in natural habitat of a particular country. This may also happen due to diversion of tourists to some other country due to some ongoing trend3. Ecotourism in Costa Rica Costa Rica is part of North America and official language is Spanish. San Jose is capital and majority of people adhere to Roman Catholic faith. Costa Rica declared independence for Spain in 1821 and from Mexico in 1823. As per census of 2011, the population of Costa Rica was 4.586 million. Costa Rica is one of the most favorite destinations for ecotourism in the world. There are plenty of places that attract tourists from all over the world. Ecotourism in Costa Rica dates back to early 1990s when people started to explore Costa Rica for their thrust of visiting natural and ecological places. As a matter of fact, Costa Rica is the most bio-diverse countries in the world. There are twenty natural parks and eight biological reserves in Costa Rica. Moreover, there are many other natural places that are visited by millions annually by the tourists around the world. Some of the most entertaining activities liked by tourists include horseback riding, hiking mountainous paths in the cloud forests, and guided bird-watching tours4. Cultural Material: Costa Ricans are also known as “Ticos”. Costa Rica is culturally rich country. Historically, native people are pre-Hispanic people but immigrants have lawyers been coming to Costa Rica to settle here. Due to presence of people from different regions, its culture is diverse in nature5. Immigrants from other areas also pursue their local culture in addition to adopting the culture of Costa Rica. Democracy of Costa Rica is one hindered years old and it has passed more than 50 years without any military and without any conflict. This suggests that Costa Rican people are peaceful. Majority native ethnic group are “Mestiz” people in addition to Bribri, Cabécar, Maleku, Teribe, Boruca, Ngöbe, Huetar and Chorotega native people. Travel Accounts: Majority of the people who visit Costa Rica are satisfied with the quality of services they received while in Costa Rica. By reading firsthand accounts of visitors we can observe that people always enjoy their trip to Costa Rica. Costa Rica is full of biodiversity and natural and environmental attractions that attract millions of people from around the world. anywherecostarica.com writes, forests, rivers, valleys, volcanoes and hundreds of beaches make Costa Rica a fascinating place. Further it writes that in addition to biodiversity and natural habitat, it rains the whole year in Costa Rica that also attracts people. Photographs: Costa Rica is the name of beautiful places. There are a lot beautiful tourist attraction is Costa Rica. Someone has rightly said that a picture is worth thousand words and same is the case with the pictures below. Following are some photographs of some famous places or objects in Costa Rica. There are a lot of websites that provide similar data related to Costa Rica and ecotourism in Costa Rica. Readers can refer to such kind of websites to get better idea of important and famous places visited by tourists. Figure 1: A stone created by culture Diquis Culture Figure 2: The Ujarrás historical site in the Orosí Valley, Cartago province Figure 3: Arenal Volcano Figure 4: Red-eyed Tree Frog (Agalychnis Callidryas) Figure 5: Heliconius Doris Linnaeus butterfly of Costa Rica Figure 6: An Intel microprocessor facility in Costa Rica is responsible for 20% of Costa Rican exports and 5% of the countrys GDP Figure 7: A coffee plantation in the Orosí Valley Figure 8: Poás Volcano Crater is one of the countrys main tourist attractions Social Movements: Costa Rica is diverse in culture due to presence of people of different ethnicities and cultures. Over the period of time, many social movements evolved for certain rights. Peasant’s movement against globalization was a notable movement for rights. This movement was started by poor peasants after the dismantling of social welfare system and enforcement of free market policy6. Another notable social movement in Costa Rica was feminist movement. This movement had got too much popularity. It was a successful and effective movement. The purpose of this feminist movement was to put in place equal gender representation all over the country. This feminist movement ended with the passage of related laws to enfranchise equal representation to both genders. Similar feminist movements took place in Mexico and other Latin American countries but those movements could not succeed. Another social movement started by the passage of RD-CAFTA. The passage of RD-CAFTA made it clear that Costa Rica is following the democratic and capitalistic approaches. A huge population fo Costa Rica was against democratic and capitalistic approaches. That is why student organizations, workers organizations, women movements, farmers unions, environmentalists and some organizations opposed this movement of passing RD-CAFTA7.Whether successful or failed, all these and other social movements have shaped the social and political landscape of Costa Rica. The Pros and Cons of Ecotourism in Costa Rica Tourism is one of the world’s largest service industries. Ecotourism is a major part of world tourism. Today, ecotourism is fastest growing branch of tourism. There is no denying the fact that ecotourism has got a lot of benefits for nature, environment, the world and the human beings, but there are some negative points of ecotourism for destination countries. Environmentalists have always been studying the positive and negative effects of ecotourism but many nations are racing for grabbing the profits associated with tourism8. Most of the third world is focusing on urbanization and industrialization but Costa Rica is striving to get greater share in ecotourism industry. Biodiversity, safety and security, location, strong environmental lobby, higher standards of living and international support are some factors that support and promote ecotourism in Costa Rica9. Ecotourism industry of Costa Rica has grown to become a major industry in the county over the period of last decade. Due to big volumes of tourists, ecotourism industry has become major source of income for Costa Rica. This is because of the reason that hotel and airline industry is flourishing due to increasing number of tourists. Other benefits include the safety of its natural habitat, alternative to environmentally damaging industries, encouragement of individual efforts to conserve natural habitat and encouragement of small scale infrastructure construction. People from the US, Canada, Germany, Spain, Columbia and Mexico dominate the county wise list of ecotourism in Costa Rica. There are some negative effects of ecotourism in Costa Rica. Due to the advent of large number tourists, the natural equilibrium may get disturbed. In pursuit of larger market share, Costa Rica is going beyond its capacity of hosting tourists. By doing so, the quality of service would definitely get disturbed. A major share of budget of protected-area of Costa Rica comes from foreign donors which weaken Costa Rica’s government’s role control over these places. There is a lack of effective enforcement as due to limited finances and inadequate local expertise and corruption. Conclusion From the above discussion about globalization, ecotourism and its effects on Costa Rica, we can conclude that ecotourism is benefitting Costa Rica in many aspects. People like to visit Costa Rica due to its biodiversity and natural habitat. Moreover, it is a peaceful and stable coutry with high human development index indicators. A large number of people from around the world are used to visit natural and historical places in Costa Rica. Ecotourism is one of the best ways to preserve our natural resources. Although ecotourism has always been present in the history of the world but it was officially started in the start of 1990s. Ecotourism’s history dates back to the time when the world became more concerned with the harms human beings had been making to environment. It is true that there are not only positive effects of ecotourism on a country but also there are some negative effects. Ecotourism is part of the process of sustainable development approach to growth in developing countries. But positive effects are more than negative effects. Positive effects include the increase in economic activities and conservation of natural habitat. Negative effects include the decrease in quality of service due to arrival of more tourists than the capacity; possibility of corruption and lack of effective control over natural habitat. Ecotourism is an important tool for developing world to increase their economics activities and at the same time by conserving natural habitat and environment. Since its independence from Spain, Costa Ricans have witnessed many structural changes in the country. Many social movements had been started by the citizens. Important social movements include feminist movement, peasant’s social movement and movement against democratic and capitalistic policies of government. Taking care of negative points can further strengthen the ecotourism industry. Bibliography Alexander C. O Neill. (2002). “What Globalization Means for Ecotourism: Managing Globalizations Impacts on Ecotourism in Developing Countries”. Indiana University School of Global Legal Studies. Volume 9, Issue 2, Article 6. Indiana University School of Law. Read More