Eco tourism In Costa Rica: Tirimbina Rainforest Center
August 30, 2009 by Victor C. Krumm
Filed under Destinations
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Eco tourism in Costa Rica takes many shapes and forms and is experienced or enjoyed in different ways. Indeed, the word “eco tourism” means different things and has different connotations to different people.
For many travelers, Costa Rica eco tourism is about enjoying and experiencing Costa Rica’s biological diversity. This little country comprises only about 1/10,000 of the world’s land surface (the size of West Virginia) yet, unbelievably, nearly one of every five species of plant and animal on the globe are found in Costa Rica. The country has more kinds of butterflies than in all of the countries on the entire African continent put together. Costa Rica has recorded almost 900 different kinds of birds, nearly as many as are in the continental United States. The world’s largest Green Sea Turtle preserve has been created off the Caribbean Coast at Tortuguero National Park. 35% of the world’s different species of whales and porpoises (cetaceans) are found in its offshore waters. Humpback whales from Antarctica travel thousands of miles north to Costa Rica every year while Arctic humpbacks swim thousands of miles south to the very same waters. For that reason, Costa Rica has the longest humpback viewing season anywhere. Corcovado National Park is just 20 miles long and some 8 miles wide but, according to National Geographic, is “the most biologically intense place” on the globe. Tens of thousands of persons visit Costa Rica annually to see or experience these kinds of things. I call them “vacation eco tourists.”
But, Costa Rica eco tourism is more diverse than Costa Rica whale watching, or a Costa Rica photography tour, scuba diving off magnificent Cocos Island, or hiking lovely jungle trails to waterfalls. And, few places exemplify that diversity of eco tourism experience better than the Tirimbina Rainforest Center. I bet you never heard of it.
The Tirimbina Rainforest Center sits on about 345 hectares, or 850 acres, of primary rain forest. This is the original rain forest that covered 99% of Central America when Christopher Columbus explored its Caribbean coast in 1502. Indeed, when you visit primary rain forest you will literally see trees that have been around since Columbus’ es time. Unfortunately, over the following five centuries, burning and logging decimated most of the Central American rain forests. Today, only vestiges of this important resource remain.
The Center’s history goes back to 1960 when an American, Robert Hunter, went to Costa Rica to work for the Inter-American Institute for Science and Agriculture and bought the land now occupied by the Center. He invited American scientists to the property, one of whom was Dr. Allen Young of the Milwaukee (Wisconsin) Public Museum, and an internationally acknowledged expert on rain forests and cacao cultivation. Dr. Young, and others, like him, who have visited the Center over the last decades are “research eco tourists.” Their professional curiosity and work on rain forests have proved invaluable.
Dr. Young ‘s fascination with Tirimbina carried over to the Milwaukee Public Museum itself. In 1986, it created a permanent exhibit about the tropical rain forest that it called “Exploring Life on Earth.” Over the next several decades hundreds of thousands of children, men, and women visited the Tirimbina exhibit as “virtual eco tourists” and their increasing awareness of the importance–and fragility-of rain forests have contributed to tropical forest preservation demands by the public. The Museum bought the Tirimbina Rainforest Center and managed it until its 2006 sale to a Milwaukee nonprofit called the Pura Vida Foundation. Today, the Center belongs to a Costa Rica nonprofit organization, the Asociacion Tirimbina Para La Conservacion, Investigacion y Educacion.
Should you be interested in conservation and eco tourism I recommend visiting the Tirimbina Rainforest Center if you are: (a) A “tropical research eco tourist.” The Center is a working rain forest research site with many national and international projects. For 30 years, doctorate research, graduate studies, and museum related projects have taken place there as well; (b) An undergraduate looking for a unique study abroad opportunity. Recently, Ball State University of Indianapolis announced a new Study Abroad in Costa Rica program that will be at the Tirimbina Rainforest Center starting Spring Semester 2010. Students will get college credits and live with local families. Modeled after two very popular Ball State study abroad programs in London and Australia, it will have a uniquely Costa Rica flavor. Each participant will be a “student eco tourist”‘; or (c) Looking to see or visit a working tropical forest research center that also hosts family activities and educational projects like hiking through primary rain forest (there are five miles of trails); a frog tour; a bird tour; a bat tour; even a chocolate tour. There is an aerial tram tour and boat tour as well plus a great number of optional activities (visit the Tirimbina Rainforest Center website for a list). Accommodations and a restaurant are on site for “family ecotourists” who want to stay overnight or for several days.
Even though the tropical rain forest research community has known about the Tirimbina Rainforest Center for over 40 years, just 8,000 Costa Rica eco tourists a year typically visit. It is off the beaten path but if you are planning to travel to Costa Rica and are a serious eco tourist, give the Center serious consideration.