The Beginnings: Costa Rica Eco Tourism, Teddy Roosevelt And The Matterhorn
August 11, 2009 by Victor C. Krumm
Filed under Destinations
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Like many of life’s greatest achievements, it began by accident. It started with one unique man 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 adventurers who loved nature. So it was that he decided to climb the famous Mount Matterhorn. When he did so, however, he was distressed by what he encountered on the mountain or, more accurately, what he did not see.
The mighty Matterhorn Mountain was nearly lifeless. There were no longer any wolves, bears, mountain goats or sheep, creatures of wilderness. Where once there had been abundant life there was now—silence.
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 think. The Matterhorn brought home to him the need 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.
Teddy Roosevelt’s singular accomplishment led to the birth of eco tourism. Americans quickly demonstrated that they will gladly pay money to visit wilderness and see wildlife—at least in the United States.
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 described “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.
With challenge comes opportunity for the bold and thoughtful and, in an apparently unlikely alliance, conservationists and business interests argued in favor of setting aside resources for sustainable, rather than exploitative, development. For whatever reason, the government agreed to this rather bold experiment and, in just three decades, has now set aside nearly 25% of the country for parks and preserves. Roosevelt, ever the visionary, would applaud if still here.
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. Impressively 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 in the world.
It has been a spectacular reversal in fortune. The country has vaulted into the #1 position on the Happiest Place in the World Index even as Costa Rica eco tourism has soared. Sustainable tourism has lifted the economy while preserving its wonders. As it turns out, Columbus was exactly right when he named this place “the rich coast” or “Costa Rica.” The Spanish governor was dead wrong when he derided Costa Rica as “the poorest and most miserable Spanish colony in Americas.” And, Theodore Roosevelt, the world’s first eco tourist, would smile in delight if he were here today.
To close, we need to revisit the Swiss Matterhorn, the impetus 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. 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 five 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.