Like so many of the world’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.

matterhorn

It started with a extraordinary man on a intriguing but 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 sapphire 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 explorer, 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 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 person most responsible for today’s eco tourism. Roosevelt recognized that unless vast tracts of land were set aside, relentless exploitation would ultimately lead to disaster.

So, upon becoming President, he did something no one before him had considered. He set aside an extraordinary 230 million acres as wilderness and parks over massive objections from vested interests, gold miners, timber companies, and robber barons. President Roosevelt’s wonderful vision led to an extraordinary discovery. The American public gladly pay to visit 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 described “the poorest and most miserable Spanish colony in all Americas”? By the middle part of the 20th century, most of its forests had been cut or burned 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 looked bleak, particularly when the world coffee market crashed in the early 1970s.

Costa Rica rainforest

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, nonpolluting hydro-electric plants. Impressively 99% of its electrical power now comes from hydro—and it is beginning to install wind turbines as well. Columbia and Yale researchers now rate 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 #1 position on the Happiest Place in the World Index.  The Spanish Governor who made that statement was dead wrong. Columbus, however, 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, we need to return to the Swiss Matterhorn, the impetus 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. There is irony here. Costa Rica is often called the “Switzerland” of the tropics but Switzerland could learn a lesson from the Latin country. Costa Rica’s mountains are filled with life. Indeed, one of every five species of plants and animals on earth are found here. Meanwhile, the Swiss have learned little and the magnificent Matterhorn remains silent because its life was exploited, not cherished. The Swiss, like Costa Rica, has done a good job with its environment—-now it needs to take the next step and bring life back to the Matterhorn.

About the writer: Vic Krumm lives in sunny Costa Rica.

Visit his acclaimed website about Costa Rica Vacations and see why Costa Rica Tourism is world-famous.

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