Costa Rica Conservation Trust - The Bigger Picture

PROGRAMS & PROJECTS

Learn about CRCT's programs and current campaigns, including a Recycling and Waste Management Campaign, Ecological Awareness Campaign, Water Protection Program, Sustainably Grown Coffee Program... MORE

DONATE TODAY

By supporting CRCT, you are helping preserve and heal ecosystems that are in danger of deforestation and poaching. Please help us keep our planet green, protect our wildlife and educate towards a better world.
DONATE TODAY!

VOLUNTEER PROGRAM

"Leave a positive footprint!" Experience Costa Rica in a meaningful way! Open to families, individuals and youth. Learn more about our Volunteer Program Today!

The Bigger Picture
Socially Responsible Tourism, Conservation and Land Purchasing
- A Costa Rican Experience
By Kimberly Newton de Klootwyk

There is much talk about what a great investment opportunity it is to buy the dirt cheap farms of Costa Rica, or what a great thing it is to do to save the environment. Unfortunately, what is happening all over Costa Rica is that thousands of acres are either being bought by foreigners for conservation and taken completely out of production, or they are being sustainably (and unsustainably) developed by non-Costa Ricans without giving the Costa Rican rural farmers much of a chance to participate equally in the conservation and potential of their own country. Farmers are being bought out faster than anyone can keep track of and the long term social and ecological impact of this trend must be looked at, given the historical precedence of Latin American countries where wealth tends to get concentrated in the hands of the few and/or in the hands of foreign "investors." Historically, almost equal distribution of land and wealth among the Costa Rican people is what has created the present conditions so that foreigners feel safer there than in neighboring countries and why Costa Rica is such a great place to visit and live. Environmentally and socially responsible land-buyers, conservationists, investors, and tourists are a great opportunity to help the country develop in an ecologically sustainable way, remain socially and politically stable, have enhanced economic and social conditions, etc. But irresponsible and short-sighted actions on behalf of these sectors will likely lead to larger social and ecological problems.

The social and environmental havoc that 'dog-eats-dog' type of developers and agro-businesses are causing in Costa Rica and around the world, particularly in coastal regions, is a serious concern and must be addressed, but I specifically want to reach out, with this article, to the thousands of conservation-minded, conscious and progressive individuals that are going down to Costa Rica and elsewhere as tourists and/or buying land to start new eco-communities, establish healing centers and eco-tourism destinations, start organic farms, conserve the environment, etc. It is these individuals who are more open to breaking through old paradigms and upon realizing they are doing something damaging, are more likely to change. I think they simply don't realize that they unintentionally may be causing social and ecological problems with their tourist dollars, their land purchases and/or the way they develop and carry out their projects and ventures. I hope that after reading this article and "seeing" the bigger picture, more people will attempt to leave a positive ecological and social footprint wherever they are.

I am not immune to being ignorant to the social and ecological long-term effects of an enterprise. I come from a long line of "short sightedness," in an attempt to do good. My grandfather was one of the engineers on the Panamerican highway from Mexico to Panama and established the first heavy machinery (Caterpillar) import companies throughout Central America. He felt the only way to combat poverty in the region and have progress was by building it. Then in the early 1980s, my father, as president of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce in El Salvador, was deeply involved in pushing U.S. involvement in the Salvadorian civil war because he wanted U.S. corporations to build factories there so that thousands of jobs could be created. He felt that a man with work would be one less soldier or gorilla. And alas, in 2003, I helped form a non-profit conservation organization, whose initial approach was to buy up all the farms that were for sale bordering a Costa Rican reserve. We wanted to avoid destructive entities from buying these lands, and so we formed an organization that would be poised to buy them when they came on the market. We envisioned expanding and protecting existing protected areas and biological corridors, and establishing eco-campgrounds where visiting guests and youth could learn about and be inspired by the rainforest. However, when I went to live and conduct research in my father's birth country, and specifically, in the communities where we were going to buy land, important questions I could not ignore kept coming up over and over again.

Why are so many farmers selling their lands, even though they express regrets that they have to? What will happen to the farming families that are displaced by these land purchases? Will they ever be able to buy land again? Will this turning over of lands to foreigners have an effect on the social fabric and political stability of Costa Rica over the long term, especially if Costa Ricans can no longer afford land in their own country? Is this contributing to the historical trend of land being concentrated in the hands of the few? Is the Costa Rican government doing something about it? Will the displaced farmers create more environmental problems elsewhere living in overcrowded and overtaxed urban centers? How many of them will end up migrating to the United States and adopting a consumer-based, disposable culture and becoming part of the 20% of the world's population that consumes 80% of the world's resources? What about the social problems that arise from massive migration of farmers to urban centers or the United States? What happens when large amounts of arable land are allowed to convert back to forests and no type of sustainable systems of production are allowed to happen on them? Will the local populations have to start importing their corn, wood, beans, and other products traditionally grown on their small farms? How is that ecologically sustainable? Can ecological sustainable development be economically viable enough to help small farmers keep their farms? Will it increase their quality of life enough to move them out of a place of poverty so they don't have to hunt, log or ranch anymore? Can the local farmers truly manage their own lands and villages sustainably? Do they want to? What do they need, in order to do so? Is there a way for foreigners to live in Costa Rica and own land and businesses in an environmentally and socially responsible way? Is there a way to do conservation in a socially sustainable way?

Perhaps it's because I am a Central American historian/anthropologist that I ask questions that others seem to be totally overlooking. I am in the process of searching for these answers and Costa Rica Conservation Trust (CRCT), the organization that at one time was a land-buying organization, has become a living experiment working closely with the local farmers and their children to help them sustainably develop their [i]own lands and help them convert to sustainable income strategies that replace non-sustainable agricultural and forest extraction practices. These alternative income strategies are meant to increase their standard of living above poverty, thus curbing their need to migrate or sell their farms. If there is a need to, we mentor the family on how to sell only a piece of their farm and try to link them up with progressive land buyers that want to buy in a socially responsible way. We also provide awareness and technical education on sustainable living practices (i.e. recycling) and teach emerging community leaders how to develop and carry out ecological programs on their own. All this is done primarily through a volunteer program tailored for visiting tourists, youth groups, etc. who want to leave a positive footprint while exploring the country. This cross-cultural and enriching experience provides visitors with a chance to live with and help Costa Ricans, particularly the youth, participate in the conservation and potential of their country.

After two years of working side by side with the local youth and leaders of five rural Costa Rican farming communities, it is apparent that local people can and will change their destructive behaviors and become the conscious caretakers of their own lands. They told me that what they needed in order to do so is awareness and technical education, tools, resources, concrete sustainable income options based on real market needs, and a link with conscious markets/buyers willing to pay a just price for their new sustainably produced product or service. CRCT is focused on collaborating with them to fulfill these needs and every time we have come through, they have proven themselves. I have seen them design projects to help their neighbors build methane-digesters to stop pollution of waterways from pig farms; I have seen them establish and manage recycling centers; I have seen them build up an eco-tourism cooperative and venture into related sustainable income strategies to replace unsustainable land-use practices; I have seen them denounce the illegal hunting and logging activities of their neighbors and relatives, and I have seen them travel for miles on foot through the rainy jungle to attend meetings where we explore and co-develop solutions to their own environmental, social, and economic problems.

I have also witnessed that many rural farmers, upon selling their farms due to economic desperation, have ended up nomadic migrants living in the inner cities of Latin urban centers and the U.S. where drugs, violence, gangs, and prostitution consume many of their youth. Once they pay off their debts, split up the money between an excessive amount of children (sometimes up to 18!) and move to the city, they quickly find that what they sold their farm for is really not that much money (low educational levels also contribute to the mismanagement of their money). With no land to go back to, a disintegrated family, and with low technical training, many end up living an impoverished life as undocumented laborers, landscapers, factory and agricultural workers, and domestic maids. Sometimes the man goes up to "el Norte" alone and leaves his family behind. It is not uncommon for these men never to return or disappear. There are also numerous cases of migrants dying trying to make the journey northward in search of a living wage.

This all represents a larger environmental problem as well because Costa Rican urban households create (on average) two times more garbage than Costa Rican rural farming households, and the average U.S. household creates triple what a Costa Rican urban household produces. Thus, after leaving the countryside, families that lived on the same farm, now live spread out in numerous urban households and each of them rapidly adopts a disposable-over-packaged life style and creates an average of four times more garbage than they used to as one unit. In addition, numerous reports have shown that the U.S. consumer-based culture and over-taxed urban centers are wreaking havoc on the environment in ways that are worse at the global scale than the relatively small damage farming families were doing when living on their farms. And lastly, it is not uncommon for farmers that at one time were logging a few trees per year to end up working in sweat shops or farms for companies that contribute to the clearing of thousands of acres of forest each year and other massive environmental problems. It is an ironic "Bigger Picture" when one stops to really look at it.

I believe strongly that the influx of visitors, eco-developers and conservation-minded individuals into Costa Rica is a great opportunity for curbing this forced economic migration and promoting sustainable development in the region, but foreigners doing business in the country must adopt a win-win mentality. In other words, they should enhance, integrate with, and contribute to already existing structures and communities, rather than creating isolated diasporas of where they came from, and ignoring the social problems their presence may be creating. Conservation organizations should consider alternatives to land purchasing and tourists should support socially and environmentally responsible tourism-related businesses, especially locally-owned, cooperative enterprises, and/or foreign-owned business that are working with their Costa Rican neighbors and the environment in a positive way.

When foreigners work in TRUE cooperation with the local communities, local farmers have an opportunity to expand into ecologically sustainable income strategies. For example, if a foreign-owned lodge hires locals for meaningful jobs (not just maids and gardeners), and buys its produce from local organic farmers at a fair price, then that provides local farmers with important jobs and a local market for sustainably produced goods that wouldn't otherwise exist. In addition, if there are no trained guides or organic farmers in the area, some lodges teach the locals how to convert to organic or provide training, thus directly contributing to the sustainable development of the neighboring farms where the lodge is situated, and providing meaningful job opportunities for youth that otherwise would have to migrate to the cities or the U.S. to find work. Other lodges outsource activities and tours to neighbors offering tourism destinations on their farms. Furthermore, not all foreign-owned lodges are built on lands that displaced farming families. Some only bought a piece of a larger farm at a fair price or bought from a landowner that has many other farms. What is unfortunate is that many are not doing this and instead of outsourcing and doing business with locals, they create their own self-contained organic farms or buy from the organic farms of their foreign buddies in other regions of the country; and instead of hiring and training locals for meaningful, well-paying jobs, they only offer servitude jobs to them, thus totally missing a golden opportunity to become positive part of an existing community - the Costa Rican community. And unfortunately, many are buying up all the land they can and calling their friends, business partners and families to buy all the neighboring farms as far as the eye can see, thus displacing countless farming families. And finally, foreign-owned tourism businesses are often completely ignorant that Costa Ricans are trying to expand into the eco-tourism sector as well, but that they cannot compete because they simply cannot compete.

Developers, investors, entrepreneurs (especially tourism and real estate agents), conservationists, NGO's, etc. in Costa Rica and around the world, can and must simultaneously enhance the existing ecological and social landscape of a country, and do so in a way that integrates the local and indigenous people in a positive way; a way that empowers them to be co-creators, entrepreneurs, and problem-solvers too. We must do this if we want true sustainability and peace.

Your ideas, comments, concerns and questions on this subject are important in order to further this dialogue. Please visit www.conservecostarica.org or e-mail info@conservecostarica.org. We also offer consulting services to make your project, investment or venture in Latin America more socially and ecologically responsible, and can refer you to responsible travel and real estate agencies.

Our Mission | Philosophy | Executive Summary & Objectives | History | Why Costa Rica? | Staff/Board