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Countries Appendix COSTA RICA (24.4%) The Central American country of Costa Rica, despite its small size, has incredible diversity with some 9000 species of plants, 1239 species of butterflies, 850 species of birds, 350 species of reptiles and amphibians, and 205 species of mammals. Costa Rica has an ambitious conservation program, perhaps one of the most developed in the world for a country with rainforests. In June of '95, the government presented a plan to protect 18% of the country in national parks and another 13% in privately owned preserves. Areas targeted for protection will be those with high biodiversity. The government plans to pay for the project by issuing landowners forest protection certificates which will annually pay landowners about $50 for every forest hectare (2.5 acres) with the agreement that the forest will be protected. Already over 11% of Costa Rica is protected in national parks. 11% is equivalent of the US setting aside all of Texas and Oklahoma as protected nature reserves. One unique strip of forest runs uninterrupted for 40 miles through nine ecological zones from sea level to 12,500 feet. As for rainforest protection, around two-thirds of Costa Rica's remaining rainforests are protected. Costa Rica has initiated numerous inventive programs to promote sustainable development. One such project, organized by FUNDECOR (Foresta Project of the Foundation for the Development of the Central Volcanic Mountain Range), works to sustainably manage more than 13,000 hectares (30,000 acres) of forest by developing forest management plans for landowners. Not only do the landowners end up with more money in their pocket, but also do less damage to the forest as they remove valuable trees. Costa Rica has exploited "eco-tourism" (Costa Rica's second largest industry behind bananas adding US$700 million to GDP) like no other forested country, although in some areas this source of revenue appears to have been overexploited. Some developers are building huge resorts that not only spoil the environment but fail to attract those interested in saving Costa Rica's environment. National parks, like Manuel Antonio National Park, are being over-run by tourists and surrounded by huge hotels. Some of these parks have been closed to allow the wildlife and environment to recover from the masses of tourists. Nevertheless, Costa Rica serves as a example to other developing countries that economic well-being is compatible with forest preservation. In April 1998, Costa Rica launched a program to protect 1.25 million acres (500,000 ha) of rainforest by selling allowances to emit greenhouses gases. The program could earn Costa Rica more than $20 million this year and more than $300 million over the life of the project. Scientists estimate that the program will remove more than one million metric tons of carbon from the atmosphere. Despite its good conservation legislation, Costa Rica has one of the worst deforestation rates (3.0% from 1990-95) in Latin America. Forests originally covered 99% of the country, a percentage which had been reduced to 85% by 1940, and stands around 24.4% today. Clearing for agriculture (mostly coffee and bananas) and cattle pastures are the largest contributors to Costa Rica's rainforest destruction. During the 1970s and early 1980s, vast stretches of rainforest were burned and converted into cattle lands, but when the largest importer of Central American beef, the United States, stopped importing beef, Costa Rica was left with millions of acres of cleared land and a bunch of cattle. Cleared timber is not used much and usually burned or left to rot. Deforestation has resulted in flooding, the conversion of land into barren wasteland, soil erosion, and siltation of rivers. Today Costa Rica's remaining forests and protected forests are in serious trouble. Though the government pushes its outstanding environmental record, its is failing to live up to its rhetoric. To finance budget needs, in light of the country's high foreign debt, the central government takes revenue from national park proceeds, forcing parks to downsize rangers and relax regulations. Illegal loggers bribe park officials to extract valuable hardwoods from national parks. Loggers, farmers, and cattle ranchers clearcut and burn the stretches of the few remaining watershed forests that are not protected. To compound things, many national parks are privately owned, meaning that landowners can technically do whatever they please with the forests on their lands. In the past decade Costa Rica has taken strides to attract foreign high technology firms and investors. Costa Rica is an attractive market for investors because of its low productions costs, yet stable political and social situation. In 1998, Intel opened a pentium processor assembly plant and continued work on three more plants. The effort is beginning to pay off as revenue from high-tech exports is expected to surpass that from coffee, bananas, and tourism as the largest foreign currency earners. Today the lone plant generates more export income than all the banana farms in the country, though it only employs 2000 workers compared to the 50,000 banana workers. There is hope that attracting these high tech industries will help the government meet its debt payments and reduce the need for subsidizing budget needs with funds set aside for conservation. . . . . . For current information I highly recommend trying the CIA and FAO links below. |
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