www.CostaRicaTicas.com

With the Tarcoles River dumping a lot of San Jose's raw sewage just north of Jaco, I can't beleive anyone swims in the ocean there. I have to agree that Costa Rica's eco tourism reputation is highly undeserved.

I think you guys have missed my point. It is not that ticos are any more or less environmentally sensitive than folks back home in the US. It is that SOME businesses at least TRY to be and that we can encourage more businesses to be too by channeling as much of our patronage as possible to those that are. Large scale foreign owned tourist enterprises, by their very nature, are much less likely to be concerned about their impact on the local environment (beyond whatever local regulations exist) than they are about reurning a profit for their corporate headquarters back in the US. Smaller scale businesses, even if they are not environmentally conscious, by their nature put less strain on the local environment.

As far as how CR compares to other countries in terms of ecological mindedness, they probably ARE over-rated. They certainly aren't perfect. But to the extent they appear worse than other neighboring countries it has probably more to do with their very success at drawing tourist and economic activity (other countries would like to be just like CR if they could). Also the mere presence of ecotourism does not totally eliminate the drive for developing countries to create jobs through other means or to cut econmic corners.

The one undeniable fact is that at least CR has put aside far more of their territory as national parks than any other country (while clearing the unprotected land immediately outside all those parks) and that this reputation has drawn hundreds of thousands of eco-tourists each year. One would think that would be an entirely good thing and provide economic incentive for the locals to protect their natural resources that draw us rather than exploit them in less desirable ways, but it is not quite that simple. Some of these eco-tourists are of the granola-eating ecologically-minded lonely-planet variety and some are of the less eco-savvy package-tourist frommers variety. Even if they were ALL eco-savvy several hundred thousand visitors would put a HUGE strain on the local environment. That they all AREN'T opens up the door for less scrupulous or at least less far-sighted promoters to open up businesses with no true regard for the environment to grab a share of those "eco-tourism" dollars. In short, ironically many of CR's environmental problems are a direct result of it's environmental success.

BTW, has anyone else ever taken a look at the garbage strewn and highly polluted Rio Torres gulley that runs just north of downtown and thought if they ever got their shit together and cleaned that up it could make a very nice little tourist attraction in itself with shops, restaurants and little inns overlooking the mostly forested banks and occasional whitewater ripples? I'm sure it will never happen though.