S. Department of State, Costa Rica has been a Constitutional Democracy since 1949, which makes it the oldest and most stable democracy in all of Latin America. Its partnerships with the global community are therefore a matter of some inherency. But this inherency cannot be accepted without some caution. This is demonstrated by a study produced Boo (1992). Here, at the early outset of Costa Rica's effort to grow tourism, Boo's research warned that some of the risks of increased interaction between growing numbers of tour groups and protected natural lands might be difficult to project. Accordingly, Boo noted that "increasing demand for nature tourism is reflected in the number of tour operators offering tours to protected areas and in the increasing number of foreign visitors to national parks. Examples of some of the major protected areas are presented and the economic impacts of tourism are assessed. In environmental terms, nature tourism has had many beneficial impacts. Few negative impacts have been recorded, but comprehensive scientific studies have yet to be carried out." (Boo, p. 25)
This would denote the uncertainty with which Costa Rica would attempt to pursue a balance between its natural bounty and its economic objectives.
Public Policy Recommendations:
Today, it is clear that there is no reversing the trend of foreign involvement in Costa Rican affairs. Like so many other developing nations, it is to an extent at the mercy of globalization's implications. Free-trade agreements and especially the presence of so much FDI from the United States, indicate that public policy will be impacted by external forces. It is for this reason that policy orientation must increasingly reflect mobilization of local communities where possible.
As this effects policy recommendation, it is of great importance that Costa Rica seize on examples of success already achieved in its first decades of evolving ecotourism. An article by Matarrita-Cascante & Brennan (2010) provides a case study of the success achieved in balancing local community involvement with significant tourism influx in order to maintain sustainability while simultaneously bringing financial growth to residents of such areas. The result of the study, Matarrita-Cascante & Brennan would report, would be a demonstration of the ways in which local community involvement tend to advance the goals of natural conservation.
The study presented in their article offers a case study of the small town of La Fortuna, which rests in the shadow of the Arenal Volcano. Because the volcano and its surrounding habitat draw so many visitors, La Fortuna has increasingly become defined by its accommodation of visitors even as it remains a highly residential community. There is a clear stasis here between the protection of the natural beauty that distinguishes the region and the facilitation of lodging, shopping, dining and even some modest nightlife in the small downtown area. In their study, Matarrita-Cascante & Brennan report that La Fortuna is a positive example of the way that local policy development should involve community agency to seamlessly integrate tourism needs. According to Matarrita-Cascante & Brennan, "the study shows how economic, social and environmentally sustainable practices were made possible through community agency, the construction of local relationships that increase the adaptive capacity of people within a common locality. Key factors found to enable community agency are strong intra- and extra-community interactions, open communication, participation, distributive justice and tolerance." (Matarrita-Cascante & Brennan, p. 735)
These features all are in evidence in Fortuna and have been achieved without sprawl and with minimal disruption of the natural landscape. The wide array of resorts and hotels that crop out from the town are generally built into the geographic peculiarities of the region rather than constructed in spite of them. As Matarrita-Cascante & Brennan show, this approach is the result of the employment of local rather than corporate or foreign developers as well as the mobilization of members of the local community as tour bus drivers, hospitality staffs, shopkeepers and tour guides. This model is in evidence elsewhere throughout Costa Rica and should be seen as the template for policy approach in continually emergent areas of interest to tourists. As the text by Matarrita-Cascante & Brennan resolves, "such community-based development has been noted as essential for sustainable practices because of its capacity to benefit local populations while reducing tourism's negative consequences." (Matarrita-Cascante & Brennan, p. 735)
Additionally, policy-makers should appeal to these local populations as a way of addressing areas of need for tourists as well as terms of restrictions for land use. For instance,...
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