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Costa RicaAbout Costa Rica | Sustainable Agriculture | Sustainable Forestry | Sustainable Tourism | Neotropics Communications Sustainable TourismFrom its lush mountains, to its magnificent rainforests and coastline Costa Rica’s astounding beauty earns high marks from visitors around the world. Its tourism revenues surpass those generated by traditional commodities such as coffee, meat, sugar, bananas and fishing.
Ecotourism to Costa Rica’s many protected natural areas is particularly significant, as it not only means millions of dollars that go toward park protection, but some 50,000 jobs. Tourism certification: Costa Rica pioneered sustainable tourism certification in Central America in 1997. There is currently an intergovernmental agreement to expand the Costa Rican Certification for Sustainable Tourism (CST) program to other countries in the region, including the Caribbean. The Rainforest Alliance is working on an initiative to expand the benefits of sustainable tourism certification to small and medium sized enterprises in Costa Rica through pilot projects in geographic areas that are not currently benefiting from CST. The proposed work will take place along the Caribbean coastline, recognized for its distinctive topography and its complex cultural mosaic. The project will teach best management practices, provide training sessions on certification, conduct certification assessments, and promote certification within environmental markets. In Costa Rica, the Rainforest Alliance’s work will complement the National Institute for Biodiversity (INBio) project entitled “Support to the Use of Biodiversity by Small Enterprises,” inviting the participation of any ecotourism ventures working with INBio in our pilot projects and standard-setting process. PROARCA/APM
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