Holiday Homes,
Hotels
Endangering
Ecotourism
By Daniel Zueras
(IPS) - The boom in construction projects on the Pacific coast of Costa
Rica is
threatening
biodiversity and
compromising the
future of the
country's widely
promoted
ecological
tourism, says a
study by Costa
Rican and U.S.
scientists.
The study,
compiled over a
two-year period
by the Centre
for Responsible
Travel (CREST)
at Stanford
University in
California,
examines the
problems
inherent in the
Costa Rican
tourism model,
particularly the
uncontrolled
sprawl of
holiday resorts
and homes.
"The priority is
to get rich, no
matter who gets
trampled on in
the process,"
Gady Amit, head
of the
environmental
organisation
Confraternidad
Guanacasteca,
told IPS.
The growth of
infrastructure
for the tourism
industry has
caused
irreversible
damage to the
northwestern
province of
Guanacaste,
bathed by the
Pacific ocean,
and runs counter
to the tenets of
"green tourism",
a major
attraction for
visitors to
Costa Rica.
The voracity of
the construction
boom is also
threatening the
Osa peninsula,
on the south
Pacific coast,
one of the 25
most biodiverse
places on the
planet, home to
2.5 percent of
the world's
species. "It's a
treasure trove
of unusual
biodiversity,
one of very few
such places
remaining in the
world," said
CREST advisory
board member
Margarita Penón.
The study titled
"The Impact of
Tourism Related
Development
along Costa
Rica's Pacific
Coast" was
presented in San
José this month
by CREST
director William
Durham and
several of the
researchers
involved. It
recommends
"rethinking" the
development of
tourism and
associated
infrastructure,
before it is too
late.
But the Costa
Rican Tourism
Institute (ICT),
a government
body which
oversees the
sector,
disagrees with
some of the
report's
assertions.
María Amalia
Revelo, deputy
manager and
marketing
director of ICT,
told IPS that
the model for
developing
domestic tourism
has been based,
for the last 15
years, "on small
accommodation
units,
complemented
with
medium-sized
hotels."
The average is
17 rooms per
hotel, "which
indicates that
the country's
tourism model
has been
sustained over
time," she said.
Revelo admitted
that there are
some big hotels
on the Pacific
coast, but said
they are not the
norm, and that
"big does not
necessarily mean
bad." In her
view, the
country has
managed to
balance both
types of hotel.
But local
environmentalists
concur with
CREST that the
main problem is
in the real
estate sector,
which is putting
up large housing
developments,
golf courses and
shopping centres
on the coastline
itself.
"The hotel
sector at least
provides jobs,
whereas
residential
developments,
once
construction is
finished, do
not," said Amit.
The study
emphasises that
excessive
development will
condemn the
coastal area to
landslides,
pollution and
damage to the
mangrove, coral
reef and forest
ecosystems, as
well as to
shortages of
drinking water
in future.
In fact, some
local towns are
already having
problems with
water supply as
a result of high
levels of
consumption by
tourists and
golf courses.
The community of
Sardinal in
Guanacaste
province is in
open conflict
with the central
government over
its water
rights.
In other places,
like Tamarindo,
home purchases
by residential
holiday makers
have displaced
the local
residents.
"There are no
people left, and
hardly any
businesses,"
Amit said.
The reason is
that prices of
land, houses and
services have
soared beyond
the reach of the
pockets of most
Costa Ricans.
On the Papagayo
peninsula, one
of the main
tourism-real
estate
development
poles in the
country, land
used to cost 100
dollars a
hectare, but
nowadays "that
money would only
buy you one
square metre,"
Amit said.
Furthermore, the
overpopulation
associated with
unplanned
development has
dramatically
increased
coastal
pollution.
"People are
bathing in pure
sh*t," Amit said
bluntly.
The beach at
Tamarindo has
had to be closed
on several
occasions
because of the
health risk
posed by high
counts of faecal
bacteria. The
huge hotel and
residential
complexes have
no treatment
facilities for
their waste
water - or if
they do have
treatment
plants, they
hardly use them
in order to save
on maintenance
costs.
Meanwhile, in
Osa "the threat
is looming ever
closer," said
Merlyn Oviedo,
who owns a small
hotel in Puerto
Jiménez, a rare
showcase of
humid tropical
ecosystems.
He said tourist
agents on the
peninsula feel
that the natural
habitats they
depend on are
endangered by a
kind of
development that
is diametrically
opposed to
ecotourism.
New highways
have been built
linking the
capital, San
José, and the
central Pacific
region with Osa,
in the extreme
south of
Puntarenas
province. Easy
access and a
shorter journey
will bring yet
more tourists to
this area,
described as
Costa Rica's
last wilderness
frontier.
"We want this
infrastructure,
but it's scary
to think what it
might bring,"
said Oviedo,
mentioning as a
negative example
a "huge highway"
that comes to
within three
kilometres of
his property.
Plans to convert
the local
airport in Osa
into an
international
airport
triggered alarm.
CREST's director
emphatically
recommended
ditching the
idea, because it
would lead to
"monstrous" and
predatory
development.
"The threat
would be
enormous,"
Oviedo agreed.
ICT's Ravelo
denied that the
pattern seen in
Guanacaste would
be imitated at
Osa, because the
two ecosystems
and what they
have to offer
are very
different. The
Osa peninsula
has a variety of
rainforests and
wetlands, while
in the north dry
tropical
landscapes
predominate.
The study is
critical of the
lack of
regulation and
land use
planning, and of
the absence of
coordination
between the 35
bodies involved
in granting
permits for real
estate
development and
tourism projects
along the
Pacific
shoreline.
The report
confirms that
two different
interests are
increasingly at
loggerheads in
Costa Rica: the
tourism sector,
which brings in
two billion
dollars annually
and welcomes two
million visitors
a year, and
environmental
conservation in
a country of
just over 51,000
square
kilometres that
harbours 4.5
percent of
global
biodiversity. |
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