The Growth of Environmentalism
A notion of value and responsibility towards the land has historically been an important part of Costa Rica’s national identity and consciousness, even the advent of coffee cultivation did not have a particularly detrimental effect, with coffee produced on mainly on small, family-owned cafeteras, the country remained 85% forested until the 1940s.
However, all that changed with the introduction of the banana industry and the United Fruit Company in the late 1800s, followed by the development of cattle-raising for export in the 20th Century, both of which entailed clearing vast areas of land for pasture and plantation. Between 1950 and the early 1980s, encouraged by the World Bank’s rural lending scheme, cattle production more than doubled, designed primarily to supply the fast-food chains of the US with cheap beef, with the result that by 1990 only 21% of the country’s legendary forests remained in what Costa Rican environmentalist, Andrés Rodríguez-Clare describes as the ‘great striptease’ of Costa Rica. 4
In addition, the government had actually promoted antiquated squatter’s laws which encouraged squatters to clear and plant, or ‘improve’, virgin land in order to protect their possession rights.
In contrast to the historical respect for the land and responsible agricultural patterns of the past, the 20th Century has been characterized by a belief that land only had value if it was ‘productive’ or ‘improved’ for agricultural purposes, hence forest came to be seen as an impediment to progress and deforestation as integral to modernization.
This is the mindset that conservation advocates, who, seeing the value and potential of these natural resources as early as the 1950s, and seeking to find ways to restore them, had to change. Challenging these beliefs involved making environmental conservation an economically viable alternative land-use and convincing the general population that protected lands could become a source of revenue for their communities. The advanced land protection mechanisms and highly developed ecotourism industry seen today are the result of the systematic efforts of this group of individuals and organizations over the past fifty years to reverse this devastating trend.
In addition, the government had actually promoted antiquated squatter’s laws which encouraged squatters to clear and plant, or ‘improve’, virgin land in order to protect their possession rights.
In contrast to the historical respect for the land and responsible agricultural patterns of the past, the 20th Century has been characterized by a belief that land only had value if it was ‘productive’ or ‘improved’ for agricultural purposes, hence forest came to be seen as an impediment to progress and deforestation as integral to modernization.
This is the mindset that conservation advocates, who, seeing the value and potential of these natural resources as early as the 1950s, and seeking to find ways to restore them, had to change. Challenging these beliefs involved making environmental conservation an economically viable alternative land-use and convincing the general population that protected lands could become a source of revenue for their communities. The advanced land protection mechanisms and highly developed ecotourism industry seen today are the result of the systematic efforts of this group of individuals and organizations over the past fifty years to reverse this devastating trend.
