¡Hola! me llamo Andrés Buonanno. This week I will be adventuring in Costa Rica for the Plus 3 program for the University of Pittsburgh. As a Mechanical Engineering student I am excited to learn the various processes that allow an industry of coffee and bananas to flourish. Especially keeping in mind that Costa Rica is very environmentally friendly. It will be interesting seeing how they manage to create such a powerful economy while also being sustainable. From what I can tell sustainability has long been one of the nations prerogative. As they have various sustainability initiatives ranging from ending single use plastics, banning trophy hunting and an initiative to completely run on renewable energy.
Over 10 years ago, Costa Rica announced its intentions to ban single-use plastics by 2021. They are trying to achieve this by incentivizing businesses to switch to alternatives, and even the Costa Rican government itself is investing in researching alternatives to help this transition. This decision likely came from the fact that tourism is such an important part of the Costa Rican economy, and waste, such as single-use plastics, damage the ecotourism that is so popular.
Ecotourism being so popular has also prompted other laws to be made. Such as one banning trophy hunting. Before many people would come to Costa Rica to hunt jaguars, pumas and parrots making wild populations plummet. So a Costa Rica acted and made this type of hunting illegal. Anyone caught in violation of this law is sentenced four months in jail and a fine of at least $4,000.
Costa Rica continues to be dedicated to sustainability as in 2016 and 2017 the country ran off of renewable energy for nearly 300 days of the year. Their main source of renewable energy is hydroelectric, followed closely by wind and solar power with some geothermal power as well. Costa Rica continues to push for 100% renewable energy and they are very close.
Overall Costa Rica is one of the most sustainable countries thanks to initiatives like this. I look forward to exploring the country and learning more.