Costa Rica is globally lauded for their prioritization and advancement of sustainability efforts and initiatives. There are many ways in which countries should strive to be more sustainable and environmentally conscious. By instituting rigorous policies, measures to prevent degradation, and attempting to shift away from fossil fuels, Costa Rica has become a green inspiration.
Right off the bat, one of Costa Rica’s most important policies is their endeavor to greatly reduce deforestation. Costa Rica is 98% deforestation free. Deforestation has endless disadvantages to the local communities and biodiversity, as well as reducing natural carbon sequestration, limiting clean air, and impacting the water cycle. Keeping rich and full forests is a very important step to achieving carbon neutrality, or at least mitigating environmental degradation and climate change. Secondly, the rainforests of Costa Rica provide a large revenue in ecotourism, which can help local communities to build wealth while maintaining an important ecosystem. Other policies include taxing, rather than subsidizing, fossil fuels. This generates revenue for the government, but also encourages a shift to renewable energy sources.
There are many other policies and initiatives from Costa Rica’s government which are worthwhile and should definitely be something to emulate by other countries. This leads me to view Costa Rica as wise. The people and the government have done their due diligence to insure that the beautiful land and waters their country is known for are maintained rather than destroyed. If only every country sought to have the same mentality, one of protecting what we love, maybe sustainability wouldn’t be such a far off and seemingly unattainable concept.
This renews once again my excitement to visit Costa Rica and see all of these initiatives in person, as well as getting to experience the rich biodiversity, ecotourism, and beautiful scenery for myself. I expect that getting a taste of that “pura vida” is going to have an impact on how I see the world and how I choose to live within it.