On the fifth day of our Costa Rican adventure, we hiked along the misty trails of Monteverde’s cloud forest. The first thing that greeted us was sounds of birdsong echoing through the canopy. This acted as a living soundtrack to one of the most biodiverse places on Earth. Costa Rica, though small in size, only taking up 0.03% of the earths surface, is home to nearly 5% of the planet’s biodiversity.

Yet, even in this biodiverse area, the country faces a balancing act. How to harmonise productivity, conservation, and sustainability. Monteverde is a reminder of both the richness of the natural world and the challenges of protecting it.

Productivity, conservation, and sustainability often compete with each other, especially in the face of climate change. Key industries like tourism, agriculture, and infrastructure drive economic growth but can sometimes strain natural ecosystems. Conservation efforts aim to protect the country’s biodiversity, while sustainable agriculture tries to balance environmental care with food production. As climate change increases, maintaining this balance becomes a challenge.

If I were to focus on one of these three items I would focus on conservation. Conserving this environment is key not only to nature, but to the people of Costa Rica. Biodiversity is one of the main tourist attractions of Costa Rica. Although Costa Rica’s main export for their economy is electrical components, tourism is its biggest economic import. By not conserving this environment this would affect the economy greatly. Along with this, again Costa Rica has 5% of the world’s biodiversity. It is important to keep it this way as without conservation Costa Rica could lose this impressive status.