The Ecolaboratory
The Ecolaboratory

Author: Robert Fletcher

Publisher: University of Arizona Press

Published: 2020-03-17

Total Pages: 385

ISBN-13: 081654011X

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Despite its tiny size and seeming marginality to world affairs, the Central American republic of Costa Rica has long been considered an important site for experimentation in cutting-edge environmental policy. From protected area management to ecotourism to payment for environmental services (PES) and beyond, for the past half-century the country has successfully positioned itself at the forefront of novel trends in environmental governance and sustainable development. Yet the increasingly urgent dilemma of how to achieve equitable economic development in a world of ecosystem decline and climate change presents new challenges, testing Costa Rica’s ability to remain a leader in innovative environmental governance. This book explores these challenges, how Costa Rica is responding to them, and the lessons this holds for current and future trends regarding environmental governance and sustainable development. It provides the first comprehensive assessment of successes and challenges as they play out in a variety of sectors, including agricultural development, biodiversity conservation, water management, resource extraction, and climate change policy. By framing Costa Rica as an “ecolaboratory,” the contributors in this volume examine the lessons learned and offer a path for the future of sustainable development research and policy in Central America and beyond.

The Green Republic
The Green Republic

Author: Sterling Evans

Publisher: University of Texas Press

Published: 2010-06-28

Total Pages: 336

ISBN-13: 0292789289

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With over 25 percent of its land set aside in national parks and other protected areas, Costa Rica is renowned worldwide as "the green republic." In this very readable history of conservation in Costa Rica, Sterling Evans explores the establishment of the country's national park system as a response to the rapid destruction of its tropical ecosystems due to the expansion of export-related agriculture. Drawing on interviews with key players in the conservation movement, as well as archival research, Evans traces the emergence of a conservation ethic among Costa Ricans and the tangible forms it has taken. In Part I, he describes the development of the national park system and "the grand contradiction" that conservation occurred simultaneously with massive deforestation in unprotected areas. In Part II, he examines other aspects of Costa Rica's conservation experience, including the important roles played by environmental education and nongovernmental organizations, campesino and indigenous movements, ecotourism, and the work of the National Biodiversity Institute.

Biodiversity Conservation in Costa Rica
Biodiversity Conservation in Costa Rica

Author: Gordon W. Frankie

Publisher: Univ of California Press

Published: 2004-02-06

Total Pages: 352

ISBN-13: 0520241037

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Annotation A collection of papers regarding the conservation of Costa Rica's tropical dry forest, which is disappearing more rapidly than its rain forest, due to ease of conversion to agriculture.

Trees, People and Power
Trees, People and Power

Author: Peter Utting

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2013-11-05

Total Pages: 227

ISBN-13: 1134065264

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Behind the headlines about the loss of tropical forests in Latin America lies a complex and fascinating story of the social pressures which cause it. Trees, People and Power looks at the various groups, interests and conflicts involved, and explores the repercussions for forestry, the environment and the livelihoods of the rural and urban poor. Until the social and political dimensions of deforestation and forest protection schemes are understood, measures to prevent or slow deforestation are likely to involve technical interventions which will prove ineffective in the long run, and may well result in further impoverishment and environmental degradation. Peter Utting takes a critical look at the experience of forest protection and tree planting in a number of countries and considers how social and political factors affect the feasability of such schemes. Many environmental projects and programmes have failed to balance concerns for the environment with those of human welfare. Until they do, it is unrealistic to expect any significant progress towards sustainable development. Peter Utting is a senior researcher coordinator with the United Nations Research Institute for Social Development. He is the author of Economic Adjustment under the Sandinistas (UNRISD, 1991) and Economic Reform and Third World Socialism (Macmillan, 1992). Originally published in 1993

Sustainable Agriculture in Central America
Sustainable Agriculture in Central America

Author: Jan P. de Groot

Publisher: Springer

Published: 1997-07-14

Total Pages: 239

ISBN-13: 0230378080

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Agricultural development in Central America is based on extensive growth, supported by macroeconomic policies that marginalize small peasants. Deforestation, erosion and resource depletion are particularly severe. This book offers a comprehensive review of the perspectives for state policies and local action to enhance sustainable agriculture. Macroeconomic conditions and institutional arrangements for the establishment of sustainable production systems in different eco-regional settings (hillsides, humid tropics, frontier areas) are discussed, as well as policy instruments to improve property rights, management rules and financial mechanisms to enhance sustainable resource use.