Searching for Balance

Costa Rica's biodiversity I

Costa Rica is a small Central American country country. With no more than 0.035 per cent of the earth's surface, it has about four percent of the world's biodiversity.

It's the reason why thousands of nature lovers from Canada, Europe and USA travel here each year. tourism with a heavy emphasis on tourism has become Costa Rica's top earner of foreign currency. It now surpasses even traditional exports such as coffee and bananas.

Costa Rica has taken steps to protect its natural resources. More than 25 percent of the country is protected in some way either in parks, reserves or conservation zones.

biodiversity Threatened

Yet as the parks are beautiful, the traditional landscape has be devastated by deforestation. While it is no longer the case, in the past, Costa Rica once had the highest rates of deforestation in all of Latin America.

Costa Rica's natural assets include:

208 species of mammals;
860 species of birds;
160 species of amphibians;
220 species of reptiles;
130 freshwater fish;
350,000 different species of insects; and
seasonal habitats for many of the 263 species of Canadian and American birds and numerous butterflies that migrate to the tropics.

Since the early 1950's, more than 50 percent of its forest have been lost.

The reasons for deforestation are the result of a complex combination of factors that include new demands on land for agriculture, cattle ranching and mining to provide for a growing population and an expanding economy.

At other times, it is an issue of rural poverty that limit the options for rural populations but to cut down the forest for agriculture or ranching.

After their land has been drained of its productive abilities because of poor land farming techniques, these families move on to find new forested areas to clear.

Other issues such as illegal logging, mining and the heavy use of chemicals for products such as bananas have also played a role.