Teddy Roosevelt, the Matterhorn and ecotourism in Costa Rica: the beginnings

Like so many of the world’s great success stories, it began with a simple observation of an extraordinary man.

The man was Theodore Roosevelt.

Twenty years before becoming one of the most important presidents of the United States, Roosevelt had traveled to Europe to climb the famous Matterhorn in Switzerland. What he found, or, more accurately, what he did not find, greatly distressed him.

The mountain was almost lifeless. Where once there were many animals, there were no longer bears, wolves, goats, mountain sheep, or other desert creatures.

Although the term did not enter the lexicon for nearly another century, Roosevelt was the world’s first ecotourist and, I would say, the most responsible person for conservation in America. Based in part on his Matterhorn experience, he recognized the need to set aside vast expanses of wilderness to save for future generations.

When he became president, despite objections from vested interests, mining and logging companies, and robber barons, he set aside an extraordinary 230 million acres for wilderness areas, parks, and shelters.

His vision led him to the discovery that the American public loved going to national parks and seeing wildlife. Sustainability proved to be more profitable over time than exploitation.

But that was the experience of the United States. What about Costa Rica, a place that in 1519 its Spanish governor called “the poorest and most miserable Spanish colony in all the Americas”?

By the mid-20th century, most of its forests had been cut down or burned to make agricultural land. The country had become dependent on the export of bananas and coffee for its economic life and when the world coffee market collapsed in the 1970s, its future looked bleak.

But, in an unlikely alliance, conservationists joined commercial interests and convinced the government to set aside large tracts of land for sustainable development. In just three decades, Costa Rica reserved almost 25% of the country for parks and reserves.

From any point of view, the results have been astonishing. While many countries cut, cut and burned their forests, Costa Rica chose to reforest and today jaguars, peccaries and other wild animals are returning to places where they had not been seen for more than a generation. With the animals came tourists and prosperity.

Today, Columbia and Yale researchers rank it in the top five of all environmentally sensitive countries on the planet and, from “the poorest and most miserable Spanish colony in the Americas” in 1519, it has jumped to # 1 position. happier. in the world index.

Somewhere in the sky, Theodore Roosevelt smiles delightedly.