Twenty years ago this week, I arrived in Costa Rica as a newly minted lawyer, with the intention of staying a few months to help start an environmental law center. While I was fascinated by the country, I wasn’t planning to stay. In fact, I can’t remember the moment I made a firm decision in that regard. However, as time went by, the center became established, I found other work in the conservation field, I married a Tica and we had a daughter, and Costa Rica definitely became my home.
Meanwhile, the country changed, imperceptibly as the days passed, but profoundly over the years. From my point of view, these changes have been both good and bad, and, as is often the case, changes that had positive impacts in one area had negative ones in others. This perspective piece is meant to share what I feel to be the most significant of these changes, and, hopefully, to encourage readers of The Tico Times to share their own perspectives and experiences.
Costa Rica is greener: In 1989, Costa Rica had one of the highest deforestation rates in the world, as forests fell to make room for cattle ranches and a renewed expansion of the banana industry. Over the last 20 years, this trend has reversed, with economic changes and government policies spurring rural-to-urban migration and reversion of marginal farmland to secondary forest. This is especially noticeable in remoter regions such as Guanacaste in the northwest and the Osa Peninsula in the southwest. Despite being home to an additional one million people, Costa Rica has seen an increase in natural forest cover over the last 20 years.
Costa Ricans are far more aware of the importance of environmental protection than before, and while problems persist – and many have worsened – there is now more willingness to point these out and work seriously towards solving them. Though Costa Rica is far from perfect in how it manages its environment, its real accomplishments, most notably its system of parks and protected areas and reliance on clean energy, deserve respect and support.
The coasts have been developed, transformed and trashed: Few people living in end-of-the-world beach towns such as Puerto Viejo, Tamarindo or Quepos saw it coming, as the world’s image of Central America in the 1980s was closer to bananas, repression and revolution than fun-in-the-sun. However, outsiders who did arrive spread the word that Costa Rica was peaceful and special, its beaches empty and beautiful, and land cheap.
The development of the coast began in earnest in the 1990s, and, while this tended at first to be respectful of places and communities, over time the process increasingly became caught in a tide of greed and opportunism, fed by easy money and enabled by weak governmental controls. As a result, a great deal of thoughtless development has overwhelmed the original character of many beach communities, contributing to making them uglier and more chaotic. Today, much has been built that has no reason to exist other than having made fast money for hustlers or provided investments for people with little feel for or interest in the local culture. And places that once seemed so special no longer do.
San José is cleaner and more livable: Although perhaps difficult for newcomers to believe, San José has recently taken important strides towards becoming an attractive city to visit or even to live in. Not too big or small, blessed with a near-perfect climate and placed in a beautiful natural setting, San José has the potential to be a great city. However, it faces the huge task of overcoming many decades of rapid, unplanned growth, during which it was transformed from a small town into a big city, but with little priority given to integrating and protecting the environment, creating common spaces, waste management, transportation, architecture and public arts, and housing. By the late ’80s, San José was at its nadir, a pathetic poster child for urban planning.
Since then, however, significant progress has been made, and visions for improving the city were developed, discussed and are being implemented. To someone who has worked in the city every day for many years, the improvement is palpable. Cleaner air, pedestrian boulevards, improved traffic flow and urban reforestation are signs of better things to come.
Costa Rica is more dangerous: To me, the saddest development over the last 20 years has been the growing insecurity felt by Ticos and visitors alike. While Costa Ricans in the cities and suburbs lived behind rejas 20 years ago, crime was not pervasive and few feared for their lives. The proliferation of firearms, increasing drug addictions, rural-to-urban migration, the weakening of family ties and the growth of gangs have combined to change the culture of peace that made Costa Rica different, and to make this a place where one feels less tranquilo –and less free.
Government is more competent and responsible: Over the years, the country’s human capital has been growing by leaps and bounds, and in many fields Costa Rican professionals are as good as any. One of the ways this is reflected is in better public administration. While pockets of serious inefficiency remain, government incompetence is steadily giving way to professionalism and effectiveness. One need look no farther than the management of the economy in these times of crisis. While many banks and other financial institutions in the U.S. were discovered – too late – to have been grossly mismanaged, it appears that in Costa Rica public and private financial institutions are weathering the crisis in relatively good shape, mainly thanks to serious and sober management and effective regulation.
Steve Mack is the editor of The Tico Times and was co-founder of the Environmental and Natural Resources Law Center (CEDARENA)
This Perspective piece was first published in the May 8, 2009 print edition of The Tico Times.
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Charley Brunken
Friday July 15 2011