Kenya and Costa Rica - Comparing Environmental Policies in 16 Countries - page 209

cattle require only six. Thus, the crop provides 20 times the employment
per hectare.
Ecotourism is growing, bringing over a million foreign visitors annu-
ally who spend over a billion dollars. It earns more than the traditional
exports of bananas and coffee combined. Travelers come to the Arenal
and Poas volcanos, to the Los Angeles Cloud Forest Reserve, and to
beaches like Manuel Antonio Park. Parks like Tartuquero are famous as
sites for sea turtles to lay eggs and hatch. A few critics worry that Costa
Rica has exhausted its potential for ecotourism. It is being loved to death
with too many visitors. Moreover, some tourism is decidedly not ecologi-
cal. Construction on the Gulf of Papagayo on the Pacific Coast features
high-rise hotels, golf courses, and shopping malls.
Costa Rica has been a leader in debt for nature swaps, totaling $125 mil-
lion. Indeed, in the early days of the concept, nearly three-quarters of the
swaps in the world went to this country. Money can come from groups like
the Nature Conservancy or WWF or from national governments. In 2007
the Nature Conservancy organized payments totaling $13 million to buy
$26 million of government debt, doubling their investment. The private
contribution was only $1 million while the US government agreed to pay
$12 million under authority of the US Tropical Forest Conversation Act.
The funds are going to Corcovado Park and Totuguero Park. 20 Earlier
on an experimental basis, Costa Rica was also active after the Kyoto
Protocol agreeing to absorb reductions in greenhouse emissions. It signed
several deals with the Netherlands. Ultimately, nothing came of this as no
structure was ever established under the protocol.
CONCLUSION
Kenya does not have a history of citizen participation like the countries
considered so far. Its famous park system came as a legacy of the British
colonial government. Today, native Kenyans staff it and support it, but the
parks were largely in their present form at the time of independence. Air
and water pollution control has not been a priority for ordinary people, who
are too concerned with getting jobs and feeding their families. Although
Costa Ricans have more citizen participation, much of the early environ-
mental movement owes thanks to foreign residents like Olof Wessberg,
Doña Karen, Nestor Altuve, and Peace Corps volunteers. Ticos such as