As college students, we hear a great deal about the benefits of studying abroad. We're often told that traveling can open our eyes to new perspectives and help us see our own culture and world in a new light. This January, I was finally able to experience that concept during my first abroad experience in Costa Rica as a part of the 2015 Biology and Outdoor Adventure J Term Trip. While my initial intentions did not include gaining a new perspective but instead included sloths, surfing, and sunshine, months of anticipation-inspired Googling before the trip led me to develop an interest in the country's conservation initiatives. Before long, these approaches to protecting and further developing the country's great landscape and biodiversity became a major focal point of my trip, one that closely coincided with the line of post graduate work that I look forward to exploring in several months.
Going into the trip with a more defined idea of what I was looking to learn and take home with me from Costa Rica enabled me to keep my eyes peeled for efforts and measures of "sustainability" while being able to enjoy my experience to the fullest. What I discovered along these lines during my two week long trip was far more than one tiny blog post can express. I came home with a crinkled and sand-covered list of brief phrases that spanned an entire page, each representing an effort of environmental protection that I had never seen or heard of in the United States. Each day of the trip, I managed to add one, at the very least, new item to my list.
The first concept that I found notable was the strong effort to protect and encourage the growth of sea grasses and mangroves. Mangroves are important sections of vegetation, including shrubs, trees, and everything in between, that grow along the coasts in saline water. Like sea grasses, this unique type of salt water forest is crucial in not only protecting from coastal erosion and providing habitats for many different animal species, contributing to the country's biodiversity, but also in being large contributors to carbon dioxide reduction. These plants have the ability to absorb large amounts of carbon dioxide and store them over time, which researchers call "blue carbon". Multiple research centers that our group was fortunate enough to visit in Costa Rica were concerned about protecting mangroves and sea grasses for these reasons. Not only were they concerned, but they were doing something about it in the form of research and legislation.
This isn't the only way that the country is coming together to change a serious environmental issue. Tourism is a leading industry in this small, beautiful country but, it has the potential to significantly impact the very same biodiversity that draws people there. As a result, the country has put in place a system to rate tourist accommodations and attractions on their environmental impact. In America, you might choose a 5 star resort based on its luxurious qualities, whereas in Costa Rica you might choose a hotel with 5 leaves based on its water conservation, energy usage, and waste disposal methods. In the same way that Costa Rica rates its hotel with leaves based on environmental impact rather than luxury, they have implemented a system of flags for their beaches. These flags indicate the levels of pollution and general coastline quality, encouraging tourists to take note of and value environmental responsibility.
While these are large initiatives that are organized by research centers and the Costa Rican Institute of Tourism, there are many smaller scale and lesser noticed initiatives that are both simple and significant all over the country. One of these that is nearly everywhere in the country but can easily go unnoticed is the concept of "living fences". This is the idea that there is a better way to build a fence than using wooden posts. If we think about it, the process of building an American fence looks a little something like cutting down a tree - that we turn into a wooden post - that we put back into the ground - in a similar vertical position to the tree that we cut down to make it. The people of Costa Rica have found that it saves time, money, and trees if they merely relocate or plant trees in the fence line that they are trying to create and connect them by stapling wire into the trunks to build their fences. Such a simple concept can save countless trees.
Another conservation effort that could easily go unnoticed is the idea that owners of a few small farms in Costa Rica have had to harness the natural gas that is produced by the fecal matter of their cows. After a rather amusing trip to a farm where we heard a great deal about "s***" from one worker who had some trouble finding the English word for poop, we learned that these farmers are able to harness enough natural gas to be used as a bio fuel that powers their refrigerated dairy buildings. This severely cuts down on energy costs for these farmers and is an incredibly resourceful way to run their businesses.
All this said, I think it's clear that during my trip to Costa Rica I learned and saw some incredible things. Alongside all of the sloths, surfing, and sunshine that I was able to take in, I truly did gain a new perspective. However, what all of those people who encourage us to travel don't say is that sometimes this new perspective can be hard to stomach. When I first came back to the United States after seeing how important preserving the environment was to the Costa Rican people, it became glaringly obvious that our efforts in the U.S. just aren't enough. It strikes me as strange and disheartening that a country the size of West Virginia with only 4.75 million people is making more significant daily strides in environmental protection than our country that is 157 times its size with 66 times the people. The U.S. is regarded worldwide as a very developed and progressive country and yet, in my eyes, Costa Rican environmental efforts blew ours out of the water. Why don't our farms think to use their waste as natural gase? Why do we have so many fences built with fence posts? It's easy to see that I struggled (and still struggle) with my new perspective of my own culture and our approach to conservation. However, after giving it a lot of thought, I found that like most new perspectives, this one brings opportunity. Rather than discredit the U.S. for all it's not doing, I can credit it our country for all it has done and see the vast room for improvement. Furthermore, I can see the room for improvement in my own life.
In Costa Rica, you'll rarely hear the word "sustainability" because it's not something that they even really consider. They want to "preserve" and "conserve" what they have. They're raised to take care of the beautiful world that they've been given. They don't feel that they need to make their energy and water supplies last because every day they value their earth and conduct their lives in a way to protect it and their resources. So, rather than sit around and complain about how we should be doing more as a country, I can instead model my behavior after the Costa Ricans'. I can be more resourceful in my everyday life, use less and reuse more. I can appreciate the importance and value in the environment around me and be conscious of how my life impacts it. And I can help others to see this opportunity as the Costa Rican people have for me. As anything in life, conservation isn't one big movement, it's a collection of small movements that pull together to form something big. If I had to pinpoint the greatest lesson that I learned from my trip to Costa Rica, that would be it. If we want to take care of our earth, it won't be by making one big movement like switching to a new energy source. It will be by taking care of our environment with each choice we make, every day.
Going into the trip with a more defined idea of what I was looking to learn and take home with me from Costa Rica enabled me to keep my eyes peeled for efforts and measures of "sustainability" while being able to enjoy my experience to the fullest. What I discovered along these lines during my two week long trip was far more than one tiny blog post can express. I came home with a crinkled and sand-covered list of brief phrases that spanned an entire page, each representing an effort of environmental protection that I had never seen or heard of in the United States. Each day of the trip, I managed to add one, at the very least, new item to my list.
The first concept that I found notable was the strong effort to protect and encourage the growth of sea grasses and mangroves. Mangroves are important sections of vegetation, including shrubs, trees, and everything in between, that grow along the coasts in saline water. Like sea grasses, this unique type of salt water forest is crucial in not only protecting from coastal erosion and providing habitats for many different animal species, contributing to the country's biodiversity, but also in being large contributors to carbon dioxide reduction. These plants have the ability to absorb large amounts of carbon dioxide and store them over time, which researchers call "blue carbon". Multiple research centers that our group was fortunate enough to visit in Costa Rica were concerned about protecting mangroves and sea grasses for these reasons. Not only were they concerned, but they were doing something about it in the form of research and legislation.
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| MC students used this mangrove tree to hold their belongings while out surfing for they day. |
While these are large initiatives that are organized by research centers and the Costa Rican Institute of Tourism, there are many smaller scale and lesser noticed initiatives that are both simple and significant all over the country. One of these that is nearly everywhere in the country but can easily go unnoticed is the concept of "living fences". This is the idea that there is a better way to build a fence than using wooden posts. If we think about it, the process of building an American fence looks a little something like cutting down a tree - that we turn into a wooden post - that we put back into the ground - in a similar vertical position to the tree that we cut down to make it. The people of Costa Rica have found that it saves time, money, and trees if they merely relocate or plant trees in the fence line that they are trying to create and connect them by stapling wire into the trunks to build their fences. Such a simple concept can save countless trees.
Another conservation effort that could easily go unnoticed is the idea that owners of a few small farms in Costa Rica have had to harness the natural gas that is produced by the fecal matter of their cows. After a rather amusing trip to a farm where we heard a great deal about "s***" from one worker who had some trouble finding the English word for poop, we learned that these farmers are able to harness enough natural gas to be used as a bio fuel that powers their refrigerated dairy buildings. This severely cuts down on energy costs for these farmers and is an incredibly resourceful way to run their businesses.
All this said, I think it's clear that during my trip to Costa Rica I learned and saw some incredible things. Alongside all of the sloths, surfing, and sunshine that I was able to take in, I truly did gain a new perspective. However, what all of those people who encourage us to travel don't say is that sometimes this new perspective can be hard to stomach. When I first came back to the United States after seeing how important preserving the environment was to the Costa Rican people, it became glaringly obvious that our efforts in the U.S. just aren't enough. It strikes me as strange and disheartening that a country the size of West Virginia with only 4.75 million people is making more significant daily strides in environmental protection than our country that is 157 times its size with 66 times the people. The U.S. is regarded worldwide as a very developed and progressive country and yet, in my eyes, Costa Rican environmental efforts blew ours out of the water. Why don't our farms think to use their waste as natural gase? Why do we have so many fences built with fence posts? It's easy to see that I struggled (and still struggle) with my new perspective of my own culture and our approach to conservation. However, after giving it a lot of thought, I found that like most new perspectives, this one brings opportunity. Rather than discredit the U.S. for all it's not doing, I can credit it our country for all it has done and see the vast room for improvement. Furthermore, I can see the room for improvement in my own life.
In Costa Rica, you'll rarely hear the word "sustainability" because it's not something that they even really consider. They want to "preserve" and "conserve" what they have. They're raised to take care of the beautiful world that they've been given. They don't feel that they need to make their energy and water supplies last because every day they value their earth and conduct their lives in a way to protect it and their resources. So, rather than sit around and complain about how we should be doing more as a country, I can instead model my behavior after the Costa Ricans'. I can be more resourceful in my everyday life, use less and reuse more. I can appreciate the importance and value in the environment around me and be conscious of how my life impacts it. And I can help others to see this opportunity as the Costa Rican people have for me. As anything in life, conservation isn't one big movement, it's a collection of small movements that pull together to form something big. If I had to pinpoint the greatest lesson that I learned from my trip to Costa Rica, that would be it. If we want to take care of our earth, it won't be by making one big movement like switching to a new energy source. It will be by taking care of our environment with each choice we make, every day.
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| Sunset from Monteverde, where the view includes both the mountains and the coast. |