Costa Rica Sustainable Development Strategy
Sustainability Strategies: The Costa Rica Case
By Dimas Siem
INTRODUCTION
Sustainable development requires balancing the needs of society, the economy, and the environment. In 1994, Costa Rica adopted sustainable development as an official policy. Since that time, a major effort was set in motion to look at the country’s sustainable growth potential in an integrated way. This push entailed four objectives: economic efficiency, social equity, political participation and environmental sustainability (Umana 2001).
The country has made impressive advances in biodiversity prospecting, environmental regulation, and protected area designation. The environmental sustainability assessment shows that Costa Rica’s greatest strength is in the conservation of its natural resources heritage, but there are disturbing weaknesses in its management of social change and risk.
Basically, achieving sustainability in Costa Rica, or in any country for that matter, requires an understanding and subsequent minimization of conflict among the economic, socio-cultural and ecological aspects of a particular environment.
The purpose of this paper is to focus on the business implications of the sustainability concept, and to expose how ecotourism, as a sustainable economic activity, has been adopted by Costa Rica as a strategy for growth.
What is Sustainability
There exist many definitions of sustainability which come from different sectors of society (economic, environmental, and social ). One of the best known general definitions emerged from a 1987 United Nation Report (Brundtland Commision): "Sustainable development is development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs". It contains within it the three following important concepts (Cortes): * Environmental sustainability, which refers to the need for the impact of the development process are not irreversibly destroying the capacity of the
By Dimas Siem
INTRODUCTION
Sustainable development requires balancing the needs of society, the economy, and the environment. In 1994, Costa Rica adopted sustainable development as an official policy. Since that time, a major effort was set in motion to look at the country’s sustainable growth potential in an integrated way. This push entailed four objectives: economic efficiency, social equity, political participation and environmental sustainability (Umana 2001).
The country has made impressive advances in biodiversity prospecting, environmental regulation, and protected area designation. The environmental sustainability assessment shows that Costa Rica’s greatest strength is in the conservation of its natural resources heritage, but there are disturbing weaknesses in its management of social change and risk.
Basically, achieving sustainability in Costa Rica, or in any country for that matter, requires an understanding and subsequent minimization of conflict among the economic, socio-cultural and ecological aspects of a particular environment.
The purpose of this paper is to focus on the business implications of the sustainability concept, and to expose how ecotourism, as a sustainable economic activity, has been adopted by Costa Rica as a strategy for growth.
What is Sustainability
There exist many definitions of sustainability which come from different sectors of society (economic, environmental, and social ). One of the best known general definitions emerged from a 1987 United Nation Report (Brundtland Commision): "Sustainable development is development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs". It contains within it the three following important concepts (Cortes): * Environmental sustainability, which refers to the need for the impact of the development process are not irreversibly destroying the capacity of the
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