Ecotourism in the City?: INBioparque

Synopsis

Costa Rica is a country world renowned for its rich biodiversity and the measures it has taken to protect it. “Covering only 0.1% of the earth’s landmass, Costa Rica accounts for over 5% of the planets biodiversity (http://www.nature.org/). Costa Rica contains 25 national parks, 8 biological reserves, 32 protected zones, 11 forest reserves, 58 wildlife refuges, 15 wetlands/mangroves, and 12 other categories totaling 161 conserved areas in Costa Rica (www.costarica-nationalparks.com/). While visiting Costa Rica, I was granted an opportunity to visit INBioparque located in San Jose. National Institute of Biodiversity (INBio Research center) is a nonprofit, nongovernmental organization dedicated to studying and conserving biodiversity in Costa Rica (http://www.inbio.ac.cr/). INBioparque is a rather unique anomaly as it is surrounded by an overwhelmingly populated, metropolitan city. The pollution levels are high, there are little to no conservation efforts within the city, and many other general accompaniments associated with large Latin America cities can all be found in San Jose thus making it rather surprising to encounter such biodiversity inside INBioparque.

Application

My initial impression of INBioparque is that it was quite surprising and reassuring to come into contact and interact with such a large amount of biodiversity. Although certain elements appeared to be more “zoo-like” than many other Costa Rican nature reserves or national parks, I was still impressed by how much nature was thriving in an area inside San Jose. I would have NEVER guessed that in a million years, such a place could exist in one of the most polluted cities I have ever experienced.
INBioparque and those associated with it consider the wildlife refuge to be considered a theme park. This fact is not disputed and is found all over INBioparque literature and therefore it is important to note that INBioparque is still a profit/loss producing entity. According to the National Institute of Biodiversity’s (INBio) 2007 Annual Report, roughly 60% of the organizations profits from park operations and other items go to either Strategic Action Units or to special projects that INBio has designated to receive funding. Overall I was surprised at how much of INBio’s profits are truly dedicated to creating more conservation. This is also something that reassures me and should reassure many other individuals on both ends of the conservation spectrums. Both hardcore conservationists who believe that all businesses are inherently evil and all businesses who don’t believe that conservation can be a profitable entity should use the INBioparque case study to prove that real, authentic and mutually beneficial relationships can exist between these two groups!