Costa Rican Ecotourism Certification

Synopsis

Above is an image associated with the Certification for Sustainability Tourism in Costa Rica (CST). The CST Program was developed by the Sustainability Programs Department of the Costa Rica Tourist Board and the Costa Rica National Accreditation Commission (www.turismo-sostenible.co.cr). At the national level, CST represents a new form of competition; a new way to differentiate our tourist industry with respect to our competitors, and one which enhances those tourism products which show a connotation of sustainability, opening new possibilities for marketing and international promotion (www.turismo-sostenible.co.cr). This type of sustainability certification is not anything unique to Costa Rica, but there is a significant amount of attention associated with this national certification process that has helped make Costa Rica one of the front runners of this initiative. It has taken on a life of its own as more and more of Costa Rica’s tourism purveyors have started to see the benefits of becoming certified. Over the course of a five week period, I have been introduced to multiple types of tourism purveyors and almost all of the ones we met with were either already certified or in the process of seeking certification. This significant influx of certification requests have unfortunately brought to surface many of CST’s logistical issues. The CST is relatively ill equipped to handle such inquiries because they are severely understaffed, utilize an ineffective evaluation procedure that appears to be too broad, or are having one of many other forms of operating inefficiencies according to many of Downtown San Jose’s tourism organizations.

Application

Although it appears that the CST is faced with a considerable amount of opportunities to improve its business model and to beef up its logistics, overall the CST appears to be fulfilling a desperately needed niche in Costa Rican tourism. I believe that the CST is needed even if it possesses significant flaws because without it, the potential exists to have no other organizations interested in creating a process for rewarding those individuals who have taken a vested interest in keeping Costa Rica’s natural biodiversity present in order to facilitate future generations of tourism.
One of the major flaws associated with the CST program is that it seems to assist those organizations in the promotion of “green washing” or those who abuse the concepts of "eco" and/or "sustainability” (www.turismo-sostenible.co.cr) even when CST claims that it is directly trying to “attack the problem generated by this unethical behavior.” Many individuals appear to qualify simply if they have created a recycling program, have switched out old light bulbs for newer LED bulbs, and have made a few other minimal efforts towards being sustainable. I personally believe that there should be more involved in being considered sustainable and those aforementioned actions should just be completed before an organization can even be considered for certification. After all, if CST certifies these organizations than it has effectively undermined its entire mission statement by supporting such minimalist organizations who are not truly interested in sustainability and who will continue exploiting the environment for their own benefit.