I came to Costa Rica in 1974 as Manager of Bank of America´s Branch in San José. At the time, the tourism industry hardly existed and nobody imagined that it would play, as today, such a dominant role in the local economy as a major generator of foreign exchange and employment. Tourism has proved to be a powerful development instrument, although not always correctly used. Never in my wildest dreams, did I imagine I would become the owner of a Jungle Lodge in the northern zone, in the most remote and most underdeveloped part of the country and will contribute, although in a very limited way to the employment generation and development of this poor region.
I grew up on a farm first in East Germany, now Poland ,and then in Bavaria, where we came as refugees. I always dreamed of owning a large piece of land that I could call my very own. My dream materialized in 1981, when I had the opportunity to buy from a foreclosure 110 Ha(275 acres) of primary rain forest. The property is located in Costa Rica´s northern zone near a small hamlet called Boca Tapada, about 12 Kms. south of the San Juan River, the border of Nicaragua and 2 Km. east of the San Carlos River.
For quite some time I had little idea as to what to do with my newly acquired land. The only way to reach it from the village was with a 4W drive vehicle during the dry season and by horseback during the rainy season. Initially I wanted to cut down the rain forest and convert it into agricultural productive land, and plant either pineapple, pepper, cacao or heart of palm. At that time the term “environmental protection”” had never been heard in Costa Rica and there were hardly any restrictions on deforestation. There were only limited legal impediments to converting rainforest into farmland. However, this process was rather expensive and financially a risky business, at least for a conservative banker.
On one edge of my rainforest, there were about 2 Ha. of secondary growth, which I cleared and started experimenting with the production of pineapple and pepper. These 2 Ha. were on a hill surrounded by a swamp. It was only accessible by walking precariously over fallen trees partially submerged in the swamp. in order to reach the hill. Eventually we built a bridge over the swamp and dammed an outlet in order to raise the water level. The small hill soon became an island in a lake or lagoon with numerous alligators ( caimans).
After several years of unproductive, experimental agricultural ventures, I still was not sure what to do with my property. I had numerous ideas as to how to make it productive, but none of them seemed to be the right one. At the same time, I had to resist the temptation to sell the trees to loggers and sawmills. For several years I basically did nothing while I waited for a better idea to come to mind. The idea came to me one night during a conversation with a friend at a cocktail party in San José. My friend suggested that instead of cutting down the rain forest, I should convert it into a reserve and make it accessible to tourists interested in nature. He proposed that I develop some trails through the forest to increase its accessibility and to build a small facility for housing guests. It was now 1989 and I was about to invest in one of the first ecotourism developments in the country.
Initially, I built a wooden structure consisting of four rustic rooms. Because the electricity grid was still many kilometers away, I installed solar panels that unlike noisy portable generators are essentially silent.. After two years of lobbying the villages of Boca Tapada, Santa Rita and the Lodge were finally connected to public electricity. We now have not only electricity, but also a phone with internet access to the rest of the world.
After two years of favorable comments from visitors, I decided to expand my project into an economically self-sustaining lodge with twenty rooms. I formally opened for business in November 1992.
In the beginning it was very difficult to maintain an adequate occupancy rate. Although a large German Travel Agency provided 25 tourists a week for a 2 night stay, the remainder of the week the lodge was usually empty. Only during the last two years we were able to raise the occupancy rate to a satisfactory level.
I now understand why Eco-Tourism is still more a myth than a reality. Although the word “Eco” has become quite fashionable in reality people prefer or are dragged by so called Eco-Travel agencies, to the same old overcrowded mass tourists resorts. The true “Off the Beaten Track” isolated eco-lodges have a hard time to make ends meet. Many environmental organizations have contributed to this trend by over-emphasizing these popular overcrowded places. The best examples in Costa Rica of these luxury eco-tourism destinations are: Monteverde, Tortuguero and Manuel Antonio. Over the years these areas have developed into mass tourism locations and over-development is now threatening to destroy the natural habitat that attracted tourism in the first place.
I never considered the building of my lodge in terms of economic return on capital but instead as a contribution to the development of a remote and neglected region.
In addition to the 110 hectares(275 acres) of Rainforest I acquired an additional 180 Ha(450 acres) of contiguous pasture land and secondary forestland and after experimenting several years as a cattle farmer, I realized that this was an expensive hobby and reforested 40 Ha. left 82 Ha. as natural re-growth under a Government supervised forest protection plan, made two more lakes of about 6 Ha. left about 30 Ha. as pasture for the horses the tourists use. Then planted 22 Ha. with “Heart of Palms” in order to satisfy my agricultural instinct.
Why do we consider this story so special? First, if I had not have bought this land, the loggers would have cut down the rain forest. Second, if I had not built the Hotel, I probably would not have resisted the pressure to sell the wood to the sawmills and the rainforest would have been gone too. But most striking is the economic impact the Lodge has made on the area, the development of the region, its people and the awareness of what “ecology really means”.
The Lodge employs 10 people. All, but the General Manager( the son of the owner) and the Manager of Operation, who have to speak 3 languages(Spanish, English and German), come from the nearby village. At the adjoining farm we give employment to an additional four workers. During the high tourist season, two part time cleaning women are hired and during the heart of palm harvesting , about twice a month 4 additional part-time farm workers are hired. This makes the Lodge with the farm the largest employer in an area plagued with unemployment.
The Lodge has not only created direct employment, but also indirect income to new small enterprises. A local fellow bought himself two river motor boats, with our financial assistance and we contract him for the boat tours offered to our guests on the San Carlos and San Juan rivers. He has repaid us the first loan and several follow-up loans and operates a prosperous business, giving service not only to our guests, but also to other people. The small restaurant at the border post at the confluence of the San Carlos and San Juan rivers, practically lives from the guests the Lodge brings to this remote place on the boat trips. The owner of the restaurant in Boca Tapada sold it, bought himself a Mini- Van and transports now our tourists from the Hotel to la Fotuna. This tourist transportation business is more profitable than the restaurant business, especially also since many families left the village due to lack of employment opportunities with a consequent negative effect on the bar and restaurant business. All the other small stores and bars also benefit, since the guests go quite often to the village festivities.
The Lodge has not only opened the door for the tourists to see the new world of a rainforest, but has offered its employees the opportunity to see the world outside. Our cook, Adolfo, a refugee from Nicaragua, started as a simple farm worker. By shear accident we discovered his talent for cooking, sent him to the next town´s restaurant for training and he developed into an excellent cook. All guests praise his culinary art, to the extent that a German tourist liked it so much that he invited him for three months to Germany, all expenses paid, to bring the “Costarican Cuisine” to the Old World. It was an incredible experience for Adolfo who never had seen an airplane from inside and had barely visited San Jose and what he least dreamed was to fly once to Europe.
Another example is our young local tourist guide, Oscar, who comes from a nearby small farm family. We sent him to San Jose to take English lessons, then, through my Rotary connections, he was invited for two months by a Rotary family in the United States to improve his English and now he speaks it fluently and has turned into an excellent tourist and birdwatchers’ guide. For two years in a row we gave him a 3 1/2 months leave of absence during the low-season to go to the U.S.A. as trainee to a canoeing company which met Oscar on one of their tours to our Lodge. The third year he resigned and worked for 2 years for this canoeing company. He resigned, .returned to Costa Rica and formed his own canoeing company in La Fortuna, Canoa Aventura,and after only 1 year in operation, it is quite successful. Oscar worked with us 6 years, after he left us we hired his brother Faubricio who went through a similar training period and also became an excellent bilingual tourist guide. He worked with us 3 years and left us recently to join his brother in his new adventure. Now we are training another bright fellow from the village who shows very good potential . We have sent him also for one month to San José to take an English course and the volunteers we have at the Lodge continue to teach him with good results.
At first we were very disappointed of having lost in a row two very good guides whom we have trained so hard and have spent so many resources. But then we felt proud having giving two young bright fellows the opportunity to brake the circle of poverty to become fully bilingual tourist guides and being able to form their own company.
As already indicated, I am member of the San Jose Rotary Club and through our connections with the Clubs in the U.S.A., we are sponsoring five schools in this area, all of them rather remote and very poor, lacking the most basic supplies. We brought two years in a row a group of four Rotarian Dentists from the U.S.A. to Boca Tapada with all their equipment to give for three days free dental service to the people in the area.
The example of the Hotel has convinced our neighbor to maintain 400 Ha. of rainforest, so that our Lodge is actually surrounded by 500 Ha.(1250 acres) of prime privately owned rainforest.
As already mentioned, due to the presence of the Hotel, we could convince the State-owned Electricity Company to connect the village and the Hotel with the public electricity net. The Hotel was also instrumental in improving the road, and last but not least, our example brought a new sense of self-confidence to the people. At the beginning, when I built the Hotel, they were very skeptical, and thought it a crazy idea. No tourist will come to this Godforsaken place. But when they saw the success, the village people now come to us for advice on all kinds of new projects they want to implement to create new employment. They are proud, that Boca Tapada appears now on all the maps and in most of the international tourist guides and that it even appears on international T.V. programs.
This clearly demonstrates that eco-tourism definitely can contribute to ameliorate poverty, by creating employment and especially by bringing awareness to the people that there exists a better way to overcome poverty than working with the Machete. It is however absolutely necessary, that the Hotel employs to the maximum extend possible local people and if trained people are not available to make the effort to train them. We would not have been able to establish such an excellent relation with the local community if we would not have done exactly this. However a small Hotel can not resolve the problems of a whole region. It can only be a focal point to attract more investors and we need the assistance of the Government to improve the infrastructure and the schools. Not even 5% of the children of the five schools of this area have access to high school education, some schools are more than 30miles away from a high school and without any bus service. Education remains the key to development. Eco-tourism can be a door opener and facilitator but cannot resolve all the problems.
Eco-tourism can adjust to the requirements of a sustainable development but it has to remain true to its real meaning. If tourism is polarized like in Costa Rica to few overcrowded places, like Monteverde, Tortuguero, Manuel Antonio, which I mentioned already and people stand in line, like in Disney World to enter a nature reserve then, I think eco-tourism becomes or remains a farce. Unfortunately many ecological organisations, instead of looking for the isolated small lodges where you can enjoy nature at your own pace, bring the people to these overcrowded areas. The prevailing mentality still is: you have to spend your vacation in a fashionable crowded place with fancy and expensive Hotels. Do not even think to go to a small isolated place relax and recuperate your energy in community with nature. I can cite numerous so called Eco-Hotels who charge $200.-.-and more per night per person and get all the public and international attention. I think true eco tourism means to go back to nature. Hotels have to remain small, mass tourism and overcrowded places are incompatible with Eco- Tourism and tourist have to be prepared to forsake, at least for a couple of days all excessive luxury and be contend with a clean and simple room. The big companies offer their employees Incentive Tours to fancy 5 star luxury hotels, but would not dream giving incentive tours to small isolated nature lodges where employees would regain time to gather strength and peace to their bodies and mind. Once this will take place and Incentive Tours are given to small nature lodges, Eco-Tourism will become a reality
Mind you, I am not against mass tourism and fancy Hotel-Resorts, the country needs and welcomes the foreign exchange these large resorts bring to the country. Anybody can choose according to his taste and means but if you want to practice eco-tourism you should also spent a couple of nights in a true eco-lodge in an isolated area and pay respect to Mother Nature.
True eco tourism does not endanger wildlife habitat. On the contrary, it can enhance it. First the local people will respect and protect the environment if they see the benefit it brings to the community. They will not poach or illegally hunt. Second, I have experienced that, if animals and birds realize that you do not harm them, they are not afraid of or are not disturbed by people. If time allows I can give you several examples. However it is also a question of quantity. At our lodge theoretically a maximum of 40 people, once a day, go for about 2 or 3 hours through the rainforest of 1250 acres. In reality it is even much less since our occupancy rate does not reach 50%. If however you channel 100 people for 2 hours and this during 12 hours every day through a rainforest like in Monteverde and other overcrowded mass tourism spots in Costa Rica the limit definitely has been reached or has been surpassed. Animals need their period of rest also during the day.
We, are very proud to have proven how tourism can contribute to the development of a poor isolated area, how local people, through this example, have learned to value the richness of the rainforest and how we, in some way, have contributed to the awareness, that to maintain and preserve the rainforest for future generations, can be more profitable than cutting it down and, thus, destroying its beauty with all its exuberant flora and fauna.
We also feel very proud for having received (July,2004) from the official Costa Rican Tourist Board, ICT, the recognition as a sustainable tourist establishment with level 4 out of a maximum of 5 levels. Mind you, the criteria are so strict that up to now only two establishments have obtained the Nr. 5 level and only 4 including our Lodge have reached the Nr.4 level.
If you would like to find out more about this project go to volunteer costa rican ecolodge
Daniel
