For over 20 years, Costa Rica’s has set itself a goal: to make tourism the cornerstone of its sustainability… And it has achieved it! In this way, becoming “The Green Country” was the key to the development of Costa Rica.
Its transformation began when the ‘Tico’ Green country decided to treat natural resources as one more value of its economy and create the Certification for Sustainable Tourism. Hotels were the first to obtain it, but other sectors, such as the restaurateur and even car rental companies, quickly joined.
Renewable sources
99% of the country’s energy -which concentrates 6% of the world’s biodiversity- is obtained from renewable sources and its public policy prohibits searching for oil, developing open-pit mining and hunting for sporting or lucrative purposes.
Furthermore, in 2011, they announced their intention to become the first nation to neutralize carbon emissions, thereby tackling global warming.
Such is its commitment that the British think-tank, The New Economics Foundation, has positioned Costa Rica in the first place of the Happy Planet Index, an indicator that measures the development and human and environmental well-being of each country, on 3 occasions in a row.
