- Various, Costa Rica
THIS PROGRAM WILL NOT RUN IN 2024. IT WILL RESUME IN 2025.
Costa Rica is home to some of the most beautiful and diverse wild
lands left on the planet. All of this biodiversity depends upon
preservation practices in the face of economic growth, energy demands,
and land development. Costa Rica is unique in both its biome diversity
and exemplary in the amount of land set aside to safeguard this
diversity, as more than 25% of the country is protected in parks and
reserves. Revenues from ecotourism help sustain these areas; however,
there are questions about how effective this model is for an emerging
economy and society. In this course we examine the ecological, social
and economic pressures affecting land use and consider a variety of
perspectives. Our experiences in Costa Rica will range from field
studies in a remote Pacific rain forest, to mountain cloud forests, to
the lowlands on both dry and wet sides of the central mountain ranges.
