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Costa Rica – Showing the Way?

June 16, 2010 By admin 1 Comment

Marino Ballena National Park, South Pacific

Of the many countries where hotels, lodges, and resorts are doing good things, practicing their own version of sustainability, one in particular has long stood out – Costa Rica. Glenn Jampol, the owner of Finca Rosa Blanca, has been in the frontline of this movement, and he and wife Teri have two lodges and a coffee farm where they try to do the right thing for the environment and the community without sacrificing quality. In a Q&A with A World Different, Jampol explained more about Costa Rica’s policies.

AWD: How long has Costa Rica been on the sustainable tourism path?

Jampol: Officially since 1995, when the Certification of Sustainable Tourism was initiated. However, there had been some other incentives in the works before that, including one called Green Note, which converged in 1995 with the CST.

AWD: What has been achieved?

Jampol: Costa Rica has created a model for bringing government and the private sector together in a way that understands Costa Rica’s strengths and offers a longterm plan for maintaining (read sustaining) the niche and attraction that brings tourists here. In the last 10 years the interest among tourism entities has increased tremendously and includes every level, from the Four Seasons Papagayo down to the 3- or 4-room ecolodges in the jungle.

The CST is renowned in the tourism world as being the strictest and most comprehensive tourism certification system, and if it can evolve at the same rate it has been until now, it will continue to be so. Also the government has created support and incentive programs for tourist entities that show a great insight and long-range vision. Costa Rica understands that its tourism earnings, the second-biggest revenue producer in the country, are based on the reputation, credibility, and creativity of its environmental, cultural, social, and service-oriented sustainability.

The Four Seasons Papagayo

AWD: How many hotels are involved?

Jampol: There are about 150 hotels with CST ranking. Of those only seven have 5 green leaves, meaning a score of 95 percent or more on all four categories.

Also, there are 25 tour operators who also have CST ranking, although obviously with different parameters. Soon transportation and rental cars will be included.

AWD: Can you mention some notable programs?

Jampol: Through a gas tax the government pays landowners a yearly fee per hectare not to cut down trees, which has encouraged new planting. In the last 20 years Costa Rica has increased its green coverage by more than 20 percent due in great part to this program as well as to tourism entities that build on a small parcel of the available land and then reforest and protect the rest.

Bandera Azul Ecologica – a.k.a. the “Blue Flag” – is an incentive to hoteliers, tourism chambers, and coastal communities to protect the beaches of Costa Rica in a comprehensive manner. This incentive is an adaptation of the Blue Flag awarded by the European Union since 1985. Annually the quality of beach water is evaluated to make medical diagnoses and protect the health of visitors to coastal areas. The Blue Flag is awarded to a community that satisfies the quality aspects of sea water, beach quality, access to drinking water, wastewater treatment, environmental education, security, and administration.

Guayabo National Monument, Central Valley

Finca Rosa Blanca has two Blue Flags, for climate-change efforts through its reforestation and and its work in the community. It also has a Green Ecological Flag, which is a new program that recognizes the cleanliness and quality of restaurants and bars and their sustainable water use.

A new program under the National Chamber of Ecotourism, of which I am the president, aims to offset the carbon footprint for a tourist’s trip to Costa Rica. Each link in the tourism supply chain will pay a proportional fee. This will actually be a lot cheaper than it sounds – maybe $0.72 per hotel guest.

AWD: How heavily is government involved?

Jampol: The new president, Laura Chinchilla, and her cabinet have officially announced that sustainable tourism and the CST are the official policy, and the tourist board has a minister, Carlos Ricardo Benavides, who is personally committed and dedicated to this evolution as a country. Furthermore, the national banks, for the most part, have instituted environmental indicators, which clients must full out before the banks will give them loans for development.

Guayabo National Monument,
Central Valley
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Filed Under: Carbon Footprint, Community, Conservation, Costa Rica, Environment, Features, The Americas Tagged With: beach, forest, Four Seasons, jampol

Finca Rosa Blanca, Costa Rica

June 3, 2010 By admin 1 Comment

At Finca, Coffee is King

Who They Are

Finca Rosa Blanca was started 25 years ago by Californians Glenn and Teri Jampol, who still live on the property. The lodge, which is not far from San Jose, has a total of 13 verandaed suites – such as El Ranchito master suite and El Guarumo junior suite, all set in lush gardens overlooking a valley – and its owners have been on the forefront of sustainable travel efforts in Costa Rica.

In the Gardens

Seven years ago, the Jampols bought the neighboring coffee plantation and turned it into an organic farm, where the 30 acres of beans are shade-grown, and now you can enjoy truly fresh coffee on the terrace of El Tigre Vestido Restaurant while listening to the songbirds in the surrounding trees. Thus the full name, Finca Bianca Rosa Coffee Plantation & Inn.

A Different Decor in Each Suite

What They Are Doing

Finca has worked with Escuela Jesus, a 500-strong primary school in the nearby town of Jesús for fifteen years. In the last 4 years it has concentrated on a program called the Ecological Blue Flag Program for Schools, which deals with sanitation, electricity, and environmental issues.

The Main Lodge Perches Above the Treeline

Finca also works with schools in Santa Bárbara de Heredia on similar programs and has donated tables to their computer rooms. During the last two years it has brought their folkloric dance troupe to dance at the hotel  for guests and also, twice monthly, the “Cimarron” band who are accompanied by the “Mascarada” troupe (dancers with giant puppet heads).  The high school students have painted murals at Finca and have produced flyers on ecological themes.

THe Pool

Since 2003, schoolchildren have helped plant more than 6,000 native trees at the coffee plantation and hotel, and celebrate the day with a picnic. Finca has been teaching students new systems of hydroponics using recycled material, and is in the process of setting up a hydroponic garden at the school to provide the cafeteria with fresh produce.

Finca supports a group of 100 children from Barrio Jesus called Patrulla Ecologica de Jesús, or the Jesus Eco- Patrol, that gathers every week to talk about the environment, clean the rivers and the streets of Jesus of garbage, recycle, paint murals, and make art, among other things.  These children belong to the Children’s Food Bank, for which Finca provides the food one hot meal a day for more than 100 disadvantaged children five days a week.

Finca hires only locally, whereas in the rest of the country it is common to hire pickers from Nicaragua and Panama. The workers on its coffee farm collaborate in the recycling program and are included in training sessions of ‘Good Environmental Practices.’ Each year Finca provides a physician to examine all the employees or it allows them a day to go to the local clinic. The farm workers are very involved in the reforestation of the farms, from planning the planting of the trees to helping the children plant, to caring for the trees into the future.

At the Case del Cafe

At the coffee-roasting and packing house, Casa de Café, there is a small museum where they demonstrate aspects of Costa Rican culture.

Who They Are

Finca Bianca Rosa was started TK years ago by Minnesotans Glenn and Teri Jampol, who still live on the property. The lodge, with a total of 13 verandaed suites, such as El Ranchito master suite and El Guarumo junior suite set in lush gardens overlooking a valley, and its owners have been on the forefront of sustainable travel efforts in Costa Rica. TK years ago, the Jampols bought the neighboring coffee plantation and turned it into an organic farm, where the 30 acres of beans are shade-grown, and now you can enjoy truly fresh coffee on the terrace of El Tigre Vestido Restaurant while listening to the songbirds in the surrounding trees. Thus the full name, Finca Bianca Rosa Coffee Plantation & Inn.

What They Are Doing

Finca has worked with Escuela Jesus, the primary school in the nearby town of Jesús for fifteen years. The school has 500 students. In the last 4 years it has concentrated on a program called the Ecological Blue Flag Program for Schools, which deals with sanitation, electricity, and environmental issues.

Finca also works with schools in Santa Bárbara de Heredia on similar programs and has donated tables to their computer rooms. During the last two years we have brought their folkloric dance troupe to dance at the hotel twice monthly for the guests and also twice monthly, on the weekends, we have invited their “Cimarron” band ( a rustic brass band) to play for our guests during which they are accompanied by the “Mascarada” troupe (dancers with giant puppet heads) to entertain,.  The high school students have painted murals for us at Finca Rosa Blanca and produced flyers on ecological themes.

Since 2003, schoolchildren have helped plant over 6,000 native trees at the coffee plantation and at the hotel, and celebrate the day with a picnic. Finca has been teaching students new systems of hydroponics using recycled material, and is in the process of setting up a hydroponic garden at the school to provide the cafeteria with fresh produce.

Finca supports a group of 100 children from Barrio Jesus called Patrulla Ecologica de Jesús, or the Jesus Eco- Patrol, that gathers every week to talk about the environment, clean the rivers and the streets of Jesus of garbage, recycle, paint murals and make art, among other things.  These children belong to the Children’s Food Bank, for which Finca provides the food that feeds over 100 disadvantaged children one hot meal a day, five days a week.

Finca hires only locally, whereas in the rest of the country it is common to hire pickers from Nicaragua and Panama. The workers on its coffee farm collaborate in the recycling program and are included in training sessions of ‘Good Environmental Practices.’ Each year Finca provides a physician to examine all the employees or it allows them a day to go to the local clinic. The farm workers are very involved in the reforestation of the farms, from planning the planting of the trees to helping the children plant, to caring for the trees into the future.

At the coffee-roasting and packing house, Casa de Café, there is a small museum where they demonstrate aspects of Costa Rican culture.

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Filed Under: Art, Carbon Footprint, Community, Conservation, Costa Rica, Education, Environment, Features, Finca Rosa Blanca, Health, The Americas Tagged With: coffee, dance, jampol, reforestation

Lapa Rios, Costa Rica

February 24, 2010 By admin Leave a Comment

Who They Are

Set in a private nature reserve spread over 1,000 acres of Central America’s last remaining lowland tropical rainforest, Lapa Rios Ecolodge overlooks the point where the Golfo Dulce meets the wild Pacific Ocean.

A Few Minutes Away

Designed in harmony with the surrounding forest and beach, the main lodge and 16 bungalows, sparsely lined along three ridges 350 feet above the sea and connected by paths, were built with local materials, including fallen trees, and have intricately woven palm thatched roofs. From the lodge’s three-story circular stairway one can get breathtaking views of the forest canopy and the ocean. There are huge private decks, and the comfortable bamboo furniture is locally made.

Minnesota couple John and Karen Lews first envisioned Lapa Rios  as a private nature reserve. Theu used all their assets to purchase a large tract of rainforest and to build a small ecotourism project. Thanks to help from The Nature Conservancy and CEDARENA, this primary forest will be preserved in perpetuity and the land never developed. The Lapa Rios Reserve helps buffer the Osa Peninsula’s Corcovado National Park and serves as a wildlife corridor.

Morning View

What They Are Doing

Afternoon View

Lapa Rios believes in the power of education, so in January 1991 it brought together a group of neighbors to discuss the idea of opening a school. At the time, most neighbors had never met each other nor had they known that they shared a common ideal: education.  Most families were illiterate and were unaccustomed to the idea of their children attending school.  Out of this meeting came the Carbonera School, and today some kids walk an hour through the forest to attend  class, where they receive both formal and environmental lessons.

Intricate Thatch

The lodge employs only local community members, guaranteeing income to more than 45 families. Members of the community, often from the local elementary and high schools, come to the hotel weekly dressed in folkloric outfits and present the typical dances of Costa Rica to the guests. Lapa Rios supports their efforts by sponsoring their dance teacher, giving them the outfits, and organizing their transfers. Tips left by guests go to the dancers. Regularly, Lapa Rios invites local artists to sell their crafts on the premises, and in many cases the artists meet guests and give them the opportunity to work with them on making something.

Since 2006 Lapa Rios has supported a scholarship program for the students of its employees. Using a competitive application and selection process, the hotel selects two children and pays for their tuition at the private, bilingual school in Puerto Jimenez.

Lapa Rios - A Picture in Green

Lapa Rios has innovative energy-saving practices, including feeding non-compostable organic garbage to pigs to produce methane gas from their waste and then capture that gas for cooking in the employee kitchens. Even though the property has its own springs, water use is carefully monitored.

A Pair of Scarlet Macaws in the Reserve

The property gardens consist of local plants, and only organic fertilizers and natural non-toxic pesticides are used. This helps with water conservation since they require less water during the dry months, and they also restore habitat and attract birds, insects, reptiles, and mammal species.

As a neighbor to Corcovado National Park, Lapa Rios supports park rangers by donating equipment, such as boots, walkie-talkies, and sleeping bags. It has paid the salary of one ranger for over six years. The lodge also supports The Wildcat Conservation Program that works to determine the status of feline populations and their prey on the Osa Peninsula. The project uses cameras and video equipment to watch wild cats in action and study their behavior and population densities in order to better protect and save these highly endangered species. Lapa Rios donates money to purchase the cameras and video equipment and has supported the participation of the researchers in key academic conferences.  Guests are encouraged to donate to the project and take a tour with the researchers to help them place cameras in the forest.

In Their Own Words

“Our mission is to demonstrate that a standing rain forest is more valuable than one cut down.”

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Filed Under: Art, Carbon Footprint, Community, Conservation, Costa Rica, Education, Environment, Features, Health, Lapa Rios, Restoration & Repurposing Tagged With: corcovado, dance, folklore, organic, puerto jimenez