Center for Global Study and Engagement

School for Field Studies - Costa Rica
Sustainable Development Studies

ENVIRONMENTAL ISSUES

Weed species (hearty, adaptive, fast-proliferating species such as deer, rats, kudzu) thrive in a number of different environments and can overwhelm indigenous species if the conditions are right. Reduced habitat, pollution, strained resources - the hallmarks of unsustainable industrial development - can pitch a delicately balanced ecosystem into a precipitous decline. It?s still life but homogenized life where the web will become just a few common strands that can be found nearly anywhere, replacing and sometimes completely extinguishing thousands of species, forever. It?s the difference between always finding franchised fastfood with only slight local variations on the menu vs authentic, regional cuisine crafted by local people.

While Costa Rica is internationally recognized for its efforts to ensure biodiversity and protect natural resources, the country has experienced significant resource degradation linked to population growth, industry, and development ? all of which threaten to ruin this tropical paradise, and in turn, economic opportunities. The country supports more than 5% of the world?s biodiversity and boasts 230 different protected areas (about 25% of the country). The cloud forests, rainforests, volcanoes, and mountain plains here shelter as many as 6,000 plant species, including at least 1,000 orchids alone. More than 500 species of butterflies and over 800 bird species, such as quetzals, toucans, hummingbirds, and scarlet macaws, are found in the wet and/or dry forests. The magnificent beaches bordering both coasts are among the world?s largest-known nesting grounds for sea turtles.

Costa Rica now faces a struggle common to developing countries in a global economy: preserving beautiful (and ecologically and economically valuable) natural resources while increasing prosperity and allowing for sustainable development. A particular challenge is maintaining biodiversity in the face of competing land use, such as urban growth, foreign investment in resorts and big hotels, agriculture driven by export products, and ensuring that Costa Rica?s world-famous parks benefit surrounding communities as well as ecotourism development.

EXPLORE COSTA RICA'S INCREDIBLE BIODIVERSITY AND UNIQUE ECOSYSTEMS

Study tropical ecology, economics, and understand the socio-cultural issues related to the natural resource management challenges in world-renowned protected areas. Study with local Costa Rican park rangers, farmers, and top environmental officials to understand the challenges of maintaining the biodiversity of the country. Travel to Nicaragua on a field expedition. Become a member of the friendly community of Atenas and sharpen your Spanish conversation skills.

Costa Rica Program Description

OUR RESEARCH

Costa Rica is currently undergoing a period of great economic and social change. As this resource-rich, wonderfully biodiverse country continues along a path of rapid development, it is becoming increasingly influenced by global policy such as the Central American Fair Trade Act (CAFTA) and foreign markets. Costa Rica?s economy has shifted from an economy predominately based on agriculture to one driven by ecotourism and technology exports. At the same time, brisk population growth is straining natural and developed resources. The country now faces a critical juncture as resource management decisions are being made in an effort to keep pace with competitive global markets. Our goal is to study different sustainable management models that protect the biodiversity of Costa Rica?s ecosystems while promoting socioeconomic benefits for its people.

Students will examine the effects of globalization on classic sustainability issues such as agro-ecology, national park protection, economic development, urban sprawl, population growth, trash management andair quality, among others. Students? classes and research focus on evaluating the success of Costa Rica?s world-renowned management systems as well as developing alternative strategies, such as sustainable practices and organic agriculture as an alternative to poaching around national parks, that conserve biodiversity and protect natural resources. Visits to cloud forests, dry forests, volcanic parks, lowland rainforests, and plantations offer opportunities to examine management schemes, identify the benefits of protected areas, and determine which systems offer the best option for economic development, the maintenance of cultural norms, and the preservation of biodiversity. Understanding the forces that are driving Costa Rica?s policies as well as those driving change, will be key as students analyze potential natural resource solutions for Costa Rica, and hopefully, beyond.

Field Trips, Lectures, and Exercises

The interdisciplinary approach to our research teaches students about tropical ecology, agro-ecology, socioeconomics, sustainability, park management, natural resource management, ecological economics, and Costa Rican history, culture, and the Spanish language. Possible field trips, lectures, and exercises include:

• Nicaragua: extended field expedition to compare and contrast development and resource use issues between the two countries.

   

• Palo Verde National Park: camping trip to explore a rare and threatened tropical dry forest ecosystem, site of one of the most sustainable management models for protected areas in Latin America.

   

• Volcan Poas National Park: investigate parks and people relations and park facility and visitor information needs. Learn about cloud forest ecology.

   

• Braulio Carrillo National Park: learn about bio-indicators of ecosystem health and rainforest ecology.

   

• Carara National Park: see the reintroduction of bird species in the park and learn about forest dynamics and food webs.

   

• Volcan Arenal National Park: examine the pressures that ecotourism places on small communities.

   

• Monteverde protected zone: visit the largest private reserve in Latin America initiated by donations to explore the difficult dynamics of private and public preservation policies and the impact of heavy tourism.

   

• Rincon de La Vieja National Park: camping trip to the cloud forest and volcanic mud piles.

   

Student Directed Research Project Examples

• Development of an agroforestry system to plant Euterpe precatoria in small forest patches with communities surrounding the national parks.

   

• Development of certification programs for the sustainable or organic cultivation of Euterpe precatoria by small communities.

   

• Impact of illegal extraction of heart of palm on the population growth of Euterpe precatoria and development of sustainable use alternatives.

   

• Long-term monitoring program of the avifauna of Volcan Poas National Park. Analysis of the impact of poaching on bird diversity and distribution.

   

• Long term monitoring of the effects of international policies on agro-ecology systems.

   

• Impact of seasonal changes in the abundance and diversity of aquatic macroinvertebrates as indicators of water quality in two pristine streams of Braulio Carrillo National Park. Evaluation of the socioeconomic benefits between Costa Rica?s national parks and its surrounding communities.

Student Research Contributions

• Presentation of our research results and proposed model of development at a meeting of the Costa Rican Ministry of Energy and Environment.

   

• Request by the President of Costa Rica to help design a national 15-year environmental strategy for Costa Rica.

   

• Visitor services and expectations for Nicaragua's national parks.

   

• Environmental waste management and recycling education programs.

   

• Evaluating and making recommendations for an environmental education program piloted at an elementary school in a community surrounding Volcan Poas National Park.

   

• Developing and monitoring water quality indicators for Braulio Carrillo National Park.

   

Get Involved with the Local Community

Community needs are the impetus behind our research goals. Conversations and collaborations with local residents, small business owners, and farmers to better understand their perspectives and needs provide the framework for SFS research plans. Activities might include:

• Monitoring and maintaining trail infrastructure at the Municipal Forest and Cacao watershed with the local high school, ministry of agriculture, and municipality.

   

• A full Spanish presentation of the results of the research conducted during the semester to government agencies.

   

• Long-term community projects: U.S. culture and English taught in the elementary school, fighting diseases in Atenas, and trail management and construction in the Municipal Forest.

   

• Soccer games, community festivals, and short home stays.

   

Prerequisites

Applicants for semester programs must have completed at least one college level course in ecology or environmental studies, and are encouraged to have taken coursework in statistics, international development, economics, or anthropology. Students must have completed at least one college level course in Spanish or otherwise demonstrate a working knowledge of conversational Spanish prior to participating.

*Language, Culture and Society of Costa Rica (LS) 205E offers listening, oral, and written practice of Spanish at beginner, intermediate, and advanced levels of proficiency. Written grammar and vocabulary exercises help students develop Spanish language skills and tools required for their course work and research projects. The socio-culture module helps students develop a more refined understanding of Costa Rican culture.

SFS AT WORK

The SFS Center for Sustainable Development Studies  maintains a long tradition of collaboration with local communities by balancing conservation with the sound management of natural resources. This tradition now spans four countries (Costa Rica, Nicaragua, Panama, and Honduras) and 43 communities. Recent examples of successful collaboration include El Zota Coop, as well as the evaluation of the new access route to Braulio Carrillo National Park . El Zota (a small rural cooperative of 19 families) is struggling to come up with sustainable alternatives of forest use in the face of agricultural and cattle ranching expansion. SFS began collaborating with El Zota to expand the heart of palm project to small fragments owned by rural families around national parks. This research is monitoring the palm Euterpe precatoria in Braulio Carrillo which is illegally extracted due to its tasty heart of palm. By interacting with El Zota, we are triggering the interest of local farmers on wild heart of palm cultivation to reduce extraction from public lands. SFS students benefit from exposure to real-life farming in the Tropics, help with chores, and participate on research that is helping El Zota to better manage its forests, facilitate the marketing of their products, and their capacity to receive and educate visitors. By adding value to forest fragments, these families created a biological corridor connecting their lands with Tortuguero National Park.

Visit our Web site for a photo tour of our field station: www.fieldstudies.org

COURSES

Semester students are registered in five academic courses accredited through Boston University:

Course No.                  Name                                                                           Credits

EE(NS) 377                  Tropical Ecology and Sustainable Development                 04

EE(SS) 303                  Economic & Ethical Issues in Sustainable Development     04

EE(NS) 374                  Principles of Resource Management                                 04

EE 491 or 492              Directed Research                                                           04

(LS) 205E                     Language, Culture, and Society of Costa Rica*                  02

tuition and fees
room and board
pre-departure and on-site orientations
academic excursions

The program fee does not include primary health insurance, airfare, optional travel, personal expenses, books or supplies.

Special Requirements

2.8 GPA

For more information, contact:

Professor Carol Loeffler
On-Campus Coordinator
P.O. Box 1773
Carlisle, PA 17013-2896
Phone: (717) 245-1360
E-mail: loeffler@dickinson.edu