This page was last updated May 4, 2008
Projects > CESD Conference: Ecotourism in Costa Rica: Environmental, Social, and Economic Impacts
Over the last few decades, Costa Rica has become a poster child for ecotourism. It is the destination of choice for a majority of American nature travelers, tourism has surpassed bananas and coffee as the country's most important foreign exchange earner, and the country is viewed as a model of ecotourism by practitioners and proponents around the world. Costa Rica is also an important country for field research and study travel for Stanford faculty, students, and alumni.
The CESD's first in-depth research project has been a study of international tourism and certification initiatives in Costa Rica. Headed by Martha Honey and a team of U.S. and Costa Rican researchers, the study is designed to assess how the composition and functioning of Costa Rica's tourism industry affects the successes and deficiencies of its certification programs, particularly its Certification for Sustainable Tourism. Writing up this research is being done during fall 2004, and it, together with other current research done at Stanford and other institutions, will be presented at a conference entitled "Transforming Ecotourism for Conservation and Development: Lessons from Costa Rica." in February of 2006.