Creating 'escape routes' for wildlife

Biological corridors, such as one planned from Panama to Mexico, would let species migrate to safer climates as global warming heats up their old habitats.

from the June 21, 2007 edition

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Adding tourism to the mix

ASOPROLA has bigger plans than just roasting and selling organic coffee. Farming organically and sustainably has made the district into a tourist destination as well. Tourist dollars further diversify the incomes of farmers, making them less beholden to fluctuations in the coffee market.

Together, organic farming, La Amistad park, and tourism have another beneficial side effect, explains Yendry Suárez, vice president of ASPROLA. "Before, the young people migrated to the city to study, to work. Now, many of us young people have the opportunity of not leaving, of finding an income source locally," she says. "Here where we grew up – right here we're going to develop as people."

By involving communities that border La Amistad, park rangers increase the number of eyes and ears guarding it, says Gravin Villega Rodríguez, a ranger at La Amistad. Before, rangers would drive many hours in response to fire calls only to discover that a wily poacher had cried "fire" as a decoy. Now, with communities involved, when a ranger gets a fire call, "we can trust it," Mr. Villega says. More often than not, members of the community "put it out themselves," he says.

Many conservationists hail organizations such as ASOPROLA as a key to both creating wilderness corridors and preserving existing parks. But some doubt the long-term effectiveness of this type of conservation. A farmer may agree to reforest his land or adopt sustainable land-use practices today, says Daniel Janzen, a technical adviser to Área de Conservación Guanacaste, a park in Costa Rica's northwest. But what happens if tomorrow his daughter gets married and needs a house, or the next generation takes the land over and doesn't feel the same way?

"Bye-bye forest," suggests Dr. Janzen in a phone conversation.

The best way to preserve biodiversity – and bolster many species' chances of surviving in a warmer world – is to consolidate and expand existing parks, and endow them to exist for the foreseeable future, he says. "All the private efforts we do are temporary," Janzen says. "The only things that will be here 1,000 years from now are the governments."

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Click to enlarge Scott Wallace – Staff