ECOTOURISM IN COSTA RICA: TIRIMBINAEcotourism in Costa Rica takes many shapes and forms and is experienced or enjoyed in different ways. Indeed, the word "eco tourism" means different things and has different connotations to different people.
For many folks who visit Costa Rica, eco tourism is about enjoying and experiencing Costa Rica's biological diversity. This little country comprises only about 1/10,000 of the world's land surface (the size of West Virginia) yet, unbelievably, nearly one of every five species of plant and animal on the globe are found in Costa Rica. The country has more kinds of butterflies than in all of the countries on the entire African continent put together.
    Costa Rica has recorded almost 900 different kinds of birds, nearly as many as are in the continental United States. The world's largest Green Sea Turtle preserve has been created off the Caribbean Coast at Tortuguero National Park. 35% of the world's different species of whales and porpoises (cetaceans) are found in its offshore waters. Humpback whales from Antarctica travel thousands of miles north to Costa Rica every year while Arctic humpbacks swim thousands of miles south to the very same waters. For that reason, Costa Rica has the longest humpback viewing season anywhere. Corcovado National Park is just 20 miles long and some 8 miles wide but, according to National Geographic, is "the most biologically intense place" on the globe. Tens of thousands of persons visit Costa Rica annually to see or experience these kinds of things. I call them "Costa Rica vacation eco tourists." Tirimbina Rainforest CenterHowever, ecotourism in Costa Rica is considerably more diverse and broad in scope than whale watching, taking a Costa Rica photography tour, hiking tropical jungles, or most of the usual tourist activities. And, though I bet you have never heard of it, few places exemplify that diversity of Costa Rica eco tourism experience better than the Tirimbina Rainforest Center.Consider visiting in when you travel Costa Rica. The Tirimbina Rainforest Center occupies about 850 acres (345 hectares) of primary rainforest. This is the original, never logged, rain forest that covered 99% of Central America when Christopher Columbus explored its Caribbean coast. He discovered and named Costa Rica in 1502. Unfortunately, over the following centuries, logging and burning of the Central American rain forests decimated them and only vestiges of this important resource remain. The Tirimbina Rainforest Center's story goes back to 1960 when Robert Hunter arrived in Costa Rica to work for the Inter-American Institute for Science and Agriculture. He bought the land now occupied by the Center and set about to preserve it. Hunter invited scientists to the property, one of whom was Dr. Allen Young of the Milwaukee Public Museum. Dr. Young is an internationally acclaimed expert on rain forests and cacao cultivation. He, and others like him, who have visited the Center over the last decades are what I like to think of as "research eco tourists." Their work on rain forests has proved invaluable. Dr. Young's fascination with the tropical rain forest at Tirimbina carried over to the Milwaukee Public Museum itself. In the mid 1980s, the Museum created a permanent exhibit about the tropical rain forest, based upon Tirimbina, that it called "Exploring Life on Earth." Hundreds of thousands of men, women, and children have visited the tropical rain forest exhibit and diorama as "virtual eco tourists" and wondered about tropical forests. Mr. Hunter subsequently sold Tirimbina to the Museum which managed it as a research center until 2006. Today, it belongs to a Costa Rica nonprofit organization, the Asociacion Tirimbina Para La Conservacion, Investigacion y Educacion which continues to manage it for tourists, students, and researchers and provides educational outreach to local communities. I strongly recommend visiting the Tirimbina Rainforest Center if you are: (a) A "tropical research eco tourist." The Center is a working rain forest research site with many national and international projects. For 30 years, doctorate research, graduate studies, and museum related projects have taken place there as well. (b) A college student looking for a unique study abroad opportunity. Recently, Ball State University of Indianapolis announced a new Study Abroad in Costa Rica program that will be at the Tirimbina Rainforest Center starting Spring Semester 2010. Students will get college credits and live with local families. Modeled after two very popular Ball State study abroad programs in London and Australia, it will have a uniquely Costa Rica flavor. Each participant will be a "student eco tourist." Click here to see more opportunities to
study abroad in Costa Rica.
Even though the tropical rain forest research community has known about the Tirimbina Rainforest Center for over 40 years, it is not a well known place for ecotourism in Costa Rica. Just 8,000 Costa Rica eco tourists a year typically visit. It is off the beaten path but if you are planning to travel to Costa Rica and want to experience a place for serious ecotourism in Costa Rica , give consideration to visiting the
Tirimbina Research Center.
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