Champion of the Earth 2019: Costa Rica, awarded by the UN for its commitment against climate change

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According to data provided by the National System of Conservation Areas of Costa Rica, (SINARC), the country currently has 25.4% of its territory under protection, where about 6% of the planet's biodiversity and more than 50% is forest cover protected by law.

Reaching these figures, which place Costa Rica as an example in the care of its nature, needed the owners of private farms to understand the value of conservation and that the decision to go towards sustainable tourism would be correct.

The twenty-seven national parks and the one hundred and thirty-two state and mixed protected areas have made tourism one of the main engines of the Costa Rican economy. In 2018, revenues from this activity represented between 9% and 10% of gross domestic product (GDP). In addition, the three million tourists who receive each year directly employ 8% of the po[CENSORED]tion.

The heart of America also has forty-four biological corridors, strategically located between protected areas or national parks, which allow connectivity between ecosystems. In the biological corridor between the Tenorio Volcano National Park and the Miravalles Volcano National Park is the private nature reserve “Tapir Valley”, which has more than one hundred hectares, where the jaguar, puma and danta, (the Mesoamerican tapir) , species in danger of extinction due to deforestation and indiscriminate hunting, they travel through the forest during the night, only perceived by the registration of the traps.

Several of the areas destined for sustainable tourism in the country are carbon neutral, that is, they manage to balance greenhouse gas emissions with carbon sequestration or sequestration thanks to the dense forest vegetation, which releases oxygen into the atmosphere. An example is Sensoria, land of senses, in the north center of the country, in the province of Guanacaste.

It is a private area of one hundred hectares, with paths between trees over forty meters high whose ages exceed two hundred years. In that tropical rainforest, light only permeates by two or three percent. But at some point along the route, before reaching the blue waterfall, hikers can come across what the Ticos call "forest miracles." They are clear in the forest that increase green leaves and photosynthesis.

A few days ago, the thin waist of America, as defined by the Chilean poet Pablo Neruda, received the “Champions of the Earth” award in New York City, the highest distinction of the United Nations Organization (UN) for Your commitment against climate change.

Costa Rica is a perfect ally in the fight against climate change. It is an open-air biodiversity laboratory with its eight hundred species of birds such as the red and green macaw, the toucan and the blue butterfly, among others; and more than one hundred amphibians and frogs among them red-eyed frog, the emblem of Costa Rica. It is a magnet that attracts tourists from all over the world. It is the place to experience "pure life", even if only once in a lifetime.