Sounds cliché, as the saying is often used all around classrooms, board meetings, institutions of higher learning, and lofty non profit pitches to just name a few. However, in no other time, has investing in the future been more relevant to Costa Rica as they go forward pledging to become a carbon neutral country. In order to do so, they are going to have to use some innovative techniques, ideas, and business practices. One way to help offset the energy footprint is utilizing renewable energy sources. During our month long field course throughout Costa Rica, we stopped at one eco tourism lodge in El Castillo called Rancho Margot that was relying heavily on a energy generated from a spring located deep in the jungle. This location receives plenty of annual rainfall and therefore, hydropower makes sense. In fact, it proved to be so efficient that they only had to turn on their diesel generator about once a month in the dry season.
Currently, we are studying at a research station called Las Cruces, which is further South near the Panama border. This location has recently begun to experiment with solar energy as their form of renewable. However, we have only been here a few hours and it already seems that water could also be used as a source of energy here as well. For my partner and my independent research project we will be identifying sources and sinks of energy at Las Cruces Biological Station. I want to analyze their sustainability model and see just how self-sufficient they prove to be. We have seen several different lodges and universities who are striving their best to be as self-sufficient as possible. Some of the things they are doing I have learned about or at least heard about in the past but other ideas are completely new to me. I hope to learn as much about these models along with the models of ecotourism as I can during the remaining few weeks in Costa Rica. I am hopeful this new knowledge and understanding will be able to help me bring these innovations to East Africa tourism.