I ran across an amusing bumper sticker the other evening. However, amusing as it was, it also contained a valuable message. The sticker read, “sembramos un árbol o nos lleva puta.” I wasn’t sure at first what that meant, so I asked my trusted side-kick, Pablo. He told me it means that either we plant trees or we’re all #$%&*@. Funny, huh? Yea, but also alarmingly true. In recent years, we have witnessed massive deforestation in Brasil, Indonesia and other biodiversity hot spots (much of it illegal). The trees are cleared for logging, to make way for planting of crops for biodiesel fuel, for palm oil plantations, for development and many other reasons. The problem is that the trees of these forests play a vital role in maintaining the health of our planet and the air we breathe. Healthy growing trees remove carbon dioxide that is emitted into the atmosphere by our consumption of “dirty-fuels.” When trees are cut and burned they release carbon dioxide. Thus, deforestation is a primary cause of global warming. Trees also provide the habitat for millions of different forms of life in the rain forest. Our forests prevent erosion of the soil and help regulate the flow of rivers. In short, trees give life and when we mindlessly cut them down, we are only condemning ourselves. It is environmental suicide. And as the bumper sticker crudely and humurously points out, either we stop doing it, or else. Costa Rica is home to some 900 different species of trees. A scientist in Monteverde once told me that back home (somewhere in the rural U.S.) on a given plot of forested land, he might see three or four different varieties of tree, whereas on the same plot of land in the cloud forest of Monteverde, you may not even see the same species of tree twice. It is that rich in diversity of species. Costa Rica has not always done a great job of regulating deforestation. In the late 1980’s, due to thousands of hectares of forests being cleared to make way for cattle grazing, banana, sugar and coffee plantations and palm oil, as well as urban development, tropical forests only covered 21% of the country’s territory. Today, due to efforts to incentivize landowners not to clear forests and the setting aside of vast territories as protected areas, tropical forests now cover over half the country. These days the main threat is resort and residential development. Case in point is the beautiful Fila Costeña mountain range of the Southern Pacific. Recently the government has had to step in to halt granting of concessions to developers because part of the land under the grant included forested areas of the Fila Costeña. Cutting of those trees on the slopes that end in the Pacific can give rise to a whole host of environmental problems as sedimentation is swept by the rains down the slopes into the ocean where some of our most important coral reefs are located. These reefs are the habitat for a dazzling array of marine biodiversty, including the endangered humpback whale. All these things are connected. To cut the trees is to upset the delicate balance that nature does a pretty good job of maintaining, until man steps in to screw with it. So hats off to the government for stepping in and doing something about it (see recent Strictly Business blog post). I have said many times that the reason Costa Rica is so appealing as a tourist destination is because it is so green and full of biodiversity. Our beautiful primary tropical forests are the foundation to that “greeness” and rich biodversity and another reason I love Costa Rica. If we start cutting them down where will be?….as the bumper sticker says, we’ll all be #$%&*@!
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