The Road to Tortuguero Cheri A

The Road to Tortuguero Cheri A. Young, University of Denver Terry G. Nicholas, University of Denver David L. Corsun, University of Denver Daryl Loth, Casa Marbella Bed and Breakfast

THE ROAD TO TORTUGUERO

Everyone ought to see a turtle nesting. It is an impressive thing to see, the pilgrimage of a sea creature back to the land its ancestors left a hundred million years ago. The nesting rites begin, for the watcher, at least, when the turtle strands in the surf. That part is hard to watch, those minutes when she comes up with the breakers and stays there for a while, rising with a wave then bumping back softly on the sand, making up her mind. She blinks and peers, turns her nose down and presses it onto the wave-washed bottom, then looks up and all around and blinks some more. She is clearly making a decision. What her criteria are, nobody knows . . . The turtle is wild and skittish when she first touches shore, and even the light of a match struck far up the beach may send her back to the sea. —Archie Carr, The COPYWindward Road

aryl Loth sat on the back porch of the eleven-room bed-and-breakfast that he and his wife operated in the remote village of Tortuguero, Costa Rica. All Daround, the rainforest was dense with the wildlife he loved. Twelve yards from his porch steps was the winding canal to Tortuguero, and fifty yards in front spread a wide black sand beach on the Atlantic Ocean. A biological tour guide, Loth made his living hosting and leading groups of tourists who made the arduous trek to the village to observe the giant sea turtles’ annual return to the beach to lay their eggs and hatch their young. In April 2007 Loth had to decide whether to support a proposal for a road to Tortuguero with widespread implications for his cherished village and its turtles. Though born in Canada, LothNOT had lived in Tortuguero for fifteen years, was mar- ried to a local woman, had two small children, spoke fluent Spanish, and was one of Tortuguero’s biggest supporters and advocates. Although some locals considered him an “outsider” and a “son-of-a-bitch, meddling foreigner” because, as Loth said, he did “not watch soccer, drink beer, or cheat on his wife,” he had helped build the high school and was now president of the Tortuguero Tour Guide Association (TGA) (see Exhibit 1 for a list of acronyms).

The Road to Tortuguero 75 Since 1994, the TGA, a self-organized group of local tour guides, had collected a fee of ¢200 (colones)—about forty U.S. cents—from each tourist taking a turtle tour. Under its self-imposed rules, the TGA decided (by a simple majority vote) every year how to spend the fees or whether to save the funds for future projects. Previous expen- ditures had gone to improving the water system, constructing a playground, building a house for the teachers, improving the elementary school, renovating the police station, and providing greater protection for the turtles by increasing paid patrols on the beaches and marking nesting sites. The TGA’s last expenditure in 2005 had gone to improve the high school. Such projects were needed given the Costa Rican government’s neglect of the village due to its small population and remote location. At their meeting in April 2007, the TGA membership planned to vote for one of three proposals for spending its current savings of $30,000, representing two years’ worth of fees. Proposal 1 was to bulldoze a dirt road providing overland access almost to the center of the village (the road would end at the edge of a river requiring a three-minute boat ride to the center of the village—see Figure 1). For almost two decades, the residents of Tortuguero had been debating whether or not to build a road to their village. In order to provide access to the village, the proposed road would have to traverse the protected zone. The village was accessible from the rest of the country by only two means. One required a bus ride on rugged roads followed by a 1½ hour journey in a shallow bottom thirty-two-seat open-sided boat through winding, jungle canals. The other required a twenty-five-minute flight from San Jose, the capital of Costa Rica, aboard a seven or twelve-seat plane, followed by a ten-minute boat ride, a costly proposition available only to tourists as residents could not afford the fare. The estimated costs for Proposal 1 were $28,000 (the $2,000 balanceCOPY would be saved for next year’s projects). Figure 1: Proposed Route Map

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Source: Case authors

76 Case Research Journalt7PMVNFt*TTVFt4VNNFS Proposal 2 was to relocate the boat launch at La Pavona, one kilometer upstream to the main navigable part of the river (which involved building a bridge and short road) to make access to the village more convenient by avoiding the shallow parts of the canal during the dry season. Estimated costs for this project were $15,000. The remaining money would be used to bring medical staff to the village an additional two days per month. Proposal 3 was to save the money and consider spending it next year. The three proposals were going to be put up for a vote by members of the TGA that evening in April 2007. Like many in the community, Loth was conflicted about which proposal he thought the TGA should support. However, now the time had come for him to make a decision regarding the road to Tortuguero, a decision that would likely impact his life and all those living there, including the turtles that annually nested on Tortuguero’s beaches.

5PSUVHVFSP -BOEPG5VSUMFT Tortuguero, which meant “region or land of turtles” in Spanish, was located on a spit of land between a canal and the Atlantic Ocean, twenty-six miles south of the Nicaraguan border, within the province of Limón and canton of Pococí. Costa Rica was divided into seven provinces; the provinces were divided into 81 cantons; and the cantons were divided into 473 districts (see 'JHVSF). The canton of Pococí had six districts, including the district that was home to the village of Tortuguero. However, districts did not have their own local government. Figure 2: Provinces of Costa Rica and Cantons of Limón ProvinceCOPY

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Reprinted from Wikimedia Commons by Golbez, 2006, and Marco Munoz, 2006, respectively. Reprinted with permission.

Tortuguero comprised approximately two square kilometers and was home to 1,000 residents occupying a hodgepodge of approximately 200 one- and two-story clapboard houses andDO shacks, thirty businesses, and fifteen public buildings (see&YIJCJU for pictures of houses, stores, and the beach). The village and the thirteen square kilometers surrounding it were collectively known as Tortuguero. Loth had been drawn to the small community’s native beauty and lush wildlife that included fifty-seven species of amphibians, 111 species of reptiles, 300 species of birds, and sixty species of mammals.

The Road to Tortuguero 77 With daily average temperatures of 79°F, a humidity level of 90 percent, and an annual average rainfall of more than 200 inches, Tortuguero was Loth’s Shangri-La. Tortuguero was surrounded by protected areas with a national park to the south, a wildlife refuge to the north, and a protected zone to the west that linked the refuge and the park and essentially cut off the village from the rest of Costa Rica (see Figure ). With no car traffic or motorized vehicles of any sort, villagers and tourists walked along scattered muddy foot paths through unkempt grass. Tortuguero was the most important nesting site for green sea turtles in the Western Hemisphere. Turtle tourism was the sole basis of the village economy. Almost 95 percent of village families had at least one member employed in the tourism sector.

Figure 3: Tortuguero

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DOReprinted from http://casamarbella.tripod.com/id6.html. Reprinted with permission.

78 Case Research Journalt7PMVNFt*TTVFt4VNNFS TURTLES AND TOURISM

By the early 1960s, the population of green sea turtles was dangerously close to extinc- tion in Tortuguero and the rest of the world. In Tortuguero, the turtles had traditionally been hunted by the Caribbean communities for meat, fat, and eggs. Practically every female green sea turtle arriving to the beach up to this time was either slaughtered by locals for consumption or exported by local businessmen for the production of turtle soup (see&YIJCJU for a timeline of critical events in the development of Tortuguero). The plight of the green sea turtles in Tortuguero drew the attention of biologist Dr. Archie Carr, a lifelong student of sea turtles, from the University of Florida. He worked with the Costa Rican government to establish Tortuguero as a sanctuary and national park where the endangered turtles could nest undisturbed. His non-profit Sea Turtle Conservancy (STC) sought to “ensure the survival of sea turtles within the Wider Caribbean basin and Atlantic through research, education, training, advocacy and the protection of the natural habitats upon which they depend.”1 In 1963, the first executive decree regulating the hunting of sea turtles and the collection of their eggs was signed into law in Costa Rica. The decree prohibited the capture of marine turtles on the beach and up to one kilometer out into the sea from high tide. In 1971, Carr and the STC began working to promote ecotourism,2, 3 hiring residents to walk the beach and count turtle tracks to help protect the sea turtles, providing a desperately needed source of employment. They hoped to convince the residents that living sea turtles could have greater long-term value than dead turtles destined for the soup kettle or the dark corners of nightclubs. Green sea turtle eggs were being sold on the black market in discos, bars, and nightclubs in Costa Rica as many believed they made men more virile. COPY ǰF$BOBM4ZTUFNBOEUIF"SSJWBMPG5PVSJTUT Tortuguero became connected to the rest of the world in 1972 with the installation of the first telephone. Two years later, a canal system opened. The system allowed boats to travel to Tortuguero and continue on to Barra del Colorado, where the canal connected to the San Juan River that separated Costa Rica from Nicaragua (see 'JHVSF). This canal project had been under discussionNOT for almost 150 years before it was completed. DO

The Road to Tortuguero 79 Figure 4: Northeast Costa Rica

In 1975, Tortuguero National Park (TNP) was established just south of Tortu- guero. Together, TNP and the Barra del ColoradoCOPY Wildlife Refuge to the north of the village comprised the largest remaining adjoining tract of lowland wet tropical forest on Costa Rica’s Atlantic Coast. TNP was made up of rain-forested flatland, mangroves, and beaches, including a twenty-two-mile black sand beach on which green sea turtles nested. Two small sets of cabins were built in the village in 1975 to accommodate the arrival of tourists. In 1980, the Costa Rican government launched the Gran Delta, a crude wooden boat, transporting people and cargo twice a week. The fifty-mile trip from Moín to Tortuguero took seven hours. That year approximately 225 tourists visited Tortuguero. In the early 1980s, residents started the Village Development Association (VDA). The VDA focused on improving village life, as neither the government nor any private or publicNOT enterprise was going to provide resources given the remote location, lack of an official government-appointed or elected leader, and the small size of the village. Through the VDA’s efforts, electricity was brought to the village for four hours per day in 1982, increasing to twenty-four hours per day in 1986. With electricity and TNP, coupled with the failure of other industries to provide enough jobs, ecotourism started to take root. Slowly, small shops, cabins, and hotels sprouted up to service the small but increasing number of tourists, thus offering residents a steady source of income. Adventure tourists began seeking the experience of seeing the nesting sea turtles and other natural treasures of TNP and by 1987, tourist arrivals had risen to 2,400 a year. DOThe Gran Delta’s boat service was suspended after a large earthquake in 1991. Tortuguero residents were forced to rely on the goodwill of private tour operators for virtually all transportation in and out of Tortuguero, until public boat service was reestablished (in 1995) with thrice daily service.

Case Research Journalt7PMVNFt*TTVFt4VNNFS 5PSUVHVFSP5PVS(VJEFT In 1992 Loth arrived in Tortuguero to do volunteer work for the STC, about the same time that TNP officials had become anxious about the impact of tourists on the sea turtles. Enforcement of the 1963 decree was practically non-existent, and fishermen and locals continued to hunt the turtles. The lack of funding for park rangers to patrol the beaches also contributed to an increase in the illegal harvesting of female green sea turtles. Thus, TNP officials began limiting the number of night-time beach tourists and requiring they be supervised by a tour guide during nesting seasons. The STC and the Costa Rican National Park Service established the needed tour guide certification training program, which also provided an alternative income source for former turtle hunters and consumers. Locals who received a guide permit were quite proud of the distinction and became staunch defenders of Tortuguero’s turtles. To earn some money, Loth had become a tour guide, having fallen in love with TNP and the pull of the green sea turtles. Like many before him, he became a vocal protector of the turtles. In 1995, TNP was linked with Barra del Colorado National Wildlife Refuge to the north through a corridor called the Tortuguero Protected Zone. The Danish Nephen- tes Foundation had provided funding for this land on the condition it be included in the park for conservation.4 The zone permitted wildlife species to travel freely between TNP and the Barra del Colorado Wildlife Reserve. TNP, Barra del Colorado, and the Tortuguero Protected Zone were managed under the Tortuguero National Park Ser- vice (also known by its Spanish acronym, ACTo).

&DPUPVSJTN(SPXT In 1994, Costa Rica began to fully embrace the tenets of ecotourism atCOPY a national level with its National Development Strategy (NDS), based on the principles of Agenda 21 (the 1992 non-binding, voluntarily-implemented action plan of the United Nations with regard to sustainable development). The NDS positioned Costa Rica on a path to sustainable development through two fundamental principles: (1) To bring forth equitable improvements in the quality of life of the population; and (2) that such improvements be permanent and integral in economic, social, environmental, and institutional terms. Accordingly, the strategy established that environmental sustain- ability would be based on building an alliance with nature that balanced the demands of social and economic development on natural resources and the environment.5 Due to the efforts of the VDA, the village secured an aqueduct and water tank for a much needed potable water supplyNOT in 1996. With electricity and clean water, Tortu- guero continued to grow both in the number of residents and the number of tourists. Afraid that unsightly trash would detract from the natural beauty and image of Tortuguero as an ecotourism destination, the VDA worked with the community in 1996 to build a trash disposal center. However, the VDA president had failed to obtain the required permits and to conduct a feasibility study. Additionally, the center was never completed as the necessary funding for a biodigestor, the centerpiece of the center, could not be secured as residents and businesses were unaccustomed and unwilling to pay forDO garbage disposal. Most residents continued either burning their trash, bury- ing it at the edge of the beach, or dumping it at the center without paying. With only one employee, and the high cost to hire a boat to remove the trash, the center was a major eyesore and by the year 2000, the VDA lost much of its influence as a leader of

The Road to Tortuguero 81 community development. Loth and some other residents suspected the VDA president of pilfering some of the money intended for the disposal center, and eventually the president left Tortuguero. Consequently, villagers increasingly looked to the Tour Guide Association (TGA) for leadership and support of community projects. By early 2000, there were approximately 600 residents in Tortuguero, and Loth and his wife, a local Tortugueran, began renting out two rooms in their home. Within a couple years, due to the increase in tourist business and an addition on their home, they increased the number of rooms rented to five.

5VSUMF1PBDIJOH Approximately 80,000 turtle nests were laid during the nesting season in 2006 in Tor- tuguero. However, illegal poaching activity was observed on 70 percent of daily and weekly track surveys, and illegal poaching of females and eggs remained a problem close to the Tortuguero river mouth where some turtles were killed and butchered right on the beach. In 2006, the number of paying visitors to TNP reached more than 101,000, generating around $461,000 in entrance fees. Over 35,000 tourists were issued permits to go on guided turtle tours during the official green turtle season (July–October).6 In 2007, even with restrictions and controls put in place, green sea turtle poaching continued. ACTo (Tortuguero National Park Service) lacked the funding, human resources, and necessary equipment to effectively enforce the law. ACTo’s requests to the Ministry of Public Security to assign Rural Guard patrols to walk the beach at night to control poaching were denied. Hence, heavily-armed poachers in speedboats had little to fear from a few park rangers patrollingCOPY the twenty-two-mile beach armed only with single-action rifles and rubber boots. Yet due to the efforts of the STC, local tour guides, residents, park staff, and volunteers, the number of green turtles that managed to hatch in Tortuguero had soared by 400 percent since 1970, bucking the trend in nesting sites around the Atlantic that saw a 60 percent decline of green turtle hatchlings. Nevertheless, the green sea turtles were still listed as endangered in the world according to the International Union for the Conservation of Nature, the world’s main authority on the conservation status of species.

THE HISTORY OF THE ROAD TO TORTUGUERO In 1994, NOTduring the height of an election year, a local politician in Pococí (the municipality—also known as a canton—in which Tortuguero was located, see Figure 4) was running for office on a social equity platform. He promised the villagers to fight for social equity—a right guaranteed in the Costa Rican Constitution—including secur- ing access to healthcare, education, and other services, including the delivery of a pizza in thirty minutes. The politician’s rhetoric struck a chord with many residents who believed that the government had been putting the needs of foreign tourists first and depriving the locals of material improvements seen elsewhere in the country. Com- plaints about inadequate educational and medical facilities, costs of goods and services, DOand affordable transportation were common. At the time, approximately 400 people lived in Tortuguero. A medical doctor visited the village one day every three months. The length of time between visits stretched out even longer if the weather made travel difficult.

Case Research Journalt7PMVNFt*TTVFt4VNNFS Some locals resented the tourists who appeared to be able to come and go at will to visit Tortuguero on the private boats that some of the large higher-end resort lodges owned and operated. Pressure started mounting for the building of a road to reach the riverbank across from the village. This road would have to pass through parts of fragile forests in the protected corridor—the Tortuguero Protected Zone—that connected TNP with Barra del Colorado National Wildlife Reserve to the north and was under the jurisdiction of TNP. The STC was vehemently opposed to the construction of a road (see &YIJCJU for the STC’s response to the proposal to build a road), despite the fact that every local politician who ran for office promised to build it. In January 1996, the Pococí municipality, without authorization or permission from the central Costa Rican government, began cutting a “road” through the Tor- tuguero Protected Zone to the village. The front page story in theTico Times read as follows: Tortuguero—The unauthorized clearing of a 30-meter-wide swath of rain forest, including some national park land, for construction of a road to connect this isolated Caribbean town to the rest of the world fanned heated controversy and anger this week.7 A team from ACTo discovered that a tractor, apparently hired by the municipality of Pococí, had cleared a roadbed seven kilometers long and thirty meters wide, encroaching approximately 1.5 kilometers into the Tortuguero Protected Zone. The work had been done in secret, with farmers along the planned route actively collaborat- ing with its construction. Given the limited resources and understaffing of ACTo, the park authorities did not learn of the roadbed until much of it had been cleared. Once they discovered the tractor, however, they seized the keys from its driver. The Minister of the Environment and Energy (MEE) who oversaw ACTo, said, “WeCOPY openly con- demn this, both morally and legally. . . . the municipality made a mistake, and it will have to fully assume its responsibility.”8 A high-ranking government official in Limón province proclaimed that a road to Tortuguero would mean “easier access for residents to education, health care and social development,” and that “as long as there is not safe transportation in the zone, you cannot deny the town transportation via [a] road.” He said in a statement, “Those who oppose the road project are mostly foreigners, owners of hotels who respond to private interests and, in general, get around in planes or yachts, which means the road is not indispensable for them.”9 Despite the support of the local government official in Limón, the Pococí Munici- pality Board was charged with illegallyNOT “building a road through a national park” by the MEE, the ministry responsible for approving and overseeing construction projects to ensure no detrimental environmental effects were produced. As such, developers were required to submit environmental impact studies of their projects. The municipality of Pococí had circumvented this process by stating that it was merely “improving an already existing road”—a right-of-way previously created in 1986 by the public electric and power company, ICE, to bring electricity to the village—rather than “building” a road through the Tortuguero Protected Zone. ICE had been granted permission to create DOthe right-of-way as essential services, like electricity, could supersede Costa Rican National Park laws. Given that the right-of-way already existed, the municipality of Pococí used this as a precedent to “improve,” rather than construct from scratch, a road through the TNP.

ǰF3PBEUP5PSUVHVFSP The attorney for the Pococí Municipality Board went to the Ministry of Public Works and Transport (MPWT)—the ministry responsible for building and overseeing roads in Costa Rica—to determine the definitions of cow paths, pedestrian walkways, primary and secondary roads, toll highways, etc. According to the MPWT, a “road” had a surface that was covered with asphalt or concrete, etc. The attorney for the Board successfully argued to the MPWT that the Board had not built a road as defined by the MPWT, but had simply improved a right-of-way. The conclusion of the MPWT meant that the Board had not violated the law and that the MEE would have to take the case to the Costa Rican Supreme Court, something it ultimately chose not to do. Loth had found understanding the “law of the land” in Tortuguero quite chal- lenging. The village had no mayor or municipal leader of any sort because of its small size. Since Tortuguero was in the canton of Pococí, Pococí officials should have helped govern the village. Yet due to its remote location, government officials did not visit the village nor seem to care about it from what Loth could tell. Due to this neglect, the VDA had informally acted on behalf of the villagers, but since the fiasco with the permit issues and the trash disposal center, the TGA had taken over this role. Having spent more than two decades living in Canada, Loth was not yet accus- tomed to living in a developing country. Noted Loth: Tortuguero seems to have an “anything goes” mentality, with those who make the first move having the advantage. The bulldozing of the right-of-way through the protected zone was a prime example. In Canada, no one would dream of doing this, but in Tor- tuguero, well, it seems people just do things to see if they can get away with it. There are laws, but that doesn’t mean they’re enforced. In fact, many people in Tortuguero are occupying land without paying required government fees, but the government turns a blind eye.10 It’s like a lawless frontier, with variousCOPY parties fighting for what they want, and when it comes to easier access to and from Tortuguero, the right-of-way is the battle ground. In 1999, there was another surge of interest from locals to improve the right-of-way to a location within a three-minute boat ride of Tortuguero (a road could never reach directly to the village because a river cut it off from the rest of the country). However, the MEE was still upset that the Pococí Municipality Board had not been found to have violated the law but had simply “improved an already existing right-of-way.” As such, the MEE ordered the TNP staff to dig a trench at the border of TNP where the right-of-way began in an attempt to keep vehicles from using it. The MEE and TNP staff believed that preventing people from using the right-of-way would permit the surroundingNOT jungle to reclaim the land. Approximately 100 angry residents of Tortuguero, with shovels in hand, began to fill in the ditch with stones, tree trunks, and other materials. They had enjoyed using the “road” during the dry season from December to May (during the rainy season the road was too washed out to be navigable). The local people advocating for the road claimed that the staff of TNP was stepping on their rights to social equity as stated in the country’s constitution. The mayor of Pococí claimed Tortuguerans wanted the road kept open “as a faster and cheaper means of bringing supplies and reaching outside services, as well as attracting cash-spending visitors.”11 A road to Tortuguero would DOprocure, the mayor and the local road supporters argued, the “greatest welfare of all inhabitants of the country . . . and the most adequate distribution of wealth” (as stated in Title V: Social Rights and Guarantees, Article 50 of the Costa Rican Constitution).

Case Research Journalt7PMVNFt*TTVFt4VNNFS The president of the VDA at the time stated that “the lion’s share of the town’s 600-strong population [was] not interested in the road. Its advocates,” he said, “[were] the town’s shop, bar, and restaurant owners, who want[ed] a cheaper supply route, plus a few low-lifes who [would] join any cause if plied with drinks.” Although he agreed that having a road would bring in more tourists, he believed they would be “partying weekenders seeking a good time in town” and he added that the road would bring “more riff-raff, litter, drugs and prostitution. It [would] provide direct access into the Park for illegal loggers and poachers.”12 In contrast, the mayor of Pococí claimed that the lodge owners were the only ones opposed to the road. He believed they wanted to keep access to Tortuguero exclusive for foreign tourists who had to travel using the lodges’ private boats and stay in their facilities for several nights. The resort lodge owners were not perceived as “locals”—though they espoused concern about the environmental integrity of the village. Many locals believed they did so for purely selfish purposes. Without a beautiful natural environment, the lodge owners would not be able to attract high-paying foreign tourists.

"DDFTTUP4PDJBM4FSWJDFT The residents were able to build a high school in 1999 with donated land. Yet even with access to a high school education, the village children’s future careers held little promise outside of tourism. Access to a university education was non-existent in the village, as leaving home to attend a university was not common in Costa Rica. Costa Ricans saw higher education as a means for self-improvement, and thus some village residents expressed concern regarding the opportunities for young people. Residents saw the remoteness of the village as a major barrier to advancement.COPY If a road was built, they said, young people could travel to the universities located in and around the capital of San Jose (although the trip would likely take 3.5–4 hours driving). The village youth had little contact with the “outside world” to know or be excited about alternatives to a tourism job. There was still no hospital or resident doctor for the 600 village residents in 2000. The Costa Rican Social Security System (Caja) said that a community must number at least 4,000 residents to warrant a full-time doctor. Instead, the village was visited by a medical team composed of a general practitioner, a nurse, a pharmacist and an administrator two days a week. Residents formed long lines on the days the team visited, starting as early as 4:00 a.m. in order to be seen. For those who lived on the other side of the river, it was especially difficult to get medical care, as they had to wait for a boat to take them across the water. NOT The medical team provided basic medical care, including family planning. For more complicated issues, specialized medicine, or emergency treatment, residents had to leave the village and travel to Cariari, where there were doctors, or Guápiles, where there was a hospital. Although no official midwife existed in the village, Loth’s mother- in-law had assisted in more than 300 births. Some pregnant women who had the financial resources chose to go to Guápiles or San José (the capital) to have their babies. In June 2000, a six-months pregnant woman began bleeding and was taken by boat to a DOnearby town for medical care. However, she did not make it in time and her baby was stillborn on the boat. Afterwards, in a letter to the editor of the Tico Times, a resident of Costa Rica wrote:

The Road to Tortuguero 85 How is it possible that, in a village where tour companies, hotels, tour operators, guides, and restaurant owners are making up to $200 per person per night, there can be a woman who loses her baby riding on a boat because there is not any medical care?13 In cases of medical emergencies, residents had to find a way to get to the La Pavona bus station since no public boat was available. Thus, a critically-ill person had to convince a local boat owner to transport him or her to La Pavona, a dangerous proposition at night navigating through the dark and winding canal, something Loth had personally experienced. Loth recounted: One evening in 2006, my four-year-old son fell off the second-floor balcony of our house onto the concrete patio below. It was apparent he had broken his arm, but I was also concerned about possible brain trauma or other injuries that I couldn’t see. In a panic, I called one of my personal contacts at one of the all-inclusive lodges and con- vinced him to bring a boat to take us to La Pavona where I could afford to keep a car parked. I’m lucky. Most villagers can’t afford to do that given their average household income is about $3,000 a year. I was able to drive my son from there to the hospital in Guápiles, where his arm was set and thankfully no other injuries were found. Many of the residents were concerned about the state of the village’s social services, including Loth’s mother-in-law: Even though we’re a small town, we’re like a mean cat with obtaining a school, police, electricity. We have a high school, adult school, kindergarten, elementary school, food program for kids, potable water, etc. We’ve been fighting for a sewer system. We’re hoping we’ll get it even without the road. But the one thing I’m most worried about without the road is the health aspects because if someone has a problem with a preg- nancy or miscarriage, the river is very dangerousCOPY at night. In 2007, the village was serviced by five small “convenience” stores carrying basic food supplies, sixteen restaurants, two hardware/construction stores, two bars, and three general clothing stores. There was no bank or pharmacy. In general, the prices for food and supplies were high, as the cost of transportation was expensive. A 1999 article from the local newspaper stated that the same basket of basic food items (flour, sugar, rice, etc.) cost fifteen thousand colons (~$30) in Guápiles or Cariari, but cost thirty-five or forty thousand colons (~$70–$80), more than double, in Tortuguero. Additionally, propane gas that cost close to 1,300 colons (~$2.60) in Guápiles, cost 2,300 colons (~$4.60) in Tortuguero. Healthy competition among the local stores, however, kept prices from being even higher. Because supplies of building and hardware materials were limited, these items tended to be more expensive. For this reason, the largerNOT hotels and those involved in large building projects went outside the village to get their materials. Accessing the rest of the country was extremely expensive. For example, bringing building supplies from Cariari too heavy for the public boats cost almost $40 for gasoline, the hiring of a private boat and driver, and other transport costs. Public transportation for round-trip travel to Cariari, which included one boat and one public bus ride, cost almost $10. Residents had to leave Tortuguero by 6 a.m. in order to return by 3 p.m., giving them six hours in Cariari to shop. These transportation costs were DOequivalent to almost one day’s pay for most Tortuguero residents and represented the most expensive public transportation in all of Costa Rica. Getting assistance from the government in the form of better transportation options, police protection, education, and healthcare had been nearly impossible, as the village was too small to merit services. As a result, residents had taken matters into

86 Case Research Journalt7PMVNFt*TTVFt4VNNFS their own hands and focused on improving social services in Tortuguero with the help of the VDA in the beginning and then later with the help of the TGA. For example, the government refused to build a police station, arguing that the village’s size did not merit a police station and the only land available was within fifty meters of the high tide line, which was in violation of the Maritime law. Regardless, the villagers contributed funds and built their own police station. Once completed, the government provided four police officers to Tortuguero and the TGA helped fund maintenance of the station. Although the road was not completed in 1999, the pressure to build it continued to simmer in 2007. Travel to and from the village continued to be difficult, even with another boat service added. This service required a nintey-minute boat ride (120 minutes during the dry season) to the La Pavona boat launch and “bus station” where a proprietor ran a small, fast-food restaurant from a shack and charged for overnight parking and use of the bathroom. Here the public bus made its last pick up before turning around and traveling seventy-five minutes to the nearest town, Guápiles, over a rough road, causing the jostling of hot and sticky passengers (public buses were not air-conditioned). To compound matters, during the dry season, water in some of the canals near the boat launch in La Pavona was so shallow that passengers were required to exit the boat, scramble to shore, and walk one kilometer through a local pasture to re-board the boat up stream where the water level was higher. Of course, a passenger’s packages or cargo had to be unloaded as well and carried the distance upstream before being reloaded again. The Ministry of the Environment and Energy would not allow dredging of the canal because it would negatively affect the wildlife in the area. COPY ǰF5("T%FDJTJPO As the April 2007 meeting at which the TGA would vote on how to spend its funds approached, residents and members of the organization remained divided. Some influential villagers supported proposal 1 (to bulldoze a dirt road to the village, providing overland access almost to the center of the village). Among them were Loth’s mother-in-law, a well-respected villager and local shop owner, as well as the village’s unofficial midwife. She and others argued that a road to Tortuguero would lead to an increase in tourists as well as greater access to health care, higher education, and lower priced goods and services for residents and hence, an increase in prosperity and social equity. She believed a road would bring benefits to her shop. Rather than buying all-inclusive tour packages that includedNOT transportation, lodging and meals, tourists would be able to travel on their own and pay for services in town, like restaurants, cabins, shops, etc. A few TGA members believed that more tourists would lead to more business for them and other village businesses, plus greater awareness for the plight of the endangered sea turtles. Loth himself wanted more convenient access to better health care and lower cost of goods, especially as Tortuguero and the various lodging establishments competed with other tourist destinations in Costa Rica. Other TGA members believed that if a roadDO was built, tour companies based in the capital city, San Jose, would transport tourists in their own vans, buy their own boats to station in Tortuguero (for local tours through the park), and use their own tour guides from San José. Loth, TGA members, and some villagers believed the lack of convenient access to the village was one reason they had been able to protect the turtles and attract new and

The Road to Tortuguero 87 repeat tourists. They feared a road to Tortuguero would mark the beginning of the end of the natural beauty and the things that made the village so special. Thus, some tour guides and villagers preferred the money be spent on something other than a road, though they realized that $30,000 would not build a college or a hospital. They were in support of proposal 2, as they believed the improved boat launch and additional medical care would reduce pressure to build a road. Some residents were concerned about protecting the environment and their tourism base. Said Ricardo, a villager: Personally, I don’t think it is helpful for Tortuguero because the attraction of Tortuguero is the nature. The fact that you have to travel by river is a bit uncomfortable . . . But in a little time, tourism would grow a lot [if a road were built], but it can be destroyed in a very little time, also . . . A lot of who [would] come [by road] would [not spend a lot of money] and they would destroy Tortuguero. Victor, who ran the local information center, indicated that: Some people are for it and some are against it. . . . Those of us who work in the tourism industry are against it. For the long-time residents, they are for it, for if they have sick kids, are pregnant, etc. Right now, injured people need to travel first by boat, then by bus. . . . [Also], those in commercial establishments [like local stores] want it because if the canal is low, their incoming stock has to be removed from the boat and carried for a way. Tortuguero is famous throughout the world. It is difficult to get here; it is exotic. . . . We should put forth much effort to keep it a little bit difficult to get here, but make it easier. We need to keep it a little more isolated. We are an island, and you should get to an island by boat. We want to maintain the types of tourists who have come to see the ecology and the natural beauty. The other typesCOPY of tourists [who would come if there was a road] bring [problems with] trash, security, noise, drownings, drunkenness, etc. The week of Easter,14 Tortuguero is full, and they bring all their food and drink and create a lot of disorder, camping on the beach, and cooking with fires. . . . So if the road is built, that would happen every day. Loth’s mother-in-law believed the only negative of building a road was that more people would come, but that trash would not be a problem because it would be easier to get rid of. Loth himself had conflicting emotions. He contemplated: I can’t help remembering the panic I felt several years ago when trying to find someone to transport my four-year old son during the middle of the night to the nearest hospital. AndNOT I worry that my children are too isolated living in Tortuguero and I want them to have more opportunities. But I also fear that improving the road would bring unforeseen problems and endanger the welfare of the green sea turtles and the basis of Tortuguero’s economy. From his perspective, the TGA needed to get involved in the road issue since the tour guides’ livelihood and the health of the turtle population depended on it. But Loth was aware of the controversy that had surrounded the improvement of the right- of-way back in 1996, the fighting between the MEE and the MPWT, between the DOlocals and the TNP staff, between those in favor of overland access and those opposed. Did the TGA really want to get tangled up in that mess? In Loth’s mind, it was not an issue of whether the TGA was the right entity to be making this decision. In Tor- tuguero, there was no formal local governmental body to make a decision. And the

88 Case Research Journalt7PMVNFt*TTVFt4VNNFS official, formal governmental body, the municipality of Pococí, had previously taken matters into its own hands without permission of the central government. In the meantime, Loth wondered what the TGA should do and how he should go about influencing, if at all, that decision. The VDA had been essentially the voice of the villagers. The TGA had started as the voice of the tour guides, but had morphed into a community leader and developer role. From what he could tell, Loth thought more residents than guides wanted to build the road, while more guides seemed to support the moving of the boat launch. Personally, he was not in favor of proposal 3, but realized that some of the membership might see this as a viable option given how divided the membership and community was on the issue of access to the village. In fact, discussions at Loth’s extended-family’s dinner table had gotten quite heated regarding the TGA spending proposals, and Loth knew he must make up his mind before the meeting. His decision would not only determine his vote, but given his TGA position, would also influence how he controlled the agenda and the “public comment” period (during which time community members would share their views about the proposals). Were there more options the TGA should consider, Loth wondered? Would the TGA be risking its political clout and the goodwill it had developed among the villagers by looking like it was pushing its own agenda? Despite this uncer- tainty, there was one thing of which he was certain: Any decision would certainly affect the future of tourism and life of the villagers.

Exhibit 1: Acronyms

ACTo: Tortuguero National Park Service ICE: Instituto Costarricense de Electricidad (the provider of COPY electricity and telecommunications for Costa Rica) MEE: Ministry of the Environment and Energy MPWT: Ministry of Public Works and Transport NDS: National Development Strategy STC: Sea Turtle Conservancy TGA: Tortuguero Tour Guide Association TNP: Tortuguero National Park VDA: Village Development AuthorityNOT DO

The Road to Tortuguero 89 Exhibit 2: Houses, Grocery Stores, and the Beach

The Houses

The Grocery Stores

The Beach COPY

Source: CaseNOT authors DO

Case Research Journalt7PMVNFt*TTVFt4VNNFS Exhibit 3: Timeline of Critical Events in the Development of Tortuguero

Year $SJUJDBM&WFOU 1963 Executive decree regulates turtle hunting and egg gathering 1971 Sea Turtle Conservancy (STC) begins hiring Tortuguero residents to walk the beach and count turtle tracks 1972 First telephone is established in Tortuguero 1974 Opening of the canal system, allowing boats to travel from Moín to Tortuguero. Project had been under discussion for almost 150 years. 1975 Official opening of Tortuguero National Park (TNP) Two small sets of cabins are built to accommodate arrival of visitors to Tortuguero 1980 Approximately 225 annual visitors to Tortuguero Costa Rican government public boat transportation to and from Tortuguero Village Development Association started to focus on improving village life 1982 First electricity is brought to the village for four hours per day, from 6–10 p.m. 1986 The public electric and power company creates a right-of-way through the TNP in order to install electric lines; electricity brought in to the village for 24 hours/day 1987 Annual tourists number 2,400 1992 TNP officials require that tourists be supervised on the beach at night during nesting seasons and limit the total numbers of night-time beach visitors Daryl Loth arrives in Tortuguero to do work for the STC STC and Costa Rican National Park Service begin certification of tour guides 1994 Tortuguero residents number 400 COPY Medical doctor visits the village one day every three months 1996 Village gets an aqueduct and water tank for potable water The Municipality of Pococí begins cutting a “road” though the TNP 1999 TNP staff digs a ditch at entrance of the right-of-way entering TNP; angry residents begin to fill in the ditch High school education is started in Tortuguero 2000 Loth and his wife begin renting out two rooms in their house Tortuguero is visited by a medical team comprising a general practitioner, nurse, pharmacist and administrator two days a week Stillborn baby is born on a boat on the way to a nearby hospital Recycling/trash center is built NOT 2006 Approximately 80,000 turtle nets were laid during the nesting season; illegal poaching observed on 70 percent of daily and weekly track surveys Paying visitors to TNP number 101,344, generating $461,000 in entrance fees Over 35,000 tourists issued permits to go on guided turtle tours Loth’s son falls off the second-floor balcony of his home Approximately 1,000 residents in the village and surrounding areas 2007 Green sea turtles still listed as endangered in the world according to the International DOUnion for the Conservation of Nature

The Road to Tortuguero 91 Exhibit 4: Sea Turtle Conservancy Letter

In an article in the Sea Turtle Conservancy Newsletter, Cindy Taft, Director of Interna- tional Programs, wrote the following in 1994: The debate about whether to build a highway to Tortuguero continues, this time with increased possibilities that the road will soon become a reality. Political will for the road is growing at local and municipal levels, funding may be available, and Costa Ricans from the interior are showing more interest in having access to the north Atlantic coast of their nation.

Cahuita Pre- and Post-Road—Many Expectations Unfulfilled

A 1990 study by Duke University student David Lee examined Cahuita—another isolated Caribbean coastal village in Costa Rica that had a road built to it in 1976. Some lessons learned from this study are relevant to today’s Tortuguero road debate. For instance, 14 years after the road was constructed, Cahuita still did not have a secondary school or a sewage system, but it did have two resident physicians. It also benefited from more police protection and from organized trash pick-up. But, food prices in Cahuita were the same or higher than in Tortuguero. And, while Cahuita had ten times as many annual visitors as Tortuguero, they spent less time there than visitors to Tortuguero, tended to use lodging facilities less often and brought their own foods, beverages and other supplies. In 1990, 16 percent of the Cahuita population made their living from tourism, whereas 37 percent of those in Tortuguero did, due to the increased need for hospitality, transportation, and guide services in such a remote area. Before the road, foreign land ownership in COPYthe area was only 7 percent, but after the road went through, it grew to 82 percent. Land prices rose sharply after road construction, making land purchase in the area impossible for most Costa Rican buyers. Likewise, local business ownership, which had been 100 percent Costa Rican before the road went in, dropped to only 40 percent afterwards. [A road to Tortuguero] would not provide much advantage in emergency evacuations—a fast, ocean-worthy boat would be better for rapid transport to Limón. And whenever weather and daylight conditions permit, air evacuations would always be the preferred means of transport, getting patients to one of the nation’s hospitals in as little as an hour. As such, we cannot conclude that a road will automatically bring the desired improve- mentsNOT in education, health care, sanitation, public security, and lowered costs of goods and services.

Final Thoughts National and international groups raised the money to purchase, establish, and protect the natural resources of Tortuguero, long before most of those who now promote the road had ever set foot there. Allowing development [could] seriously impact Costa Rica’s ability to acquire monetary assistance for the protection and management of natural areas . . . since taxpayers and other contributors would be unwilling DOto provide funding to a conservation area system that fails to protect its natural resources.

Case Research Journalt7PMVNFt*TTVFt4VNNFS Exhibit 4: continued

Political pressure is building for the road, primarily from folks outside the Tortuguero area who hope to set up farms and groceries along the new route. Despite signifi- cant opposition to the road within Tortuguero and the formidable legal hurdles that would have to be overcome for it to be constructed, the road may become a reality yet. The inhabitants of Tortuguero are going to have to find a way to reconcile their desires for development with the need to conserve the natural character of the place that is the basis of their livelihood. The example of Cahuita, and indeed of many other areas where roads were built into forested areas, demonstrates that a road to Tortuguero will bring many more problems than it will resolve. Thorough environmental and socio-economic impact studies need to be conducted and discussed with the area’s residents so that informed decisions can be made. And if road construction is inexorable, effective regulatory mechanisms to prevent habitat and wildlife degra- dation, much stronger than any we have seen in Tortuguero to date, will have to be put into place to mitigate the undesired effects the road will bring. Promoters of the road ought to be careful what they wish for, because they might get it.

NOTES

1. Sea Turtle Conservancy (2013). Retrieved from http://conserveturtles.org. 2. Although no definitive definition exists, ecotourism has generally become known as the “purposeful travel to natural areas to understand the culture and natural history of the environment; taking care not to alter theCOPY integrity of the ecosystem; producing economic opportunities that make the conservation of natural resources beneficial to local people” (Garen, 2000, p. 221; see Note 3). 3. Garen, E. J. (2000). Appraising ecotourism in conserving biodiversity. In T. Clark, A. Willard, and C. Cromley (eds.) Foundations of Natural Resources Policy and Management (p. 221–251). Yale University Press: New Haven. 4. Harris, B. (1996a). Furor over road link to Tortuguero, Tico Times, January 26, p. 8. 5. The International Institute for Sustainable Development (1997). “Assessing Sustainable Development: Principles in Practice.” Retrieved from http://www. iisd.org/pdf/bellagio.pdf. 6. deHaro, A., and Harrison, E.NOT (2007). “Report on the 2006 Green Turtle Pro- gram at Tortuguero, Costa Rica.” Retrieved from http://cccturtle.org/pdf/ reports/Tortuguero%20Green%20Turtle%20Report%202006.pdf. 7. Harris, B. (1996a). “Furor over road link to Tortuguero.” Tico Times, January 26, p. 1. 8. Ibid., p. 8. 9. Harris, B. (1996b). “Deputy defends disputed road to Tortuguero.” Tico Times, February 2, p. 8. 10. AccordingDO to the Maritime Law in Costa Rica, private possession or occupation of the first fifty meter of beach between the high tide line and inland was strictly forbidden. The government granted concessions (leases) for the occupation of

ǰF3PBEUP5PSUVHVFSP the next 150 meter wide strip of beach inland for personal or economic gain. A yearly fee had to be paid to the municipality for the duration of the concession. Given Tortuguero was less than 200 meters wide for most of its length, villagers could not purchase the land. The local government did not enforce the law, and many people in Tortuguero paid no concessions at all—constructing homes and using the land, but not owning the land. 11. Escofet, G. (1999). “Park road controversy reignited.” Tico Times, March 26, p. 8. 12. Ibid., p. 8. 13. Nystrom, G. (2000). “Tortuguero, turtles and children: Lessons in nature.” Tico Times, August 11, p. 2. 14. Easter week is traditionally the busiest week for Costa Ricans to travel as most have this week off from work.

COPY

NOT DO

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