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Costa Rica Eco Travel – Top Eco-Friendly Travel Packages

January 22, 2020
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Costa Rica is a beacon for sustainability and environmentally friendly tourism. Sustainable tourism, eco-friendly travel, green hotels, responsible tourism – you can find it all in Costa Rica.
The country has become an example for the world with nearly 30% of its land protected. Visiting national parks is a great way to enjoy some of Costa Rica’s beauty while being sure your money is going to support something like the national park system.

Ecotourism in Costa Rica is one of the key activities of the tourism industry in the country. Ecotourism draws many tourists to visit the extensive national parks and protected areas around the country. Costa Rica was a pioneer in this type of tourism, and the country is recognized as one of the few with true ecotourism.

Almost half of all international visitors participate in ecotourism, according to The Costa Rican Tourism Institute. Ecotourism tours in Costa Rica usually are focus on great outdoors epic adventures and wildlife observation.

Here are the best vacation packages highlighting the prime locations in Costa Rica.

Arenas Del Mar
Photo credit: Arenas del Mar / Facebook

Arenas Del Mar

Arenas del Mar Beach & Nature Resort is bringing the two concepts closer together — Sustainability and Luxury. This a 38-room resort with a beachfront is located within an 11-acre private nature reserve overlooking Manuel Antonio National Park. This was the first luxury hotel to receive the Five Sustainability Leaf Award in Costa Rica. Arenas del Mar has led the way in the area of using sustainability and is a carbon-neutral practice.

Some of the sustainable practices at Arenas Del Mar include chlorine-free pool water, solar-heated water, underground electricity systems that do not affect nearby wildlife, use of electric cars, low-flow toilets, energy-efficient lighting, recycling and composting, and the use of recycled materials and soap produced at the hotel from leftover cooking oil from the kitchen. Other eco-friendly amenities include in the resort routine are the use of organic and biodegradable personal care products, complimentary reusable water bottles, and organic coffee.

At Arenas Del Mar get rid of all plastic water bottles from our resort. You’ll have access to two beautiful beaches, Playitas Beach and Espadilla Beach.

It’s within walking distance from the most renowned national reserve, Manuel Antonio National Reserve. You can check their Sustainability Tours at any one of their hotels and lodges and explore the wildlife and jungle that surrounds this ocean property will take you on an exotic tropical journey.

Zipline Rainforests
Photo credit: Pattaya Unlimited / Flickr

Zipline Through the Rainforests

Costa Rica is world-renowned for its canopy tours, also known as zip-lines. Ziplining is one of the best ways to experience the country’s lush and thriving forests. these tours offer travelers a unique chance to experience the rainforest as never before.

Many of Costa Rica’s national parks offer canopy tours, among the most popular, are in Arenal, Monteverde and Manuel Antonio.

Imagine sailing through the treetops hundreds of meters in the air with a chance to spot some of the country’s diverse wildlife. Don’t worry, safety is a top priority. With nearly a quarter of the land covered with rainforests, there are dozens of family-friendly locations and companies to take you on this thrilling adventure.

Costa Rica nation’s environmental services payment program established in 1997 to support property owners who leave the forest untouched.

It isn’t hard to find a hotel or lodge with zip line activities available on-site!

Explore Local Farms

The National Program of Organic Agriculture (PNAO) promotes the development of organic agriculture in Costa Rica. In 2000, more than 3,500 organic producers were registered with certification agencies, and in 2003 that number increased 13% to nearly 4,000.

A tour around Costa Rica’s organic farms is one of the best ways to enjoy local fare and learn about how the nation produces its fresh ingredients and best practices from local farmers. These tours provide a chance to learn about organic farming and make visitors think twice about where their food comes from. There are many eco-lodges and resorts that have their own organic farms where guests can volunteer. This is a perfect opportunity for adventurers who want to learn more about local farming while enjoying their stay in Costa Rica

Take the El Trapiche Sugar Mill Day Tour and explore the plantations in Monteverde.

Arenal Volcano

Visits the Volcanoes

Costa Rica has over 60 volcanoes but only six of them are active. The Arenal volcano has been considered as one of the best places to explore in Costa Rica. It is Costa Rica’s largest and most recognized volcano with its natural volcanic-fed thermal springs, waterfalls, Lake Arenal – Costa Rica’s largest lake, and a rich ecosystem of exotic wildlife.

Some tours combine several activities into one action-packed, fun-filled day like canopy tours, waterfall rappelling, mountain bike rides, rafting trips.
You can join an offer private luxury SUV with a private tour guide/driver and explore some of the areas around volcanoes.

Costa Rica volcano tours is an amazing destination for adventure vacations that include climbing, exploring and just marveling at the sight of volcanoes.

Parador Resort and Spa
Photo credit: S. Rae / WikiPedia

Parador Resort and Spa

The resort offers plenty of activities, pools, spas and restaurants on-site and it is close to nature trails, beaches and the ocean.

It is spread on 12 acres of rainforest just minutes from the country’s best beaches and the little, lovely Manuel Antonio National Park. Parador Resort & Spa is an award-winning full-service resort that proudly is offering responsible luxury.

It takes big participation in reforestation and beach clean-up programs, composting and recycling, energy and water saver programs, use of rainwater and biodegradable soaps and detergents.

Research Adventure Park
Photo credit: Geoff Gallice / WikiPedia

Veragua Rainforest Research & Adventure Park

The Veragua Rainforest Research & Adventure Park is a worldwide model for tourist attractions in terms of conservation, research, and sustainability.

The province of Limón provides amazing national parks, whitewater rafting and pristine beaches with nice surf. The Research & Adventure Park is located only 40 minutes from the Caribbean town of Limón. The park includes among other attractions, the largest indoor nocturnal frog exhibit in the world, butterfly garden, reptile vivarium, hummingbird garden.

How to travel eco-sustainably

Avoid bottled water
Travel with sustainable, eco-friendly or fairtrade travel agencies
Reduce consumption of meat
Use eco-friendly products
Book eco-friendly accommodations
Support local economies

Questions to ask when booking ecotourism tours

  • One of the first things you can check to be sure you are supporting local community is if the majority of employees are local?
  • Ask the tour guides and operators what sort of training or licenses do they have?
  • How does the tour operator reduce its impact of plastic waste?
  • Do they guarantee animal sightings? This should never be done as we can’t promise when wild animals will come out and say hello.
  • What kind of accommodations are you staying in? Are you staying at eco-friendly hotels and going on true ecotours?

Featured image photo credit: Mario André Cordero Alfaro / Flickr

Want to learn more about Costa Rica? Check our other posts:
Sustainable Tourism in Costa Rica
The 10 Best Costa Rica Eco Tours

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Great Bear Rainforest

Why You Should Explore Canada’s Great Bear Rainforest

June 30, 2019
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The Great Bear Rainforest is a temperate rain forest on the Pacific coast of British Columbia, Canada and part of the larger Pacific temperate rainforest ecoregion, which is the largest coastal temperate rainforest in the world.

The Great Bear Rainforest was officially recognized by the Government of British Columbia in February 2016, when it announced an agreement to permanently protect 85% of the old-growth forested area from industrial logging.

The Great Bear Rainforest extends from the Discovery Islands in the south to the BC-Alaska boundary in the north and it covers an area roughly 32,000 km2.
The Great Bear Rainforest is one of the largest remaining tracts of unspoiled temperate rainforest left in the world. The area is home to species such as cougars, wolves, salmon, grizzly bears, and the Kermode bear, a unique subspecies of the black bear, in which one in ten cubs displays a recessive white-colored coat. This is the only place of the planet where you can spot the elusive white Kermode bear.

The forest features 1,000-year-old  western red cedar and 90-meter Sitka spruce.

Great Bear Rainforest
Photo credit: Kathryn Burrington / flickr
The 6.4 million hectares on British Columbia’s north and central coast is equivalent to the size of Ireland with a human population of less than 17,000 outside of the town of Prince Rupert, compared to 4.5 million in Ireland. Hidden from the outside world, it is one of the wildest places left on earth and protected by the region’s indigenous people unchanged for 10,000 years.

The historic agreement that secures the future of the Great Bear Rainforest means more old and second-growth forest will be protected, while still ensuring opportunities for economic development.

Visit Great Bear Rainforest

The Great Bear Rainforest has become a popular destination for travelers seeking first-hand views of the region’s stunning landscapes, waterways and array of wildlife.
You can approach the Great Bear Rainforest by roads using one of the area’s main gateways Bella Coola in central BC or by sea with ferry through BC Ferries’ Inside Passage route and the Discovery Coast Connector.

Sea Kayaking and Wildlife Viewing in regions of the Great Bear Rainforest provides an unforgettable adventure. Touring through this spectacular wilderness in a spacious and beautiful sailboat provides visitors with an intimate and unique experience.

The warmest months to visit the area are from June to August. The best chance to spot bears is during the annual salmon run from late August to September.

Biodiversity

The Great Bear Rainforest is a wildlife location in Canada and it is ideal for Bear watching, wildlife cruises, wildlife festivals, and wildlife photography.

Humpback whale
Photo credit: Brodie Guy / flickr

Marine Life

Off the coast of the newly protected Great Bear Rainforest lies the Great Bear Sea, one of the richest cold-water marine environments in the world. Its pristine, thriving waters are packed with nutrients, supporting an abundance of whales, all five species of Pacific salmon, as well as dolphins, porpoises, sea birds and other marine life.

Salmon are a vital key to the Great Bear Rainforest ecosystem and an important food source for a wide array of wildlife as well as grizzly bears for their survival. The great salmon population attracts a wide range of animals, including killer whales, sharks, sea lions, seals, otters, bears, loons, mergansers, heron, and kingfishers. At the same time, a lot of insects and plants are benefiting from nitrogen from salmon.

Mammals

The Great Bear Rainforest is home to hundreds of species of animals that make up one of the most bio-diverse areas on the planet. and rich in various species especially large predators due to the vast expanse of wilderness, cougars, wolves, black bears, Spirit bears and grizzly bears are the larger mammalian predators, with a wide variety of mustelids such as otters, mink, martins and fishers.

The Kermode (Spirit) bear, a subspecies of black bear with a white coat and British Columbia’s provincial mammal, is found almost exclusively in the Great Bear Rainforest. There are likely fewer than 400 of these rare bears in existence. Spirit Bears are found most frequently on Princess Royal Island which is also the location of the recently created Kitasoo Spirit Bear Conservancy.

Birds

Birdlife includes Bald Eagles in abundance as well as Marbled Murrelet, Blue Herons, reptiles can also be found but in smaller numbers due to the climate and Salamanders are represented in pools and streams.

Plants

The main forest tree species is Sitka spruce, Douglas fir, Red cedar and Western Hemlock. The amount of moisture means that fire is very rare which results in an incredibly damp decomposing habitat filled with mosses and fungi and decaying trees.

Great Bear Rainforest BCPhoto credit: Dru! / flickr

Trees

BC’s coastal temperate rainforests are characterized by some of the oldest and largest trees on Earth, the most common of which are Sitka spruce, red cedar, western hemlock, amabilis and Douglas fir. Trees can tower up to 300feet and grow for more than 1,500 years.

Cultural History in BC Canada
Photo credit: Province of British Columbia / flickr

Cultural History

The Great Bear Rainforest is a land of fjords, islands, and great river estuaries. You have the unique chance to explore the worlds of several northwest First Nations: the Heiltsuk, Kitasoo Xai’xais, Haisla, Gitga’at, and Henaaksiala. Everywhere is evidence of their civilization. You can join tours and you’ll be able to visit modern villages, talk with local residents, and see the ancient art traditions still in place today.

In 2016 the Premier of British Columbia and First Nations of the Great Bear Rainforest region announced a conservation agreement of global significance.

Main photo credit: Sam Beebe / flickr
Want to learn more about other sustainable destination? Check out section sustainable travel destinations.

Curitiba Brazil

How Curitiba became Brazil’s most Sustainable City

August 14, 2019
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Curitiba is the capital of the southern Brazilian state of Paraná. It is known as a cultural center, Curitiba is home to a number of performance venues. Curitiba is one of the largest cities in the prosperous Southern region, and its population is largely descended from German, Ukrainian, Russian, Italian and Polish immigrants. The city’s population is close to 2 million.

Curitiba’s eco-city initiatives began long before the current mandate to clean up cities was born. In 1971, architect Jaime Lerner was elected mayor for his first out of three terms and came up with innovative and creative solutions.

The city has 17 new parks, 90 miles of bike paths, trees everywhere, and traffic and garbage systems that officials from other cities come to study.

The average salary resident of Curitiba about 3.5 times greater than the minimum in the country, thus taxes in Curitiba are not higher than in the whole country.

Integrated transport system
Photo credit: EMBARQ Brasil / Flickr

Integrated transport system

Curitiba, Brazil pioneered the use of bus rapid transit and is viewed as a model bus rapid transit (BRT) system for other countries in Latin America and around the world. Curitiba was the first city in Brazil to organize private bus operation in catchment areas and the first city in the world to implement a full BRT system.

They are widely recognized for their many innovative features. The overall system is the result of many incremental decisions aimed at improving service quickly, pragmatically, and affordably.

The bus system includes about 37 miles of median busways and carries about 2 million people per day. About 70% of Curitiba’s commuters use the bus system even though Curitiba’s automobile ownership and per capita incomes are significantly higher than the national average for Brazil.

Buses also travel on urban roadways, so infrastructure investments can be substantially lower than the capital costs required for rail systems.

Curitiba parks
Photo credit: traveltoparana

The buses run frequently—some as often as every 90 seconds and the stations are convenient, well-designed, comfortable, and attractive.

Curitiba has one of the most heavily used, yet low-cost, transit systems in the world.
They initiated a system that focused on meeting the transportation needs of all people—rather than those using private automobiles. They avoided large-scale and expensive projects in favor of hundreds of modest initiatives.

Passengers pay a single fare for travel throughout the system, with unlimited transfers between buses at terminals where different services intersect.

Very limited public parking is available in the downtown area, and most employers offer transportation subsidies, especially to low-skilled and low-paid employees.
Additionally, to avoid congestion in central areas, various streets in the city center were pedestrianized.

The result was a highly reliable mass transport system that dramatically reduces automobile usage, fuel consumption and emission levels in the city. A versatile, cost- and time-effective model that can be implemented by making improvements to existing transport infrastructure and vehicles.

A low-cost transit system used by over 75% of travelers in Curitiba, a city of three million-plus. Eliminates about 27 million automobile trips annually, saving 10 million gallons of fuel and lowering the city’s CO2 emissions by 25%. A model for developing cities worldwide.

Curitiba park system
Photo credit: Ben Tavener / Flickr

Increased green space

The city administration had to find a solution for the frequent flooding that was taking place due to the geographical position of the city.

Curitiba’s park system was designed to preserve the river’s meandering course. During heavy rains the river backs up and spreads out into the low-lying area of the parks, forming temporary lakes and mimicking a natural floodplain.
Curitiba has 400 square kilometers of public parks or forest space or more than 50 square meters per inhabitant. It emits 25 percent less carbon per capita than most Brazilian cities.

The local botanical garden is divided on the site of the former city landfill, it serves as a recreation and research center. In addition, there are 17 parks – and each is dedicated to a particular topic. In addition, these parks are easily accessible using the public transport system.

Curitiba developers get a tax break if their projects include green areas.

Curitiba’s Recycling Initiatives

Curitiba’s citizens separate their trash into just two categories, organic and inorganic, for pick-up by two kinds of trucks. Curitiba has also spearheaded programs that encourage residents to keep their streets clean and recycle, in exchange trash and recyclables by offering them bus tokens, food, and cash.

The trash goes to a plant that employs people to separate bottles from cans from plastic.

Recovered materials are sold to local industries. The recycling program costs no more than the old landfill, but the city is cleaner, there are more jobs, farmers are supported and the poor get food and transportation. Curitiba recycles two-thirds of its garbage – one of the highest rates of any city, north or south.

Brazil sustainable city
Photo credit: Stephen Downes / Flickr

Social Opportunity

Curitiba now has the most developed in the Brazilian system of social support and one of the most viable educational and outreach programs. Students are educated to become engaged citizens through learning progressive social and environmental concepts at an early age. A great example of this is the recycling program.

The Brazilian city of Curitiba has developed a model of successful operation and development, learning to deal with a wide range of issues from transport and economic – to the social and environmental.

The success of the city can be largely attributed to mayor Jaime Lerner, whose goals are largely rooted in developing a city that works efficiently for all its residents, and produces a society of satisfied individuals. Curitiba is an excellent example of a society working together as a collective.

It is hard to believe that so many cities in the world today are unable to find solutions for better mobility, sustainability and general quality of life.

Featured photo credit: Stephen Downes / Flickr

Want to learn more about other sustainable destination? Check out section sustainable travel destinations.

1 Comment
    ExoRank says: Log in to Reply
    January 23rd 2020, 9:37 pm

    Awesome post! Keep up the great work! 🙂

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San Blas Islands Panama San Blas Panama - Essential Things to Know Before Visitingby padmin / January 7, 2020

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