About the Book:With over 25 percent of its land set aside in national parks and other protected areas, Costa Rica is renowned worldwide as “the green republic.” In this very readable history of conservation in Costa Rica, Sterling Evans explores the establishment of the country’s national park system as a response to the rapid destruction of its tropical ecosystems due to the expansion of export-related agriculture.Drawing on interviews with key players in the conservation movement, as well as archival research, Evans traces the emergence of a conservation ethic among Costa Ricans and the tangible forms it has taken. In Part I, he describes the development of the national park system and “the grand contradiction” that conservation occurred simultaneously with massive deforestation in unprotected areas. In Part II, he examines other aspects of Costa Rica’s conservation experience, including the important roles played by environmental education and nongovernmental organizations, campesino and indigenous movements, ecotourism, and the work of the National Biodiversity Institute.Table of Contents: PrefaceAcknowledgmentsIntroductionPart I. Costa Rica’s History of Conservation 1. A Legacy of Scientific Thought and Tropical Research2. The Environmental Problem3. The Conservationist Response4. The Development of National Parks and Other Protected Areas5. Conservation Continued: The Oduber Years6. Conservation through Crisis: Carazo and the Economy7. Crisis Continued: The Monge Administration8. Restructuring and Decentralizing ConservationPart II. Building a Green Republic 9. Environmental Education: Framework for the Future10.The Nongovernmental Approach11. Oro Verde! Ecotourism for Economic Growth12. The National Biodiversity InstituteConclusion. “Picking Up the Gauntlet”Appendix 1. List of AcronymsAppendix 2. The Presidents of the Republic of Costa Rica, 1928-1998Appendix 3. The History of Controversy at Santa Rosa–A Besieged National ParkAppendix 4. Anonymous Poem Regarding the Palo Verde National Park Controversy, Summer 1981Appendix 5. The National Conservation Strategy for Sustainable DevelopmentAppendix 6. Indigenous Population of Costa Rica by Region and GroupNotesBibliographyIndex