Toward sustainable coastal tourism in Costa Rica

The rapidly growing coastal tourism sector has severely impacted Costa Rica's internationally significant natural areas, and projections are that this damage will rapidly increase if development practices are not made more sustainable soon. A collaboration of faculty from the Stanford departments of Anthropology and Biology, the Law School, and the Graduate School of Business proposes to work with Costa Rican government agencies, NGOs, and developers to create a framework for environmentally and economically sustainable coastal decision making. The project outcome will be based on the teams detailed analysis of the environmental impacts of previous and planned tourism development and an improved understanding of market demand for sustainable travel to that nation.