Following a Greener Path of Progress | Pathfinder International

Saturday, June 19, 2010

Dear Reader,

At Pathfinder, we often talk about the Path of Progress. We're talking about new roads, bridges, or airports...or upgrades to existing infrastructure...anything that opens a place up to a new market of tourists and property buyers. The Path of Progress is exciting for real estate investors. The tourists bring resort and residential developers in their wake, offering hotel rooms and second homes to those tourists that want to spend more time in a hot new destination. Prime property prices soar. We've seen it before in northern Costa Rica. Now, the spotlight's on Costa Rica's Southern Zone.

The new coastal highway opened in January this year, and plans call for an international airport. Progress indeed. The highway on its own is changing this area...for the first time in thirty years it's an easy, comfortable drive here from San Jose. We're already seeing more tourists...and an increase in commercial development...in the Southern Zone.

I'm all in favor of the Path of Progress in the Southern Zone. It's good news for property buyers. However, I don't want the baby thrown out with the bathwater. The reason tourists come here, fall in love with this place, and want to own a piece of it, is its sheer natural beauty. So I was relieved to read some articles this week that indicated that while the locals want the infrastructure upgrades, they also plan to keep the Southern Zone eco-chic, and low-key. They want progress...but not high-rises, or mega-resorts. They're learning from northern Costa Rica...

Getting to Guanacaste in northern Costa Rica was a tough task until 2002. Liberia airport only had the odd international flight. Drive-wise, it took around five hours to get there from San Jose on a rough, potholed road. Only diehard surfers and backpackers braved the journey. Mainstream tourists stayed away, until the newly resurfaced road made getting there easier.

Then, in 2002, regular direct flights started from Liberia airport to the US. In 2003, Liberia airport saw 50,000 passenger arrivals. By 2008, passenger arrivals in Liberia had soared to 500,000. Resort and residential developers raised the bar, snapping up the best beach and ocean-view land. In the three years after those regular direct flights started, the price of prime beachfront land quadrupled.

The Southern Zone's now on a similar trajectory. But the locals have learned from Guanacaste...where rapid development changed the character of Guanacaste's little beach towns, and strained resources such as water supplies.

Fishermen are trying to create a responsible fishing zone in Golfo Dulce, on the eastern side of the Osa peninsula. In a 750 square kilometer zone, they'll reduce contamination, diversify their catch, and increase sustainability. Already, 190 fishermen have agreed to change the way they fish, and work in a more environmentally friendly manner. The Golfo Dulce area is home to shark, whale and dolphin species, including the impressive whale shark.

The Osa peninsula was one of Costa Rica's most remote regions, despite its stunning and dramatic landscape. That was down to the poor infrastructure. It kept tourists away--but it also preserved vast tracts of forest. The peninsula's Corcovado national park, immense, rugged, and isolated, is the most biologically intense spot on the planet, according to National Geographic. You'll see tapirs, jaguars, scarlet macaws, harpy eagles, monkeys, anteaters, sloths and white-lipped peccaries...and a bewildering variety of butterflies and bugs.

The new coastal highway is changing the peninsula. Foreigners with an eye to future development are snapping up small farms owned by the same family for generations. There's talk of new hotels, residential developments, and maybe a marina.

While residents welcome the highway, the airport, the modern hospital (that opened in 2008) and even the tourists, they're worried that they'll get a Cancun-style concrete sprawl of chain hotels and skyscrapers. I'm glad to see that planners are busy drafting regulatory and zoning plans for the peninsula. Only 20% of the peninsula will be developable, and there will be strict height and density restrictions. Hotels will stay small, and boutique. Developers will have to plant replacement trees if they cut any down for building.

That's good news for those of us who love this place. Yes, we want the upsides of improved access, and higher property prices. But we don't want to lose what made us fall in love with the Southern Zone in the first place. I'm all for progress--but only if it's the right kind of progress.

Margaret Summerfield

P.S. If you'd like to explore this beautiful location, check out our Southern Zone chill weekend. You'll see the local fishing villages and little beach towns...the pristine beaches and wild national parks... the jaw-dropping landscapes of this up-and-coming area...and you'll appreciate why we want this place to move forward but still hang on to its impressive scenery and wildlife. For $250, you'll get a 4-day trip; the price includes accommodation, meals, and airport transfers. Click here to find out more.