tag:theconversation.com,2011:/global/topics/costa-rica-15802/articlesCosta Rica – The Conversation2024-03-27T17:26:37Ztag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2239692024-03-27T17:26:37Z2024-03-27T17:26:37Z‘Bukelism,’ El Salvador’s flawed approach to gang violence, is no silver bullet for Ecuador<p>Ecuador’s unexpected <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-latin-america-67964229">gang-related security crisis</a> has resurrected the debate on <a href="https://advox.globalvoices.org/2023/05/19/unfreedom-monitor-report-el-salvador/">what’s known as Bukelism</a>, the supposedly miraculous anti-crime strategy named after El Salvador President Nayib Bukele. </p>
<p>Bukelism is credited with dramatically reducing El Salvador’s drug-related homicide rates <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2024/02/08/opinion/el-salvador-bukele-election.html">from 38 per 100,000 people in 2019 to 7.8 per 100,000 in 2022</a>.</p>
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<a href="https://theconversation.com/el-salvador-young-maverick-bukele-wins-presidential-election-but-countrys-future-remains-uncertain-111775">El Salvador: young maverick Bukele wins presidential election, but country's future remains uncertain</a>
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<p>This model has, however, come at the cost of an authoritarian drift in El Salvador and <a href="https://www.americasquarterly.org/article/from-bad-to-worse-nayib-bukeles-split-with-washington/">American sanctions for corruption</a>. </p>
<p>Nonetheless, on April 21, Ecuador will hold a <a href="https://www.usnews.com/news/world/articles/2024-02-14/ecuador-sets-april-21-for-referendum-on-tightening-security">landmark referendum</a> to change its constitution in order to emulate the Salvadorean model. </p>
<p>If Ecuadorans vote in favour of these unprecedented reforms on security, they will not only give permanent and extensive powers to the country’s armed forces — along with immunity measures and the dismantlement of democratic checks and balances — but they will also normalize Bukelism, even though recent studies question its effectiveness.</p>
<h2>Eroding democracy</h2>
<p>Ecuador is among <a href="https://www.americasquarterly.org/article/nayib-bukeles-growing-list-of-latin-american-admirers/">a growing number of countries in the region</a> that want to implement this seemingly successful new style of the war on drugs. They’re apparently willing to disregard the impact on <a href="https://www.hrw.org/world-report/2024/country-chapters/el-salvador">freedom of the press and democracy</a> to curb the narco-trafficking crisis. </p>
<p>In 2022, El Salvador declared states of emergency several times and incarcerated more than 73,000 people, giving it the <a href="https://www.theglobaleconomy.com/rankings/prisoners/">highest incarceration rate in the world</a>. </p>
<p>These strong-arm tactics against crime give the public a reassuring image of control, even though the massive arrests targeted <a href="https://www.pbs.org/newshour/show/thousands-of-innocent-people-jailed-in-el-salvadors-gang-crackdown">thousands of innocent people</a> and 327 citizens were forcibly disappeared, according to <a href="https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2023/12/el-salvador-policies-practices-legislation-violate-human-rights/#:%7E:text=Among%20its%20recommendations%2C%20Amnesty%20International,process%20and%20nullify%20judicial%20guarantees">a recent Amnesty International report</a>. In addition, almost 200 died in state custody.</p>
<p>The <a href="https://www.omct.org/es/recursos/comunicados-de-prensa/comit%C3%A9-de-las-naciones-unidas-pide-a-el-salvador-prevenir-las-detenciones-arbitrarias-e-investigar-todos-los-actos-de-tortura">United Nations has called on El Salvador to stop torturing detainees</a>. <a href="https://www.americas.org/52204/">Attacks on female journalists by authorities and supporters of Bukele’s methods have also increased dramatically</a>, illustrating how Bukelism’s aggressive rhetoric has had a significant impact on journalists, especially women, in a country <a href="https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/5050/el-salvador-women-abortion-obstetric-problems-prison-fight/">where abortion has also been completely banned</a> since Bukele’s election.</p>
<p>Yet, even the country’s worst infringements on the rule of law, including hundreds of show trials and laws <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/apr/06/el-salvador-press-censorship-gang-law">threatening journalists with 10- to 15-year prison sentences for criticizing law enforcement</a>, are often regarded as evidence of <a href="https://insightcrime.org/investigations/how-bukele-government-overpowered-gangs-major-findings/">Bukelism’s effectiveness</a>.</p>
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<a href="https://theconversation.com/el-salvadors-facade-of-democracy-crumbles-as-president-purges-his-political-opponents-161781">El Salvador's façade of democracy crumbles as president purges his political opponents</a>
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<h2>Bukelism’s popularity</h2>
<p>According to experts like Laura Chinchilla, Costa Rica’s former minister of public security and justice, the popularity of Bukelism <a href="https://foreignpolicy.com/2024/01/02/el-salvador-elections-bukele-bitcoin-crime-gang-policy/">is rising</a> largely because it’s frequently described in the media as the only effective model to fight gangs. Chinchilla argues that the Salvadorean model <a href="https://www.bbc.com/mundo/articles/cpw79166j9go">is only a “mirage</a>” that ignores other efficient security strategies that don’t dismantle the rule of law, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1108/OXAN-DB201595">such as her country’s efforts a decade ago</a>. </p>
<p>This myth of Bukelism’s effectiveness creates a dilemma for other democratic countries plagued by drug-trafficking violence: should they opt for the successes of Bukelism despite human rights violations, or choose other strategies that uphold democratic norms?</p>
<p>But this is a false dilemma based on incorrect assumptions, because Bukelism is not as effective as it seems.</p>
<p>A <a href="https://icg-prod.s3.amazonaws.com/s3fs-public/2022-10/096-el-salvadors-prison-fever.pdf">recent report</a> from the International Crisis Group, one of the world’s most trusted non-governmental organizations on security issues, shows that drug-related homicide rates had already fallen by 60 per cent before Bukele’s massive crackdown in 2022. The report also points out that democratic countries like Ecuador can’t duplicate Bukelism without trading off democracy. </p>
<p>In fact, by stifling political opposition, imposing presidential control over the judicial, executive and legislative branches and muzzling the media, El Salvador has slipped to the <a href="https://www.idea.int/democracytracker/country/el-salvador">bottom 25 per cent of countries worldwide in terms of democracy</a> since Bukele was first elected in 2019.</p>
<p>Freedom House’s well-known annual study of political rights and civil liberties worldwide rated El Salvador as “<a href="https://freedomhouse.org/countries/freedom-world/scores">partly free</a>” in 2023, along with countries such as Kuwait, Malaysia and Hong Kong.</p>
<h2>Bukelism’s questionable results</h2>
<p>Data from the <a href="https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/departamento-de-justicia-anuncia-operaci-n-contra-l-deres-clave-de-grupo-criminal-ms-13">U.S. task force Vulcan</a> also show homicide rates have been steadily declining in El Salvador since 2016 due to deals with drug-trafficking gangs. </p>
<p>Bukele’s 2022 crackdown “<a href="https://insightcrime.org/investigations/el-salvador-keeping-lid-on-prisons/">frenzy,” as the think tank Insight Crime calls it</a>, was therefore merely a reaction to the cartels’ decision to disregard the deals they had previously made with the government. </p>
<p>El Salvador’s small population and its unique geography are also key factors in Bukelism’s purported success that don’t always exist elsewhere. Ecuador, for example, has three times El Salvador’s population and a completely different landscape. What’s more, the country’s drug gangs <a href="https://www.vox.com/world-politics/2024/1/11/24034891/ecuador-drugs-cocaine-cartels-violence-murder-daniel-naboa-columbia-crime">can’t be compared to other Latin American drug cartels</a> in terms of financing, weapons and equipment. </p>
<p>The importance of these factors is evident in failed attempts to implement Bukelism elsewhere. <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/jan/04/honduras-gangs-crackdown-xiomara-castro">Recent data shows that neighbouring Honduras</a> has failed to achieve significant results adopting similar measures. After more than six months of duplicating El Salvador’s war on gangs, the country still has the <a href="https://insightcrime.org/news/honduras-makes-few-advances-against-crime-during-6-month-state-of-exception/">second-highest homicide rate in Latin America</a>. </p>
<p>At the opposite end, Colombia seems to be on track to achieve its new “<a href="https://www.cfr.org/blog/petros-total-peace-plan-turns-one-good-bad-and-ugly">total peace plan</a>” by negotiating with its <a href="https://www.bbc.com/mundo/articles/cm5rlrgvkyno">most iconic drug cartels, including the Clan del Golfo</a>, and providing education for impoverished young people.</p>
<h2>Corruption is part of Bukelism</h2>
<p>But perhaps Bukelism’s biggest flaw is its widespread corruption. Despite <a href="https://www.reuters.com/world/americas/us-sanctions-officials-close-el-salvadors-bukele-alleged-corruption-2022-12-09/">U.S sanctions in 2022</a>, the rampant corruption among state entities, the armed forces and the private sector is too often ignored by the media.</p>
<p>This contributes to the false image of Bukele’s efficiency. Given that new laws restricting the <a href="https://rsf.org/en/serious-decline-press-freedom-el-salvador-rsf-and-its-partners-call-national-authorities-safeguard">freedom of the press</a> were recently adopted, and checks and balances such as <a href="https://www.hrw.org/world-report/2023/country-chapters/el-salvador">judicial independence are under attack</a>, corruption is unlikely to receive the media attention it warrants in El Salvador.</p>
<p>This perfect storm of corruption, human rights violations, extended military powers, institutional impunity and <a href="https://ovcd.org/en/criminalisation/">criminalization of journalists</a> poses <a href="https://www.wola.org/analysis/states-of-exception-new-security-model-central-america/">serious risks</a> to the region.</p>
<p>Mexico embraced a model similar to Bukelism in the 2010s, and its war on drugs failed, transforming the country into <a href="https://www.globalwitness.org/en/campaigns/environmental-activists/standing-firm/">one of the three worst in the world</a> in terms of the level of violence and <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/0094582X17719258">human rights violations against environmental activists and journalists</a>.</p>
<p>Ecuador and other nations flirting with Bukelism must not make the same mistake.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/223969/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Marie-Christine Doran receives funding from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada-SSHRCC. </span></em></p>Ecuador is soon holding a referendum to decide whether to follow El Salvador’s controversial strategy to end drug trafficking.Marie-Christine Doran, Full Professor of Compared Politics, L’Université d’Ottawa/University of OttawaLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2199122023-12-18T19:10:06Z2023-12-18T19:10:06ZFrom laggard to leader? Why Australia must phase out fossil fuel exports, starting now<p>For years <a href="https://priceofoil.org/2021/11/12/fossil-fuelled-five-report/">large fossil fuel producers</a> — <a href="https://theconversation.com/how-to-know-if-a-country-is-serious-about-net-zero-look-at-its-plans-for-extracting-fossil-fuels-170508">including Australia</a> — have <a href="https://www.unep.org/resources/production-gap-report-2023">expanded</a> fossil fuel production while maintaining rhetorically that the world needs to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. But global emissions are overwhelmingly caused by the extraction, transport and burning of fossil fuels. Unless fossil fuels are phased out, emissions will grow and the climate crisis will worsen.</p>
<p>At COP28 climate negotiations in Dubai, which wrapped up last week, this fact finally became the centre of attention. And fossil fuel producers were <a href="https://www.reuters.com/sustainability/climate-energy/opec-chief-urges-members-reject-any-cop28-deal-that-targets-fossil-fuels-2023-12-08/">feeling the pressure</a> — forced to <a href="https://www.reuters.com/business/environment/opec-members-push-against-including-fossil-fuels-phase-out-cop28-deal-2023-12-09/">defend their expansion of fossil fuels</a> or change their tune.</p>
<p>Interestingly, Australia seems to be doing the latter, at least rhetorically. While successive governments have <a href="https://www.australianforeignaffairs.com/articles/extract/2021/07/double-game">worked assiduously</a> to keep fossil fuel production out of the spotlight at the UN talks, Climate Change Minister Chris Bowen <a href="https://minister.dcceew.gov.au/bowen/transcripts/press-conference-cop28-dubai-0">said</a> Australia supports the global phasing out of fossil fuels in energy systems by 2050. Clearly eager to avoid being seen as the villain at the talks, Bowen named Saudi Arabia as the main blocker to an agreement on phasing out fossil fuels.</p>
<p>But the text of COP decisions matters much less than the actions states and companies take. Australia — one of the <a href="https://australiainstitute.org.au/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/P667-High-Carbon-from-a-Land-Down-Under-WEB_0_0.pdf">world’s largest producers and exporters</a> of fossil fuel-based carbon dioxide — is fuelling the problem, not solving it. Currently, Australian companies are moving to expand fossil fuel production: <a href="https://www.industry.gov.au/publications/resources-and-energy-major-projects-2022">more than 100 major coal, oil and gas projects</a> are in planning, at a cost of around A$200 billion. Some of these are “<a href="https://www.theguardian.com/environment/ng-interactive/2022/may/11/fossil-fuel-carbon-bombs-climate-breakdown-oil-gas">carbon bombs</a>,” likely to add huge quantities of emissions.</p>
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<h2>Why Australia faces charges of hypocrisy</h2>
<p>The Albanese government has already <a href="https://michaelwest.com.au/ten-and-rising-albanese-government-new-fossil-fuel-approvals-unveiled/">approved</a> a number of new fossil fuel projects, <a href="https://australiainstitute.org.au/post/how-labor-out-loved-the-coalition-in-its-embrace-of-big-oil-and-gas/">embracing</a> the fossil fuel expansionism of its conservative predecessors. But now that Australia has declared support for a global phase-out of fossil fuels, it must curtail its own exports or face continued <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2023/sep/19/missing-half-the-equation-scientists-criticise-australia-over-approach-to-fossil-fuels">charges of hypocrisy</a>.</p>
<p>How could Australia do that while managing the fallout? Interestingly, Bowen’s <a href="https://minister.dcceew.gov.au/bowen/transcripts/press-conference-cop28-dubai-0">rhetoric at COP</a> contained the seeds of an answer: a “phase out of fossil fuels is Australia’s economic opportunity as [a] renewable energy superpower”. In line with this sentiment, Australia should adopt the mission of leading the Asia-Pacific region to a prosperous future by simultaneously phasing out its fossil fuel exports while phasing up its clean energy exports; by becoming a <a href="https://www.bze.org.au/research/report/renewable-energy-superpower">clean energy superpower</a> instead of a dirty energy one.</p>
<p>Doing so would require a dramatic shift in Australia’s international climate posture: from a defensive, parochial, technocratic stance aimed at protecting fossil fuel expansion to proactive, outward-looking and pragmatic leadership; from merely focusing on its own territorial emissions to using all powers at its disposal in its <a href="https://insidestory.org.au/climate-policy-and-our-sphere-of-influence/">sphere of influence</a>.</p>
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<a href="https://theconversation.com/hard-fought-cop28-agreement-suggests-the-days-of-fossil-fuels-are-numbered-but-climate-catastrophe-is-not-yet-averted-219597">Hard-fought COP28 agreement suggests the days of fossil fuels are numbered – but climate catastrophe is not yet averted</a>
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<h2>First a new project ban, then a net zero plan</h2>
<p>Our coal and gas exports are entirely within our sovereign control, and give us enormous leverage over our regional trading partners. No one is suggesting stopping fossil fuel exports overnight. But we could start by <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2023/mar/21/the-latest-ipcc-report-makes-it-clear-no-new-fossil-fuel-projects-can-be-opened-that-includes-us-australia">banning new projects</a>, and then convening our regional partners to work out a plan to phase out existing production and consumption. Australian leadership would involve supporting our neighbours —through investment, trade and aid —to ensure their populations can access energy from zero-carbon sources, just as we’re aspiring to do at home.</p>
<p>Phasing out fossil fuel exports is thus best conceptualised as part of a shift in our foreign and trade policy aimed at securing our and our region’s prosperity against the existential threat of climate change — and amid a global pivot to clean energy. Call it “<a href="https://www.bze.org.au/research/report/laggard-to-leader#:%7E:text=Laggard%20to%20Leader%20is%20a,and%20accelerated%20through%20international%20cooperation.">cooperative decarbonisation</a>”. Viewed in this light, the typical objections to a fossil fuel phase-out in Australia look pathetic.</p>
<h2>The weak objections to a phase-out</h2>
<p>The first objection claims we are not responsible for the overseas emissions produced from burning our exported coal and gas. This falsely conflates Australia’s national interest in reducing emissions globally with its international legal responsibility for <a href="https://legalresponse.org/legaladvice/reporting-requirements-under-article-13-paris-agreement/">reporting emissions</a> locally.</p>
<p>Nothing in the Paris Agreement prevents a country from taking actions that would reduce or avoid emissions in another country. It is reckless and self-defeating to concern ourselves only with emissions produced on our territory when our power to influence global emissions is so much greater. Let’s hope that Bowen’s rhetorical shift at COP28 signals acceptance of this fact.</p>
<p>The second objection is that leaving our fossil fuels in the ground will not affect global emissions, because if we don’t sell our coal and gas, someone else will. Aside from its immorality (the “drug dealer’s defence”), the objection defies Economics 101: if you reduce supply of a product, its price goes up, causing demand to contract. Other countries might supply <em>some</em> of the shortfall, but Australia is such a big producer that it is implausible to think we could exit the coal and gas markets without dramatically reducing global emissions.</p>
<p>Moreover, it’s shortsighted to think of fossil fuel export policy in isolation from the wider foreign policy choices we face. Australia’s current foreign policy is to <a href="https://www.australianforeignaffairs.com/articles/extract/2021/07/double-game">promote our coal and gas exports</a>: we literally pay public servants to help multinational companies sell more coal and gas. But if we gave our diplomats the nobler mission of leading our region’s decarbonisation, our leadership would help to make trade in fossil fuels redundant.</p>
<p>The last oft-heard objection is that phasing out fossil fuel production would cost too much. The foreign-owned corporations that produce most of our coal and gas <a href="https://michaelwest.com.au/australia-wins-plaudits-for-move-on-multinational-tax-dodgers-but-much-more-is-needed-on-fossil-front/">pay little tax</a> and <a href="https://australiainstitute.org.au/report/employment-aspects-of-the-transition-from-fossil-fuels-in-australia/">employ relatively few people</a>, while capturing <a href="https://australiainstitute.org.au/wp-content/uploads/2023/05/P1378-Fossil-fuel-subsidies-2023-Web.pdf">billions of dollars in state and federal government subsidies</a>. Scaling up as a clean energy superpower could bring more economic growth, jobs and tax revenue than would be lost from fossil fuels — especially if we <a href="https://michaelwest.com.au/a-real-plan-to-tackle-energy-prices-climate-and-the-budget/">taxed the fossil fuel industry properly</a> on its way out.</p>
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<h2>Phase-outs can be done: lessons from overseas</h2>
<p>Denmark, France, Ireland and Costa Rica are <a href="https://beyondoilandgasalliance.org/">among a number</a> of countries that have foregone new fossil fuel exploration and production opportunities; others are <a href="https://www.iisd.org/articles/just-transition-examples">working to phase out existing</a> operations. Doing so is undoubtedly challenging: firms, workers and the communities in which fossil fuel operations are located understandably tend to resist policies that would close their industry.</p>
<p>But government support can smooth the transition. The Spanish government, for instance, negotiated a “just transition agreement” with unions and businesses to phase out coal mining, support affected workers and invest in their communities. My coauthors and I <a href="https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/american-political-science-review/article/how-to-get-coal-country-to-vote-for-climate-policy-the-effect-of-a-just-transition-agreement-on-spanish-election-results/25FE7B96445E74387D598087649FDCC3">found</a> this strategy actually increased the government’s vote share at a subsequent election in the coal regions.</p>
<p>A phase-out of fossil fuel production is <a href="https://australiainstitute.org.au/report/employment-aspects-of-the-transition-from-fossil-fuels-in-australia/">entirely feasible</a> for a country with our resources, skills and diverse economy. The standard objections provide fossil fuel companies, and the politicians they’ve captured, with convenient excuses for cashing in while the planet — and Australia — burns. It’s time, instead, for bold actions that lead us and our region to a prosperous, fossil-free future.</p>
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<a href="https://theconversation.com/cop28-deal-confirms-what-australia-already-knows-coal-is-out-of-vogue-and-out-of-time-219906">COP28 deal confirms what Australia already knows: coal is out of vogue and out of time</a>
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<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Fergus Green is affiliated with the Powering Past Coal Alliance - is a coalition of national and subnational governments, businesses and organisations working to advance the transition from unabated coal power generation to clean energy. He is a member of the Alliance's Just Transition Expert Group.</span></em></p>Australia supported a phase-out of fossil fuels at the recent UN climate summit but is still expanding coal and gas production. It’s a contradiction that threatens the planet. There is a better way.Fergus Green, Lecturer in Political Theory and Public Policy, UCLLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2155202023-10-30T19:03:52Z2023-10-30T19:03:52ZDarien Gap: As migrants take deadly risks for better lives, Canada and the U.S. must do much more<iframe style="width: 100%; height: 100px; border: none; position: relative; z-index: 1;" allowtransparency="" allow="clipboard-read; clipboard-write" src="https://narrations.ad-auris.com/widget/the-conversation-canada/darien-gap-as-migrants-take-deadly-risks-for-better-lives-canada-and-the-us-must-do-much-more" width="100%" height="400"></iframe>
<p>Canadian Immigration Minister Marc Miller recently announced that as many as 15,000 displaced people with extended family connections in Canada — most of them from Colombia, Haiti and Venezuela and located in Central or South America or the Caribbean — <a href="https://www.canada.ca/en/immigration-refugees-citizenship/news/2023/10/statement-from-minister-miller-on-canadas-commitment-to-support-migrants-in-the-americas.html">are now eligible to apply to immigrate to Canada</a> on a humanitarian basis. </p>
<p>By announcing this measure, Canada affirmed its commitment to <a href="https://www.dhs.gov/news/2023/04/27/fact-sheet-us-government-announces-sweeping-new-actions-manage-regional-migration">a joint initiative, known as Safe Mobility</a>, launched by the United States in April 2023 to stem the irregular crossings of hundreds of thousands of people into the U.S. by offering alternatives.</p>
<p>These 15,000 people represent a small number of as many as <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/world/americas-migration-crisis-panama-texas-1.6982215">400,000 displaced people</a> expected to cross the Darien Gap, a 100-kilometre stretch of treacherous jungle shared by Colombia and Panama, in 2023 in search of safety, security and protection.</p>
<p>Forced to migrate by political instability, repression and other hardships, people from Venezuela, Cuba, Ecuador and Haiti represent most of the displaced people who have crossed the Darien Gap in the last few years. </p>
<p>As many migrants told us when <a href="http://doi.org/10.1002/psp.2441">we interviewed </a> them in <a href="https://doi.org/10.1111/cag.12701">Tijuana</a> in northern Mexico and Tapachula in the south of Mexico between 2018 and 2022, crossing the continent is not for the faint of heart. </p>
<p>They may experience harassment, extortion or detention by migration authorities, violence perpetrated by criminals and abuse by deceitful unscrupulous smugglers. The number of lives lost in the Darien Gap, including children and adolescents, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/S0140-6736(23)01635-5">is increasing</a>. </p>
<h2>Cracking down in Costa Rica</h2>
<p>In the past, at least for Venezuelans, it was not necessary to cross the jungle. They were able to travel to Costa Rica, for instance, by air. As many as 12,533 Venezuelans <a href="https://www.migrationpolicy.org/research/costa-rican-migration-immigrant-integration-policy">applied for refugee status</a> in Costa Rica between 2015 and August 2021. </p>
<p>But to curtail this flow, the Costa Rican government introduced a <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.wss.2023.100151">visa requirement</a> in 2022 for Venezuelans, forcing people who wished to travel to the country to undertake the dangerous journey through the Darien Gap.</p>
<p>But the problems for Venezuelan asylum-seekers don’t end there. As the migrants and NGO representatives in our study told us, the current wait time for the first eligibility interview with Costa Rican immigration officials is 10 years. The Costa Rican refugee unit is <a href="https://www.migrationpolicy.org/research/costa-rican-migration-immigrant-integration-policy">severely under-resourced and heavily reliant on international assistance</a>. </p>
<p>Further curtailing refugee rights, Costa Rica introduced <a href="https://www.pgrweb.go.cr/scij/Busqueda/Normativa/Normas/nrm_texto_completo.aspx?param1=NRTC&param2=1&nValor1=1&nValor2=98356&nValor3=133735&strTipM=TC&lResultado=2&nValor4=1&strSelect=sel">reforms in late 2022</a> that prevent asylum-seekers who have travelled through third countries from making refugee claims.</p>
<h2>Nicaraguan refugees</h2>
<p>Ironically, the vast majority of the refugee applications Costa Rica receives today are not from people who cross the Darien Gap. The <a href="https://gjia.georgetown.edu/2023/03/17/nicaragua-on-the-brink-protests-elections-and-mass-atrocity/">political violence and repression in Nicaragua since 2018</a> have propelled many to flee to Costa Rica. </p>
<p>As of June 2022, <a href="https://www.migrationpolicy.org/article/record-emigration-nicaragua-crisis#:%7E:text=The%20erosion%20of%20democracy%20and,of%20the%20Cold%20War%20era.">Costa Rica hosted</a> 205,000 asylum seekers — 89 per cent of them from Nicaragua. </p>
<p>To deter new arrivals from Nicaragua from presenting refugee claims or obtaining the status, the Costa Rican reforms announced on December 2022 changed certain rules and regulations. These measures were criticized by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees and NGO representatives we interviewed in Costa Rica in 2023. In fact, the <a href="https://delfino.cr/2023/02/sala-iv-condena-al-estado-por-decreto-de-chaves-que-limita-libertad-de-transito-de-refugiados">Costa Rican Supreme Court</a> found some provisions of these reforms unconstitutional.</p>
<h2>The scene in Mexico</h2>
<p>Unlike Costa Rica, Mexico, <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/presidential-actions/2021/02/02/executive-order-creating-a-comprehensive-regional-framework-to-address-the-causes-of-migration-to-manage-migration-throughout-north-and-central-america-and-to-provide-safe-and-orderly-processing/">under pressure from the U.S.</a>, encourages migrants in transit toward the U.S. border to seek asylum in Mexico. </p>
<p>By the end of 2022, the <a href="https://www.gob.mx/cms/uploads/attachment/file/792337/Cierre_Diciembre-2022__31-Dic.__1.pdf">number of refugee claimants</a> in Mexico from other Central American countries, Haiti, Venezuela and Cuba had reached 120,000. </p>
<p>However, they were forced to remain in the southern state of Chiapas while their claims were reviewed, and the migrants we interviewed reported harassment by official authorities and destitution.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.wola.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/06/FINAL-Struggling-to-Survive-Asylum-Seekers-in-Tapachula.pdf">Other studies</a> support their claims. Furthermore, most migrants we interviewed in Mexico told us they had no intention of staying in Mexico even if recognized as refugees because they did not consider the country safe.</p>
<h2>U.S., Canada, must step up</h2>
<p>In April 2023, the U.S. State Department and the Department of Homeland Security announced new measures to deport all migrants and asylum-seekers who crossed the southern U.S. border by irregular means. The U.S. also introduced the <a href="https://www.dhs.gov/news/2023/04/27/fact-sheet-us-government-announces-sweeping-new-actions-manage-regional-migration">Safe Mobility initiative</a> to process applications for admissions submitted in offices set up in Colombia, Ecuador, Costa Rica and Guatemala.</p>
<p>The U.S. promised to admit up to <a href="https://www.uscis.gov/CHNV">30,000 people</a> a month from <a href="https://movilidadsegura.org/en/">Venezuela, Nicaragua, Guatemala, Cuba and Haiti</a>. Not only is this protection status temporary — a two-year <a href="https://helpspanish.cbp.gov/s/article/Article-1639?language=en_US#:%7E:text=Humanitarian%20Parole%20is%20granted%20to,reason%20or%20significant%20public%20benefit.">humanitarian parole</a> rather than permanent residency — but it’s conditional upon a “supporter” present in the U.S. </p>
<p>Canada’s <a href="https://www.canada.ca/en/immigration-refugees-citizenship/news/2023/10/statement-from-minister-miller-on-canadas-commitment-to-support-migrants-in-the-americas.html">recent announcement</a> fails to make it clear whether admitting 15,000 displaced people is a one-off measure or whether Canada is setting an annual target.</p>
<p>Regardless, it doesn’t come anywhere close to meeting the needs of the displaced people in the Americas. Canada should consider expanding its refugee resettlement program to assist more asylum-seekers in desperate conditions in this region, not only those with family ties in Canada.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/215520/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Tanya Basok receives funding from Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Guillermo Candiz receives funding from Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada. </span></em></p>Migrants who cross the treacherous Darien Gap between Panama and Colombia often experience violence and abuse, extortion or detention by migration authorities.Tanya Basok, Professor, Sociology, University of WindsorGuillermo Candiz, Assistant Professor, Human Plurality, Université de l'Ontario françaisLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1911612022-10-31T12:34:06Z2022-10-31T12:34:06ZHow debt-for-climate swaps can help solve low-income countries’ crushing debt and environmental challenges at the same time<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/491185/original/file-20221023-63312-fqxhat.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C6%2C4064%2C2689&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Debt swaps in some countries have involved commitments to protect the ocean.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/funafuti-atoll-is-at-the-front-line-against-global-warming-news-photo/543723360">Ashley Cooper/Corbis via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Barbados Prime Minister Mia Amor Mottley spoke passionately to the United Nations General Assembly in September <a href="https://news.un.org/en/story/2022/09/1127611">about the mounting debt</a> many developing countries are shouldering and its increasing impact on their ability to thrive.</p>
<p>The average debt for low- and middle-income countries, excluding China, reached <a href="https://openknowledge.worldbank.org/bitstream/handle/10986/36289/9781464818004.pdf">42% of their gross national income</a> in 2020, up from 26% in 2011. For countries in Latin America and the Caribbean, the annual payments just to service that debt <a href="https://openknowledge.worldbank.org/bitstream/handle/10986/36289/9781464818004.pdf">averaged 30% of their total exports</a>.</p>
<p>At the same time, these countries are facing a “<a href="https://pmo.gov.bb/2022/09/22/unga77-september-22/">triple crisis</a> of climate change, of pandemic and indeed now the conflict that is leading to the inflationary pressures that lead regrettably to people <a href="https://www.pbs.org/newshour/world/haiti-reaches-a-breaking-point-as-the-economy-tanks-and-violence-soars">taking circumstances into their own hands</a>,” Mottley said.</p>
<p>Rising borrowing costs coupled with high inflation and slow economic growth have left developing countries like hers in <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/business/2022/oct/02/high-interest-rates-paid-by-poorer-nations-spark-fears-of-global-debt-crisis">a difficult position</a> when it comes to climate change. High debt payments mean countries have fewer resources for mitigating and <a href="https://www.unep.org/resources/adaptation-gap-report-2022">adapting to climate change</a>. Yet climate change is increasing their vulnerability, and that can <a href="https://www.adb.org/publications/climate-change-and-sovereign-risk">raise their sovereign risk</a>, increasing the cost of borrowing. <a href="https://www.imf.org/en/Publications/WP/Issues/2022/08/11/Debt-for-Climate-Swaps-Analysis-Design-and-Implementation-522184">Declining productive capacity and tax base</a> can lead to higher debt risks. It’s a vicious cycle. </p>
<p>As one solution, countries and international organizations are talking about “debt-for-climate swaps” to help tackle both problems at the same time. U.N. Deputy Secretary-General Amina Mohammed <a href="https://www.un.org/sg/en/content/dsg/statement/2022-09-05/deputy-secretary-generals-remarks-the-africa-adaptation-finance-forum-gca-high-level-dialogue-for-cop27-prepared-for-delivery">mentioned debt-for-climate swaps</a> ahead of the November 2022 <a href="https://cop27.eg/">U.N. Climate Change Conference</a> as one option for refinancing countries’ “crippling” debt.</p>
<h2>How debt swaps work</h2>
<p><a href="https://www.imf.org/en/Publications/WP/Issues/2022/08/11/Debt-for-Climate-Swaps-Analysis-Design-and-Implementation-522184">Debt-for-climate swaps</a> allow countries to reduce their debt obligations in exchange for a commitment to finance domestic climate projects with the freed-up financial resources. </p>
<p>They have been <a href="https://www.oecd.org/environment/outreach/39352290.pdf">used since the late 1980s</a> to preserve the environment and address the liquidity crisis in developing countries, including Bolivia, Costa Rica and Belize. These are commonly known as “debt-for-nature swaps.”</p>
<p>Belize, for example, was able to lower its debt in exchange for committing to designate 30% of its marine areas as protected areas and to spend $US4 million a year for the next two decades on marine conservation <a href="https://www.imf.org/en/News/Articles/2022/05/03/CF-Belize-swapping-debt-for-nature">under a complex debt-for-nature swap</a>. </p>
<p>The swap, organized in 2021 by <a href="https://www.nature.org/en-us/about-us/who-we-are/how-we-work/finance-investing/">The Nature Conservancy</a>, involves the U.S.-based environmental group lending funds at a low-interest rate to Belize to buy back $553 million in commercial debt at a deep discount of 45%. The Nature Conservancy raised funds from the investment bank Credit Swisse via the issuance of “blue bonds” backed by the U.S. government, which gave the bonds a strong investment-grade credit rating.</p>
<p>Similarly, Costa Rica has carried out two debt-for-nature swaps with the United States. Under the swaps, Costa Rica agreed to allocate <a href="https://dialogochino.net/en/climate-energy/how-costa-rica-deforestation-millions-for-conservation/">$53 million</a> for conservation projects. It has already planted more than 60,000 trees and <a href="https://www.worldbank.org/en/country/costarica/overview/">reversed its deforestation</a>.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A child runs along large sandbags that form a sea wall while others pay in the water below." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/491184/original/file-20221023-56678-6uo4mj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/491184/original/file-20221023-56678-6uo4mj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/491184/original/file-20221023-56678-6uo4mj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/491184/original/file-20221023-56678-6uo4mj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/491184/original/file-20221023-56678-6uo4mj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/491184/original/file-20221023-56678-6uo4mj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/491184/original/file-20221023-56678-6uo4mj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Low-income Pacific Island nations like Kiribati, Tuvalu and the Marshall Islands are fighting to protect their land from sea-level rise and erosion with sea walls like this one. Debt for climate swaps could free up money for such projects without expanding the country’s debt.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/boys-play-in-the-lagoon-on-sandbags-reinforcing-a-land-news-photo/1193316999">Mario Tama/Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>While debt-for-nature swaps have been used mostly for conservation, the same concept could be <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.gloenvcha.2021.102407">expanded to climate change mitigation and adaptation</a> activities, such as building solar farms or sea walls. Some finance experts have <a href="https://www.devex.com/news/opinion-debt-for-climate-swaps-are-they-really-a-good-idea-and-what-are-the-challenges-98842">suggested</a> that debt-for-climate swaps could be structured in a way that could also encourage private-sector bond holders to exchange the national debt they hold for carbon offsets.</p>
<h2>Three keys to successful debt-for-climate swaps</h2>
<p>I work with the <a href="https://www.climatepolicylab.org/">Climate Policy Lab</a> at the Fletcher School at Tufts University. Our experience with debt swaps offers lessons for the design and implementation of debt-for-climate swaps.</p>
<p>First, the complex governance structures of debt swaps have limited their use. In the past, transactions were generally small, <a href="https://www.oecd.org/environment/outreach/39352290.pdf">generating only about $1 billion</a> in funding for the environment from 1987 to 2003. A <a href="https://www.unescap.org/kp/2021/mpfd-policy-brief-no-121-debt-climate-swaps-tool-support-implementation-paris-agreement">term sheet template</a> for future debt-for-climate swaps could reduce the complexity and lower the time and costs involved.</p>
<p>Second, debt-for-climate swaps would need to relieve enough of the debt burden to allow debtor countries to invest in climate adaptation and mitigation projects. For instance, the U.S. created debt-for-nature swaps with Indonesia in 2009 that were criticized for <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.gloenvcha.2010.10.001">not doing enough</a> to help the Indonesian government achieve its conservation goals.</p>
<p>Another concern is known as “additionality” – ensuring that the swaps lead to additional climate efforts, as opposed to <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.gloenvcha.2021.102407">covering efforts already planned</a> or <a href="https://www.zora.uzh.ch/id/eprint/159661/">already paid for</a> with international climate finance.</p>
<p>With <a href="https://www.unep.org/resources/adaptation-gap-report-2021">widening gaps</a> between the amount of adaptation assistance reaching countries and the amount they need, debt-for-climate swaps can be a meaningful source of funding. Climate Policy Initiative, a nonprofit research group, recently <a href="https://www.climatepolicyinitiative.org/publication/climate-finance-needs-of-african-countries/">estimated that about 90%</a> of the adaptation needs countries listed in their Nationally Determined Contributions – the climate change plans they submit to the U.N. – can be only met with help from development banks or other countries.</p>
<h2>Regions experimenting with debt swaps</h2>
<p>A few regions are testing debt-for-climate swaps.</p>
<p>The Economic and Social Commission for Western Africa has developed a <a href="https://www.unescwa.org/debt-swap">Climate/Sustainable Development Goal Debt Swap</a>, in which it functions as a liaison between creditors and <a href="https://www.unescwa.org/sites/default/files/inline-files/UN%20ESCWA%20Climate%20SDGs%20Debt%20Swap%20-%20Donor%20Nexus%20Initiative_21062022_0.pdf">seven pilot countries</a>. The initiative focuses on advancing sustainable development and climate goals, such as developing more resilient agriculture.</p>
<p>Similarly, as part of the Caribbean Resilience Fund, the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean <a href="https://www.cepal.org/sites/default/files/events/files/concept_note-final.pdf">plans to launch</a> a Debt for Climate Adaptation Swap. It aims to reduce the $527 million of debt in three pilot countries by issuing green bonds, similar to Belize’s debt swap. Development banks would <a href="https://www.imf.org/en/Publications/WP/Issues/2022/08/11/Debt-for-Climate-Swaps-Analysis-Design-and-Implementation-522184">play a crucial role</a> by guaranteeing new bonds and reducing the credit risk.</p>
<p>With carefully designed debt-for-climate swaps and support from international institutions, developing countries could expand their finance for desperately needed climate mitigation and adaptation actions and remove some of their heavy debt burden.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/191161/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Soyoung Oh does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Many small island nations are struggling to protect their land from rising seas while also facing paralyzing debt.Soyoung Oh, Junior Research Fellow, The Fletcher School, Tufts UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1803012022-04-22T12:08:51Z2022-04-22T12:08:51ZProtecting biodiversity – and making it accessible – has paid off for Costa Rica<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/458908/original/file-20220420-17-8407uw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=45%2C7%2C5046%2C3389&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Tourists cross a hanging bridge in the treetops of Costa Rica's Monteverde cloud forest.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/selvatura-treetop-hanging-bridges-monteverde-cloud-forest-news-photo/1284258316">Matthew Williams-Ellis/Universal Images Group via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>After two years of pandemic lockdowns and border closures, global travel appears to be <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2022/02/15/travel/trends-spring-2022.html">rebounding in much of the world in 2022</a>. Wilderness is a big tourist attraction – but do countries that protect their natural environments earn a payoff in tourism revenues? </p>
<p>Surprisingly, little research has been done on this question. Some early studies in Africa demonstrated that people from across the world travel to find “<a href="https://www.goeco.org/article/understand-the-big-five-in-south-africa">the big five</a>” – elephants, rhinos, buffaloes, lions and leopards. But it remains unclear whether people will travel to see a wide variety of plants and animals, or just a select few iconic species. </p>
<p>As scholars who study <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=SQVVV-0AAAAJ&hl=en">conservation</a> and <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=wEknYNwAAAAJ&hl=en">ecology</a>, we wondered whether biodiversity – specifically, the number of species in a given place – influenced where people chose to travel for tourism. We analyzed that question in a <a href="https://www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.2107662119">recently published study</a> focused on Costa Rica, a country that markets itself to the world as green and biodiverse, and derives <a href="https://www.oecd-ilibrary.org/sites/37bb0cf5-en/index.html?itemId=/content/component/37bb0cf5-en">almost 10% of its gross domestic product</a> from tourism activities. </p>
<p>Our study assessed whether the opportunity to see many vertebrate animal species mattered to tourists visiting Costa Rica, and if so, how important it was compared with other features like hotels and beaches. We found that an abundance of animal species alone does not drive tourism; rather, in Costa Rica, our research shows that biodiversity needs to be paired with infrastructure like hotels and roads that enable access to nature. Costa Rica has shown other countries how to do this and is reaping benefits from it.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/dYoTTkK4Acc?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">To succeed, ecotourism requires charismatic animal species, accessible locations and involvement from local communities.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Biodiversity, satellites and social media</h2>
<p>For our study we used millions of sightings of animals in Costa Rica from the <a href="https://www.gbif.org/">Global Biodiversity Information Facility,</a> a public repository of open-access data about all types of life on Earth. The GBIF shares reports from members – including governments, conservation groups, libraries and scientific societies – about observations of plants, animals and other living species, with geographic locations. Scholars and governments draw on this data to inform scientific research and policy decisions. </p>
<p>We paired these wildlife observations with satellite-derived maps of climate conditions, such as temperature and rainfall, and habitat elements, such as tree cover and impervious surfaces like roads. Using this data, we created distribution maps across Costa Rica for 699 birds, mammals, amphibians and reptiles. We selected species that had more than 25 data points in the country.</p>
<p>We then used these maps to see how important species richness was in driving two types of tourism. First we considered general tourism, measured by where people go to take pictures and upload them to the <a href="https://flickr.com/">Flickr photo sharing site</a>. Second, we looked at checklists on <a href="https://ebird.org/home">eBird</a>, a social media platform where people who identify as birders can share which species they see during nature walks. </p>
<p>Next we added other factors that are widely known to drive tourism, including the location of hotels, roads, national park boundaries and water features like lakes. This allowed us to consider how important biodiversity was compared with other key tourism drivers. </p>
<p>Our data came from NASA’s <a href="https://data.nasa.gov/dataset/Global-Roads-Open-Access-Data-Set-Version-1-gROADS/bey2-56a2">Global Roads Open Access Database</a>, a global map of roads; <a href="https://www.geonames.org/">the GeoNames database</a>, a global source with the coordinates of all registered hotels and lodges; and the <a href="https://www.naturalearthdata.com/">Natural Earth database</a>, which contains a map of the world’s lakes and oceans. We used those maps to predict where tourists were going by mapping where people were taking pictures that they would then upload to Flickr, or where they were bird-watching and uploading their lists to eBird. </p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1372907286755209218"}"></div></p>
<h2>Nature plus small-scale infrastructure</h2>
<p>We found that tourism is highest in zones of Costa Rica where both biodiversity and infrastructure are present and accessible to tourists. One such area is Monteverde, a lush high-elevation forest that National Geographic calls “<a href="https://www.worldatlas.com/articles/the-seven-natural-wonders-of-costa-rica.html">the jewel in the crown of cloud forest reserves</a>.” </p>
<p>Here visitors can find the <a href="https://abcbirds.org/bird/resplendent-quetzal/">resplendent quetzal</a>, a green bird with a red belly and long green-bluish tail that glistens in the sunlight. Considered sacred by Aztecs and Mayans, the quetzal is a major draw for bird-watchers and other tourists. Another species of high tourist interest is the <a href="https://birdsoftheworld.org/bow/species/refpar1/cur/introduction">red-fronted parrotlet</a>, a small green parrot with a red forehead that is found only in Costa Rica and northern Panama.</p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/458914/original/file-20220420-19-3f4jie.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Tropical bird perched on a branch" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/458914/original/file-20220420-19-3f4jie.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/458914/original/file-20220420-19-3f4jie.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=900&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/458914/original/file-20220420-19-3f4jie.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=900&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/458914/original/file-20220420-19-3f4jie.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=900&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/458914/original/file-20220420-19-3f4jie.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1131&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/458914/original/file-20220420-19-3f4jie.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1131&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/458914/original/file-20220420-19-3f4jie.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1131&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A male resplendent quetzal in Costa Rica.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/the-resplendent-quetzal-pharomachrus-mocinno-was-the-sacred-news-photo/849939016">Jon G. Fuller/VW Pics/Universal Images Group via Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Places like Monteverde are top tourist destinations in Costa Rica because they are replete with endemic and threatened species that visitors want to see, and that can only be found at those locations. Importantly, these areas also have enough ecolodges for people to spend the night. </p>
<p>Understandably, places that have high biodiversity but no infrastructure receive fewer visitors. For example, <a href="https://whc.unesco.org/en/list/205/">Amistad International Park</a>, which is located in both Costa Rica and Panama, has a large tract of forest and many species. But very few people go there compared with other high-biodiversity areas. Our results indicate that this is because there aren’t enough roads to make the park accessible and see wild animals and birds. </p>
<p>Conversely, places with very high levels of infrastructure and very few species also are not desirable to tourists. Think of big-city hotels where tourists may stay for a day or two for convenience, but don’t book longer stays because of the limited access to wild species.</p>
<p><div data-react-class="InstagramEmbed" data-react-props="{"url":"https://www.instagram.com/p/CYx7U4dNKP_/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link","accessToken":"127105130696839|b4b75090c9688d81dfd245afe6052f20"}"></div></p>
<p>Our findings suggest that for countries like Costa Rica to continue deriving economic benefits from tourism, they need to invest in both infrastructure and biodiversity conservation. We believe that, rather than building large resorts or multilane roads, countries would be wise to adopt Costa Rica’s model of tourism infrastructure, which is mainly small ecolodges and nature hostels. Sustainability is a <a href="https://www.oecd-ilibrary.org/sites/37bb0cf5-en/index.html?itemId=/content/component/37bb0cf5-en">central theme of the nation’s tourism policy</a>, which emphasizes supporting small- and medium-sized businesses.</p>
<h2>Just enough development</h2>
<p>Governments around the world will convene in <a href="https://www.unep.org/events/conference/un-biodiversity-conference-cop-15">the fall of 2022</a> for a critical conference on protecting the world’s wild species over the coming decade. One of the main goals for this meeting is to negotiate ways for humans to <a href="https://www.cbd.int/decision/cop/?id=12268">live in harmony with nature</a>. </p>
<p>A key issue on the agenda is evaluating and managing trade-offs between protecting nature and promoting economic growth. Our results clearly indicate that these two things cannot be considered in isolation. In our view, the tourism sector should emphasize conserving species, because many people will pay to see wildlife and unspoiled places. </p>
<p>[<em>Over 150,000 readers rely on The Conversation’s newsletters to understand the world.</em> <a href="https://memberservices.theconversation.com/newsletters/?source=inline-150ksignup">Sign up today</a>.]</p>
<p>Today tourism employs some 700,000 people <a href="https://www.ict.go.cr/es/documentos-institucionales/estad%C3%ADsticas/cifras-tur%C3%ADsticas/empleo-inec-ccss/1392-bccr-2012-2016/file.html">in Costa Rica</a>. Our research shows that if other countries want to develop ecotourism industries modeled on Costa Rica’s, they should increase access to nature-based tourism opportunities by building roads and hotels. </p>
<p>They also need to invest in protecting biodiversity, especially species that are endemic and threatened, which can serve as tourist draws. With careful planning and an inclusive perspective, we believe that nations can build sustainable tourism programs that benefit their economies and the environment.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/180301/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Alejandra Echeverri Ochoa receives funding from The Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation, and NASA (Grant #80NSSC18K0434)</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Jeffrey R. Smith currently receives funding from the Carbon Mitigation Initiative at Princeton's High Meadow's Environmental Institute. His work on this project was supported by NASA (Grant #80NSSC18K0434).</span></em></p>Tourism revenues account for almost 10% of Costa Rica’s gross domestic product. New research shows that charismatic wildlife is necessary but not sufficient to attract ecotourists.Alejandra Echeverri Ochoa, Postdoctoral Scholar in Biology, Stanford UniversityJeffrey R. Smith, Postdoctoral Researcher in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Princeton UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1737192022-01-04T15:13:20Z2022-01-04T15:13:20ZIn Latin America, not only abortions but miscarriages can lead to jail time<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/438114/original/file-20211216-15-1jxdo8y.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=18%2C6%2C4007%2C2999&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">The graffiti on the building reads, 'The rich abort, the poor die.'</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Megan Rivers-Moore)</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Georgina and I are drinking coffee on a rainy winter evening in San José, Costa Rica. She’s telling me about her abortion, “When it was over, I felt a lot of things.… But the most overwhelming feeling was relief. I was so relieved that it was over and that I wasn’t pregnant anymore. I was so relieved to be alive and not pregnant.” </p>
<p>Abortion is criminalized throughout Latin America, but <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-latam-women-rights-factbox-idUSKBN1KU29E">Central American countries have some of the strictest abortions laws in the world</a>. El Salvador has been especially notorious, with abortion banned in all cases and prison sentences if caught — you can even go to prison for having a <a href="https://theconversation.com/el-salvadors-abortion-ban-jails-women-for-miscarriages-and-stillbirths-now-one-womans-family-seeks-international-justice-156484">miscarriage or a stillbirth</a>. </p>
<p>Despite the severity of laws throughout the region, an estimated <a href="https://www.guttmacher.org/sites/default/files/factsheet/ib_aww-latin-america.pdf">6.5 million abortions</a> take place every year, and at least <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1136/bmjgh-2021-005618">10 per cent of maternal deaths</a> can be directly attributed to unsafe abortion. </p>
<p>As debates about abortion are heating up in the U.S. once again, with an <a href="https://www.texastribune.org/2021/12/16/texas-abortion-law-legal-fight/">almost complete abortion ban in place in Texas since September</a> and <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/world/us-supreme-court-abortion-rights-hearing-1.6255063">Supreme Court hearings that have <em>Roe vs. Wade</em></a> hanging in the balance, it’s worth paying attention to the hard fought struggles over abortion in other parts of the world where, like in the U.S., religion plays a central role in politics and public life. </p>
<h2>A “crime against life”</h2>
<p>In Costa Rica, where I have done research on gender and sexuality for the past sixteen years, abortion laws are not quite as draconian. But Costa Rica has the dubious distinction of being <a href="https://ticotimes.net/2017/05/03/forever-ever-amen-costa-rica-catholic-country">one of the world’s last confessional states</a>. </p>
<p>The country has a state religion, Roman Catholicism, meaning the Catholic church has an especially prominent place in public institutions like schools and hospitals. The church regularly intervenes in public debates around a variety of issues — like <a href="https://doi.org/10.1038/536274c">in vitro fertilization</a>, <a href="https://thecostaricanews.com/costa-rica-debates-passive-euthanasia-for-epidemic-diseases/">euthanasia</a>, <a href="https://www.hrw.org/news/2020/05/26/costa-rica-first-central-america-legalize-same-sex-marriage">same-sex marriage</a> <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-costa-rica-abortion-idUSKBN1YH0EK">and abortion</a>. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A woman holds a placard that reads in Spanish 'Neither Dead Nor or in Prison,' with grafitti behind her" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/438563/original/file-20211220-17-144b4gi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/438563/original/file-20211220-17-144b4gi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/438563/original/file-20211220-17-144b4gi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/438563/original/file-20211220-17-144b4gi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/438563/original/file-20211220-17-144b4gi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/438563/original/file-20211220-17-144b4gi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/438563/original/file-20211220-17-144b4gi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A woman holds a placard that reads ‘Neither Dead Nor or in Prison,’ in Spanish, during an abortion-rights demonstration on the Day for Decriminalization of Abortion in Latin America march, in Mexico City, on Sept. 28, 2021.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(AP Photo/Ginnette Riquelme)</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Costa Rica’s 1970 penal code <a href="http://repositorio.ciem.ucr.ac.cr/bitstream/123456789/335/1/RCIEM299.pdf">criminalizes abortion as a “crime against life.”</a> It is punished through jail sentences ranging between six months and three years for having an abortion, and between six months and 10 years for providing or aiding in securing an abortion. </p>
<p>What is called <a href="https://www.aboutkidshealth.ca/Article?contentid=385&language=English">therapeutic abortion, or abortion meant to save the life or health of a pregnant person</a>, is not criminalized, but rarely practised. It took a ruling from the Inter-American Human Rights Commission to force the country to finally establish guidelines for therapeutic abortion, but they include many <a href="https://ticotimes.net/2020/12/05/health-ministry-approves-protocols-for-therapeutic-abortions-in-costa-rica">complex restrictions</a>.</p>
<h2>Abortion research in Costa Rica</h2>
<p>It is widely accepted that <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/think/opinion/abortion-rates-don-t-drop-when-procedure-outlawed-it-does-ncna1235174">criminalizing abortion does not make abortions less frequent, it just makes them less safe</a>. What little research there is on abortion in Costa Rica is very dated. Activists primarily rely on a <a href="https://adiariocr.com/nacionales/las-estadisticas-en-la-legalizacion-del-aborto/">2007 study</a> that suggested 27,000 abortions took place in Costa Rica each year. </p>
<p>Over the past three years, I have interviewed people who have had <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2018/10/how-many-women-die-illegal-abortions/572638/">clandestine abortions</a> in Costa Rica. Some had their abortions 20 years ago, others, like Georgina, had their abortions the week before I interviewed them. </p>
<p>One of the most notable findings of my research so far is the huge change that came with the development of medical abortion. </p>
<p>I interviewed Emma, a lawyer, at her workplace. </p>
<blockquote>
<p>“I found out I was pregnant in 1996 and I went to see a gynecologist that everyone knew did abortions. It was a fancy private clinic in Los Yoses. He said to me ‘I can’t give you general anesthetic, so you’re going to have to keep very still. If you move and I perforate your uterus, you’ll end up in the hospital and then we’ll both end up in jail.’ It’s not like that anymore, thank god. Now you can just get some pills, it’s so much easier.”</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Emma is right, abortion is changing in Costa Rica and in Latin America — networks of committed volunteers help pregnant people access mifepristone and misoprostol (abortion pills) in a variety of ways, leading to <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1136/bmjgh-2021-005618">significantly reduced complications</a>. </p>
<p>Younger women who have had abortions recently told about me about their deep gratitude to the strangers that helped them. Xiomara, a 22-year-old university student said:
“I paid a little extra for the pills, because I could. Because you know they won’t deny them to anyone who needs them, even if they don’t have money. I was so glad that I wasn’t going to be pregnant anymore. It meant so much to me, that people I had never even met were helping me end my pregnancy, that I paid extra so that it would help cover someone else’s abortion.”</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Woman wearing green hug and cry" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/438565/original/file-20211220-50043-dct0a1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/438565/original/file-20211220-50043-dct0a1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=348&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/438565/original/file-20211220-50043-dct0a1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=348&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/438565/original/file-20211220-50043-dct0a1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=348&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/438565/original/file-20211220-50043-dct0a1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=438&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/438565/original/file-20211220-50043-dct0a1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=438&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/438565/original/file-20211220-50043-dct0a1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=438&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Abortion-rights activists react after lawmakers approved a bill that legalizes abortion, outside congress in Buenos Aires, Argentina, on Dec. 30, 2020.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(AP Photo/Natacha Pisarenko)</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Birth no matter what</h2>
<p>All of the people I interviewed about their clandestine abortions expressed relief at not being pregnant anymore and gratitude to the network of strangers that made it possible. </p>
<p>During the debates about the <a href="http://www.pgrweb.go.cr/scij/Busqueda/Normativa/Normas/nrm_texto_completo.aspx?param1=NRTC&nValor1=1&nValor2=90270&nValor3=0&strTipM=TC">technical guidelines</a> for therapeutic abortion, it became clear that many people felt strongly that pregnant people should be allowed to die rather than provided with a safe abortion. </p>
<p>When I interviewed Paola Vega, a deputy in the Costa Rican parliament and one of only three openly pro-choice elected officials, she said:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>“The whole conversation has become radicalized. People actually argue that if a woman is dying while she’s in labour, she has to give birth no matter what happens because it’s God’s will. She has to give birth, and if she dies and if the baby dies, well, it’s God’s will. The whole discussion has gotten so much worse, so much more radical.” </p>
</blockquote>
<h2>A wave of young activists</h2>
<p>The wave of <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-abortion-latam-feature-idUSKBN28B4S8">young activists across Latin America</a> who have renewed demands for access to safe, legal and free abortion has provided new hope and energy. </p>
<p>Often fighting under the slogan <em>educación sexual para decidir, anticonceptivos para no abortar, aborto legal para no morir</em> (sex education to be able to choose, contraceptives to not have to abort, legal abortion so we don’t die), young feminists have been at the forefront of <a href="https://www.hrw.org/news/2021/11/01/how-latin-american-women-can-keep-fighting-abortion-rights-and-win">a movement that is broad based and expansive</a>, including anyone with a uterus and employing gender-inclusive language. </p>
<p>Strengthened <a href="https://www.instagram.com/AbortolegalCostaRica/">by social media that has allowed information</a> to be shared in real time, activists across Latin America have celebrated and gained energy from triumphs like the full <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/12/30/world/americas/argentina-legalizes-abortion.html">decriminalization of abortion in Argentina in 2020</a>. </p>
<p>In Costa Rica, <a href="https://qcostarica.com/diamante-mayors-suspended-for-six-months/">corruption scandals</a> and <a href="https://qcostarica.com/could-there-be-another-pandemic-wave-in-costa-rica/">the pandemic</a> have turned attention away from abortion, but with elections coming up in February, all the presidential candidates have been <a href="https://comparador.delfino.cr/comparador-politico?ids=jos-mara-villalta-flrez-estrada">asked about their positions</a> on the subject — putting the issue on the political agenda in a way that it has never been before. </p>
<p>In the meantime, people like Mariana will continue to access abortions clandestinely:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>“The person I got the pills from said I needed to take them and have someone with me. But I couldn’t tell anyway, I didn’t want my boyfriend to know, so I took the pills alone. But you know what? They called me, I don’t know who it was, a volunteer I guess. She called and stayed on the phone with me for a long time, and then called me again a few times to check on me. So it turns out I wasn’t alone. And I felt a lot of love from that stranger on the phone, I wasn’t alone.”</p>
</blockquote><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/173719/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Megan Rivers-Moore does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>As debates about abortion heat up in the U.S. once again, we need to pay attention to the hard-fought struggles over abortion in other nations where religion plays a key role in politics and public life.Megan Rivers-Moore, Associate Professor, Women's and Gender Studies, Carleton UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1579532021-04-22T12:26:09Z2021-04-22T12:26:09ZMoney alone can’t fix Central America – or stop migration to US<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/396089/original/file-20210420-21-nrprby.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=13%2C17%2C2982%2C1971&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Children play in Las Flores village, Comitancillo, Guatemala, home of a 22-year-old migrant murdered in January 2021 on his journey through Mexico.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/children-play-during-the-wake-of-marvin-tomas-a-guatemalan-news-photo/1231727366?adppopup=true">Johan Ordonez/AFP via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>To stem migration from Central America, the Biden administration has a US$4 billion plan to “<a href="https://joebiden.com/centralamerica/">build security and prosperity</a>” in Honduras, Guatemala and El Salvador – home to more than <a href="https://migrationpolicy.org/article/centralamerican-migrants-unitedstates-2017">85% of all Central American migrants</a> who arrived in the U.S. over the last three years.</p>
<p>The U.S. seeks to address the “<a href="https://joebiden.com/centralamerica/">factors pushing people to leave their countries</a>” – namely, violence, crime, chronic unemployment and lack of basic services – in a region of <a href="https://theconversation.com/in-central-america-gangs-like-ms-13-are-bad-but-corrupt-politicians-may-be-worse-86113">gross public corruption</a>.</p>
<p>The Biden plan, which will be partially funded with money diverted from immigration detention and the border wall, is based on a sound analysis of Central America’s dismal socioeconomic conditions. As a <a href="https://lacc.fiu.edu/news-1/2018/the-future-of-the-americas-by-president-luis-guillermo-sols/">former president of Costa Rica</a>, I can attest to the dire situation facing people in neighboring nations. </p>
<p>As a historian of Central America, I also know money alone cannot build a viable democracy. </p>
<h2>Failed efforts</h2>
<p>Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador comprise Central America’s “Northern Triangle” – a poor region with <a href="https://insightcrime.org/news/analysis/2020-homicide-round-up/">among the world’s highest murder rates</a>. </p>
<p>These countries need education, housing and health systems that work. They need reliable economic structures that can attract foreign investment. And they need inclusive social systems and other crime-prevention strategies that <a href="https://theconversation.com/forced-migration-from-central-america-5-essential-reads-98600">allow people to live without fear</a>. </p>
<p>No such transformation can happen without strong public institutions and <a href="https://theconversation.com/in-central-america-gangs-like-ms-13-are-bad-but-corrupt-politicians-may-be-worse-86113">politicians committed to the rule of law</a>.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/396091/original/file-20210420-17-17fdrpu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Protesters hold Guatemalan flags and posters alleging corruption fo the president" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/396091/original/file-20210420-17-17fdrpu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/396091/original/file-20210420-17-17fdrpu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/396091/original/file-20210420-17-17fdrpu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/396091/original/file-20210420-17-17fdrpu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/396091/original/file-20210420-17-17fdrpu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/396091/original/file-20210420-17-17fdrpu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/396091/original/file-20210420-17-17fdrpu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Guatemalans call for the resignation of President Alejandro Giammatei, whom they call corrupt, Nov. 21, 2020, Guatemala City.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/protesters-gather-to-stage-a-protest-against-the-president-news-photo/1229722669?adppopup=true">Fabricio Alonzo/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Biden’s aid to Central America comes with strict conditions, requiring the leaders of Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador to “undertake significant, concrete and verifiable reforms,” including with their own money. </p>
<p>But the U.S. has <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/25661224?seq=1">unsuccessfully tried to make change in Central America for decades</a>. Every American president <a href="https://www.jfklibrary.org/learn/about-jfk/jfk-in-history/alliance-for-progress">since the 1960s</a> has launched initiatives there. </p>
<p>During the Cold War, the U.S. aimed to counter the spread of communism in the region, sometimes militarily. More recently U.S. aid has focused principally on strengthening democracy, by investing in everything from the judiciary reform and women’s education to agriculture and small businesses.</p>
<p>The Obama administration also <a href="https://fas.org/sgp/crs/row/IN10237.pdf">spent millions on initiatives</a> to fight illegal drugs and weaken the street gangs, called “maras,” whose brutal control over urban neighborhoods is one reason migrants say they flee. </p>
<p>Such <a href="https://theconversation.com/is-cutting-central-american-aid-going-to-help-stop-the-flow-of-migrants-118806">multibillion-dollar efforts</a> have done little to improve the region’s dysfunctions.</p>
<p>If anything, Central America’s <a href="https://www.google.com/search?client=safari&rls=en&q=theconversation.com+central+america+climate+change&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8">problems have gotten worse</a>. COVID-19 is <a href="https://www.imf.org/en/News/Articles/2020/12/15/na121720when-it-rains-it-pours-pandemic-and-natural-disasters-challenge-central-americas-economies">raging across the region</a>. Two Category 5 hurricanes <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2021/04/06/world/americas/migration-honduras-central-america.html">hit Honduras</a> within two weeks in late 2020, leaving more than 250,000 homeless. </p>
<p>Some experts have been calling for a “<a href="https://fpif.org/central-america-needs-a-marshall-plan/">mini-Marshall Plan</a>” to stabilize Central America, like the U.S. program that rebuilt Europe after World War II. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A girl sits in a muddy, destroyed school chair on muddy, messy ground" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/396053/original/file-20210420-19-oxteu6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C15%2C5236%2C3292&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/396053/original/file-20210420-19-oxteu6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=380&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/396053/original/file-20210420-19-oxteu6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=380&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/396053/original/file-20210420-19-oxteu6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=380&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/396053/original/file-20210420-19-oxteu6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=478&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/396053/original/file-20210420-19-oxteu6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=478&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/396053/original/file-20210420-19-oxteu6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=478&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Hurricanes Eta and Iota flooded Honduras in late 2020.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/girl-sits-on-a-school-chair-destroyed-during-hurricanes-eta-news-photo/1230539934?adppopup=true">Orlando Sierra/AFP via Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>The Costa Rica counterpoint</h2>
<p>To imagine a way out of Central America’s problems, the history of Costa Rica – <a href="https://2009-2017.state.gov/outofdate/bgn/costarica/88435.htm">a democratic and stable Central American country</a> – is illustrative. </p>
<p>Costa Rica’s <a href="https://www.routledge.com/Understanding-Central-America-Global-Forces-and-Political-Change/Booth-Wade-Walker/p/book/9780367361709">path to success</a> started soon after independence from Spain in 1821. </p>
<p>It developed a coffee economy that tied it early to the developing global capitalist economy. While other Central American countries fought prolonged civil wars, Costa Rica adopted a liberal constitution and invested in public education. </p>
<p>Costa Rican democracy <a href="https://dsc.duq.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=2090&context=dlr">strengthened in the 1940s</a> with a constitutional amendment that established a minimum wage and protected women and children from labor abuses. It also established a national social security system, which today provides health care and pensions to all Costa Ricans.</p>
<p>These reforms <a href="https://core.ac.uk/download/pdf/149238774.pdf">triggered civil war</a>. But the war’s end brought about positive transformations. In 1948, Costa Rica <a href="https://www.revistas.una.ac.cr/index.php/ri/article/view/7153">abolished its military</a>. No spending in defense allows Costa Rica to invest in human development.</p>
<p><iframe id="SfjaE" class="tc-infographic-datawrapper" src="https://datawrapper.dwcdn.net/SfjaE/4/" height="400px" width="100%" style="border: none" frameborder="0"></iframe></p>
<p>The country also created a credible electoral system to ensure the legitimacy of elected governments. </p>
<p>Over the next seven decades, consecutive Costa Rican governments <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/2513832?seq=1">expanded this welfare state</a>, developing a large urban and rural middle class. Already a trusted U.S. ally when the Cold War began, Costa Rica was able to maintain progressive policies of the sort that, in other countries, the <a href="https://theconversation.com/washington-has-meddled-in-elections-before-92167">American government</a> viewed as <a href="https://theconversation.com/how-socialism-became-un-american-through-the-ad-councils-propaganda-campaigns-132335">suspiciously “socialist.”</a> </p>
<p>Today, Costa Rica invests nearly 30% of its annual budget in public education, from kindergarten to college. Health care represents around 14.8% of the budget. </p>
<p>The U.S. is not a draw for Costa Ricans. Instead, my country has itself received <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-rise-of-anti-immigrant-attitudes-violence-and-nationalism-in-costa-rica-73899">hundreds of thousands of Central American migrants</a>.</p>
<h2>Predatory elites and authoritarian politics</h2>
<p>The migrants are fleeing political systems that are broadly repressive and prone to militarism, autocracy and corruption. In large part, that’s because many Central American countries are dominated by small yet powerful economic and political <a href="https://www.economist.com/the-americas/2021/04/03/the-influence-of-central-american-dynasties-is-ebbing">elites, many dating back generations</a>.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/396114/original/file-20210420-23485-4i1gzl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A police officer in full SWAT gear with a machine guns stands outside a small store on a city street as people walk by" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/396114/original/file-20210420-23485-4i1gzl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/396114/original/file-20210420-23485-4i1gzl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/396114/original/file-20210420-23485-4i1gzl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/396114/original/file-20210420-23485-4i1gzl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/396114/original/file-20210420-23485-4i1gzl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/396114/original/file-20210420-23485-4i1gzl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/396114/original/file-20210420-23485-4i1gzl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A decade of militarized policing in El Salvador has not meaningfully improved safety.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/member-of-the-tactical-squad-of-the-national-police-stands-news-photo/1204305708?adppopup=true">Aphotografia/Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>These elites benefit from the status quo. In the Northern Triangle, they have <a href="https://foreignpolicy.com/2021/03/26/biden-rethinks-central-america-strategy/">repeatedly proven unwilling</a> to promote the structural transformations – from more equitable taxation and educational investment to agrarian reforms – that could end centuries of oppression and deprivation. </p>
<p>During the Cold War, they quashed popular revolutions pursuing such changes, often <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2018/01/trump-and-el-salvador/550955/">with U.S. support</a>.</p>
<p>Biden’s Central America plan requires the active participation of this “predatory elite,” <a href="https://www.npr.org/2021/03/26/981284187/predatory-elite-also-bear-the-blame-for-migrant-crisis-juan-gonzalez-says">in the words of Biden adviser Juan Gonzalez</a>.</p>
<p>Gonzales told NPR in March that the administration would take a “partnership-based approach” in Central America, using both “carrots and sticks” to push powerful people who may not share the U.S.’s goals to help their own people. The U.S. will also enlist local human rights organizations and pro-democracy groups to aid their cause.</p>
<p>Its too early to know if the expected partnerships with Central American leaders will materialize. </p>
<p>The Salvadoran president recently <a href="https://thehill.com/policy/international/americas/547176-el-salvador-president-refuses-to-meet-senior-us-diplomat-report">refused to meet</a> with Biden’s special envoy to the Northern Triangle. Honduras’ president <a href="https://insightcrime.org/news/honduras-president-drug-conspiracy/">is named in a U.S. criminal investigation</a> into his brother’s alleged drug-smuggling ring.</p>
<p>Still, without the U.S. resources being offered, Central America’s troubles will persist. Money alone won’t solve them – but it is a necessary piece of an enormously complicated puzzle.</p>
<p>[<em>The Conversation’s Politics + Society editors pick need-to-know stories.</em> <a href="https://theconversation.com/us/newsletters/politics-weekly-74/?utm_source=TCUS&utm_medium=inline-link&utm_campaign=newsletter-text&utm_content=politics-need-to-know">Sign up for Politics Weekly</a>.]</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/157953/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Luis Guillermo Solis was the president of Costa Rica from 2014 to 2018.</span></em></p>Biden’s $4 billion plan to fight crime, corruption and poverty in Central America is massive. But aid can’t build viable democracies if ‘predatory elites’ won’t help their own people.Luis Guillermo Solis, Distinguished Professor, Director of the Kimberly Green Latin American and Caribbean Center, Florida International UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1369252020-04-30T12:12:24Z2020-04-30T12:12:24ZRefugees tell stories of problems – and unity – in facing the coronavirus<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/331157/original/file-20200428-110757-g6j7db.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">A group of refugees living on the pavement near the Cape Town Central Police Station on the first day of a national coronavirus lockdown, March 27, 2020 in Cape Town, South Africa. </span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/general-view-of-a-group-of-refugees-living-on-the-pavement-news-photo/1208565415?adppopup=true">Getty/Nardus Engelbrecht/ Gallo Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Across the globe, refugees are trying to settle into new surroundings and are running into new challenges thanks to the coronavirus pandemic. </p>
<p>But too often news coverage of refugee issues doesn’t include the people’s own voices. <a href="https://fletcher.tufts.edu/people/karen-jacobsen?personkey=3923141C-E683-40A6-B7CB-CAE5E77BA514">We</a> <a href="https://www.refugeesintowns.org/people">coordinate</a> the <a href="https://www.refugeesintowns.org/">Refugees in Towns</a> project, which is a network of refugee researchers and humanitarian workers who we train to conduct research and then write about their experiences in the cities where they live. </p>
<p>We asked members of our network to tell us how the COVID-19 pandemic was affecting their lives. Here are dispatches from South Africa, Serbia, Zimbabwe, Costa Rica, Denmark and Jordan, written by our refugee researchers and aid workers. </p>
<h2>Denmark</h2>
<p><em>Denmark hosts <a href="https://www.unhcr.org/en-us/statistical-yearbooks.html">39,000 refugees and asylum seekers</a>, from countries such as Syria, Iraq and Somalia. Abdullah, a Syrian refugee in Aarhus, wrote:</em></p>
<p>The Ministry of Health has published fliers and educational videos in multiple languages to help refugees understand the new rules (ed: about the coronavirus). The Danish Refugee Council used Facebook to help refugee students with their homework by matching them with local volunteers. Refugees took initiatives … through social media groups created to translate information, news and new rules.</p>
<p>Refugee parents with kids in school experience new challenges with remote teaching, and try to use the (refugee council) groups to help. My friend Reem told me about her difficulties communicating with her daughter’s school through the school app because it is in Danish.</p>
<p>The refugees and the Danes say the coronavirus crisis is creating a kind of unity among people. It shows how the world is interconnected and everybody learns lessons about taking care of each other. </p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/0nwnYjANOGM?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">In this video from the U.N.’s High Commission on Refugees, the students of Za’atari refugee camp in Jordan continue their education despite the closure of the 32 schools in the camp to prevent the spread of the coronavirus.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Zimbabwe</h2>
<p><em>In recent years, some of the people who fled Zimbabwe during then-<a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/09/06/obituaries/robert-mugabe-dead.html">President Mugabe’s dictatorship</a> have begun returning. But the economy, power supply and health care system <a href="https://www.npr.org/2020/04/08/830205827/lockdown-ordered-in-zimbabwe-where-the-economy-and-health-care-already-suffer">are all in desperate straits</a>. Tash came back to “Zim” 17 years after her family was forced to leave their farm during <a href="https://qz.com/africa/1152276/zimbabwes-white-farmers-kicked-out-by-mugabe-will-be-compensated-by-mnangagwa/">Mugabe’s expulsions of white farmers</a>. She wrote from Harare:</em></p>
<p>Zim has been in lockdown now for three weeks and only critical industries like food stores and farming are allowed to operate. The government is applying the rules to both formal and informal sectors, which is a relief. Many people are concerned about our dilapidated health system, but I think we could prevent a major outbreak if people continue to take the lockdown seriously – which they have been doing, amazingly. Social media has reached the rural population.</p>
<p>Perhaps because our economy is so broken, shutting down has not had such a big impact. Our private sector is good at self-regulating and caring for their employees. Many businesses gave hand sanitizer and masks to their workers and some even closed before the lockdown so their staff wouldn’t have to risk travel on public transport. Businesses and money transfers don’t require physical transactions – things continue through WhatsApp. If anything, the shutdown has made life easier, with less pressure on ZESA (Zimbabwe Electrical Supply Company), we have had power all week!</p>
<p>Most people don’t have the means to panic-buy so the shops are still in good stock. People don’t stress about finding fuel (we are only allowed within 5 km radius; the police check and arrest people who go beyond) and many people are walking as they have the time. However, I feel removed living in the “suburbs” with a pantry full of food.</p>
<h2>Serbia</h2>
<p><em>Serbia has almost <a href="https://data2.unhcr.org/en/documents/download/75271">9,000 refugees</a>, mostly from Afghanistan, Syria, Pakistan and Bangladesh, who are seeking to move deeper into Europe but are stuck in Serbia. Our Serbian researcher, Teodora, wrote from Belgrade, with a description of how aid organizations, known as NGOs, stopped working after the pandemic began:</em></p>
<p>Almost all humanitarian NGOs withdrew from the field, the Commissariat and one NGO in Belgrade are the only ones working. MSF (Doctors Without Borders) have also withdrawn – they were providing showers and laundry for migrants who live outside reception centers. Migrants in reception centers have water and soap, but not gloves and masks (except what they sew themselves). Lots of people live in a same room (up to 10). They are completely isolated and not able to go anywhere. There are often demonstrations and sometimes violent protests organized by migrants in reception centers. They don’t understand that Serbian people are in quarantine too, and the shops are closed. So, they are angry, thinking that they are simply victims of racism (which is not completely untrue).</p>
<h2>Canada</h2>
<p><em>Canada has resettled <a href="https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2019/06/19/canada-now-leads-the-world-in-refugee-resettlement-surpassing-the-u-s/">thousands of Syrian refugees</a>. One of them, Noor, reflected on what the pandemic and lockdown is like for refugees living with past trauma and psychosocial problems:</em></p>
<p>It’s not like the war; the war was easier. When we were in Syria, we knew where the attacks would be, and we could move or hide. Not with a virus … We can’t see it. We don’t know where the danger is. During the war we didn’t isolate (ourselves).</p>
<h2>South Africa</h2>
<p><em>South Africa <a href="http://reporting.unhcr.org/node/37">hosts almost 273,000 refugees and asylum seekers</a> from different African countries, including Zimbabwe, Somalia and Eritrea. Barnabas, a Zimbabwean university student living in Makhanda, wrote:</em></p>
<p>The best decision I made this year was to move out of the university residence. When President Cyril Ramaphosa announced South Africa’s lockdown the university administration ordered those in residence to vacate in less than 24 hours. International students were ordered to leave even though there were hardly any flights and some countries were already under lockdown. There was panicking and anxiety among us, even though we were eventually allowed to stay.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/331142/original/file-20200428-110785-e7vrzr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/331142/original/file-20200428-110785-e7vrzr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/331142/original/file-20200428-110785-e7vrzr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/331142/original/file-20200428-110785-e7vrzr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/331142/original/file-20200428-110785-e7vrzr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/331142/original/file-20200428-110785-e7vrzr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/331142/original/file-20200428-110785-e7vrzr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/331142/original/file-20200428-110785-e7vrzr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Refugees sleep on a sidewalk in Cape Town, South Africa, Friday, March 27, 2020, after South Africa went into a nationwide lockdown for 21 days.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.apimages.com/metadata/Index/Virus-Outbreak-South-Africa/23a905b96a9b4ed8832aace172385692/1/0">AP/Nardus Engelbrecht</a></span>
</figcaption>
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<p>Since the lockdown, I have remained holed up at my place. Videos of soldiers and the police kicking those who have dared to walk on the streets during the lockdown have been circulating on social media. As an immigrant, I would not want to be on the streets.</p>
<p>Many immigrants work as Uber drivers and waiters, but Uber service is barred, and those depending on tips have no income. Most spaza shop (an informal convenience store) operators in the townships are Somalis and Ethiopians. However, when the Minister of Small Business Development announced which shops should remain open, it was only shops owned by South African nationals, and only they would be compensated for losses. That means immigrants will struggle to raise money to rent the premises they occupy in townships.</p>
<p>It’s interesting how unity has emerged among Zimbabweans here. They are usually a divided community, but now they are mobilizing resources using social media groups like ‘Zimbabweans in Cape Town’ and helping each other buy food and pay rent.</p>
<h2>Costa Rica</h2>
<p><em><a href="https://www.unhcr.org/5d08d7ee7.pdf">Costa Rica officially has 37,000 refugees and asylum seekers</a>, but so-called “<a href="https://migrationdataportal.org/themes/irregular-migration">irregular migrants</a>,” many from African countries, fly to a South American country, then travel north and transit Costa Rica en route to the U.S. On March 18, the government closed its borders and began enforcing strict controls. Michelle, an aid worker in San Jose, wrote:</em></p>
<p>I’m pretty annoyed with border controls and government double talk, it’s obvious that when they close borders many migrants are going to transit through the blind spots. The president has ordered that any migrant resident that leaves the country in the next months will lose [their residence] condition, i.e. permission to be in the country.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/331154/original/file-20200428-110761-g4nge8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/331154/original/file-20200428-110761-g4nge8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/331154/original/file-20200428-110761-g4nge8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=368&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/331154/original/file-20200428-110761-g4nge8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=368&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/331154/original/file-20200428-110761-g4nge8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=368&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/331154/original/file-20200428-110761-g4nge8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=463&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/331154/original/file-20200428-110761-g4nge8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=463&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/331154/original/file-20200428-110761-g4nge8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=463&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Nicaraguan and Cuban homeless migrants demonstrate outside the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees office, demanding help amid the new coronavirus pandemic, in San Jose on April 21, 2020.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/nicaraguan-and-cuban-homeless-migrants-demonstrate-outside-news-photo/1210615140?adppopup=true">Getty/Ezequiel Becerra / AFP</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>As of March 22, the migration police have deported 511 migrants across the northern border with Nicaragua. At the southern border with Panama, the government accepted 2,600 African and Haitian migrants and took them to a detention center in the north, because Costa Rican authorities apparently could not contain the flow.</p>
<h2>Jordan</h2>
<p><em>Jordan hosts some <a href="https://www.unhcr.org/jo/12449-unhcr-continues-to-support-refugees-in-jordan-throughout-2019.html">745,000 mostly Syrian refugees</a>. This is a high number, but not as high as Lebanon, which hosts some 1.5 million Syrian refugees. More than 80% live outside refugee camps, in Jordan’s towns and cities. Ruby, a Jordanian aid worker in Amman, writes:</em></p>
<p>Prices of essential items have increased with serious consequences for both refugees and poor Jordanians. The Jordanian government has set price ceilings for essential goods like groceries and announced penalties for noncompliance. Some landlords show understanding and have accepted delaying rents for the current month. Some restaurant owners provide free meals for volunteer youth … Students continue their education through the electronic platforms launched by the Ministry of Education, and through the private TV channel, but some Syrians struggle to pay for internet cards.</p>
<p>[<em>Get facts about coronavirus and the latest research.</em> <a href="https://theconversation.com/us/newsletters?utm_source=TCUS&utm_medium=inline-link&utm_campaign=newsletter-text&utm_content=upper-coronavirus-facts">Sign up for The Conversation’s newsletter.</a>]</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/136925/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>From getting schooling for their children through an app in the wrong language to trouble finding gloves and masks, refugees across the globe face different challenges in dealing with the coronavirus.Karen Jacobsen, Henry J. Leir Chair in Global Migration, Fletcher School of Law & Diplomacy, Tufts UniversityCharles Simpson, Program Administrator, Feinstein International Center, Tufts UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1291002019-12-28T00:46:27Z2019-12-28T00:46:27ZClimate change: six positive news stories from 2019<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/308106/original/file-20191220-11929-nf97n8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Hydroelectric power has helped Costa Rica ditch fossil fuels.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">John E Anderson / shutterstock</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>The climate breakdown continues. Over the past year, The Conversation has covered <a href="https://theconversation.com/amazon-fires-explained-what-are-they-why-are-they-so-damaging-and-how-can-we-stop-them-122340">fires in the Amazon</a>, melting <a href="https://theconversation.com/amazon-fires-are-causing-glaciers-in-the-andes-to-melt-even-faster-128023">glaciers in the Andes</a> and <a href="https://theconversation.com/greenland-has-lost-3-8-trillion-tonnes-of-ice-since-1992-127752">Greenland</a>, <a href="https://theconversation.com/global-emissions-to-hit-36-8-billion-tonnes-beating-last-years-record-high-128113">record CO₂ emissions</a>, and temperatures so hot they’re pushing the human body to its <a href="https://theconversation.com/heatwave-think-its-hot-in-europe-the-human-body-is-already-close-to-thermal-limits-elsewhere-121003">thermal limits</a>. Even the big UN climate talks were largely <a href="https://theconversation.com/un-climate-action-summit-missed-a-key-ingredient-climate-action-124060">disappointing</a>.</p>
<p>But climate researchers have not given up hope. We asked a few Conversation authors to highlight some more positive stories from 2019.</p>
<h2>Costa Rica offers us a viable climate future</h2>
<p><strong><em>Heather Alberro, associate lecturer in political ecology, Nottingham Trent University</em></strong></p>
<p>After decades of climate talks, including the recent COP25 in Madrid, emissions have only continued to rise. Indeed, a recent UN report noted that a fivefold increase in current national climate change mitigation efforts would be needed to meet the 1.5°C limit on warming by 2030. With the radical transformations needed in our global transport, housing, agricultural and energy systems in order to help mitigate looming climate and ecological breakdown, it can be easy to lose hope. </p>
<p>However, countries like Costa Rica offer us promising examples of the “possible”. The Central American nation has implemented a refreshingly ambitious plan to completely <a href="https://www.2050pathways.org/costa-rica-launches-decarbonisation-plan/">decarbonise its economy by 2050</a>. In the lead-up to this, last year with its economy still growing at 3%, Costa Rica was able to derive <a href="https://ticotimes.net/2019/09/24/costa-rica-will-run-on-more-than-98-renewable-energy-for-fifth-consecutive-year-government-says">98% of its electricity from renewable sources</a>. Such an example demonstrates that with sufficient political will, it is possible to meet the daunting challenges ahead.</p>
<h2>Financial investors are cooling on fossil fuels</h2>
<p><em><strong>Richard Hodgkins, senior lecturer in physical geography, Loughborough University</strong></em></p>
<p>Movements such as <a href="https://350.org/">350.org</a> have long argued for fossil fuel divestment, but they have recently been joined by institutional investors such as <a href="http://www.climateaction100.org/">Climate Action 100+</a>, which is using the influence of its US$35 trillion of managed funds, arguing that minimising climate breakdown risks and maximising renewables’ growth opportunities are a fiduciary duty. </p>
<p>Moody’s credit-rating agency recently flagged ExxonMobil for falling revenues despite rising expenditure, <a href="https://ieefa.org/ieefa-update-moodys-adjusts-exxonmobil-credit-rating-to-negative/">noting</a>: “The negative outlook also reflects the emerging threat to oil and gas companies’ profitability […] from growing efforts by many nations to mitigate the impacts of climate change through tax and regulatory policies.” </p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/308107/original/file-20191220-11919-1jfq9ie.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/308107/original/file-20191220-11919-1jfq9ie.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/308107/original/file-20191220-11919-1jfq9ie.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/308107/original/file-20191220-11919-1jfq9ie.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/308107/original/file-20191220-11919-1jfq9ie.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/308107/original/file-20191220-11919-1jfq9ie.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/308107/original/file-20191220-11919-1jfq9ie.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/308107/original/file-20191220-11919-1jfq9ie.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">An oil pipeline in northern Alaska.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">saraporn / shutterstock</span></span>
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<p>A more adverse financial environment for fossil fuel companies reduces the likelihood of new development in business frontier regions <a href="http://theconversation.com/arctic-breakdown-what-climate-change-in-the-far-north-means-for-%20the-rest-of-us-123309">such as the Arctic</a>, and indeed, major investment bank <a href="https://www.goldmansachs.com/s/environmental-policy-framework/#climateChangeGuidelines">Goldman Sachs</a> has declared that it “will decline any financing transaction that directly supports new upstream Arctic oil exploration or development”.</p>
<h2>We are getting much better at forecasting disaster</h2>
<p><em><strong>Hannah Cloke, professor of hydrology, University of Reading</strong></em></p>
<p>In March and April 2019, two enormous tropical cyclones hit the south-east coast of Africa, killing <a href="https://www.unocha.org/southern-and-eastern-africa-rosea/cyclones-idai-and-kenneth">more than 600 people</a> and leaving nearly 2 million people in desperate need of emergency aid.</p>
<p>There isn’t much that is positive about that, and there’s nothing new about cyclones. But this time scientists were able to provide the first <a href="https://research.reading.ac.uk/research-blog/flood-forecasting-science/">early warning of the impending flood disaster</a> by linking together accurate medium-range forecasts of the cyclone with the best ever simulations of flood risk. This meant that the UK government, for example, set about working with aid agencies in the region to start delivering emergency supplies to the area that would flood, all before Cyclone Kenneth had even gathered pace in the Indian Ocean.</p>
<p>We know that the risk of dangerous floods is increasing as the climate continues to change. Even with ambitious action to reduce greenhouse gases, we must deal with the impact of a warmer more chaotic world. We will have to continue using the best available science to prepare ourselves for whatever is likely to come over the horizon. </p>
<h2>Local authorities across the world are declaring a ‘climate emergency’</h2>
<p><strong><em>Marc Hudson, researcher in sustainable consumption, University of Manchester</em></strong></p>
<p>More than <a href="https://climateemergencydeclaration.org/climate-emergency-declarations-cover-15-million-citizens/">1,200 local authorities around the world</a> declared a “climate emergency” in 2019. I think there are <a href="https://climateemergencymanchester.net/2019/05/19/how-declaring-a-climate-emergency-could-go-very-horribly-wrong/">two obvious dangers</a>: first, it invites authoritarian responses (stop breeding! Stop criticising our plans for geoengineering!). And second, an “emergency” declaration may simply be a greenwash followed by business-as-usual. </p>
<p>In Manchester, where I live and research, the City Council is greenwashing. A nice declaration in July was followed by more flights for staff (to places just a few hours away by train), and further car parks and roads. The deadline for a “<a href="https://climateemergencymanchester.net/2019/12/17/comments-on-the-climate-report-to-manchester-city-council-executive-19th-december-2019/">bring zero-carbon date forward?</a>” report has been ignored. </p>
<p>But these civic declarations have also kicked off a wave of civic activism, as campaigners have found city councils easier to hold to account than national governments. I’m part of an activist group called “Climate Emergency Manchester” – we inform citizens and lobby councillors. We’ve <a href="https://climateemergencymanchester.net/2019/10/09/new-report-manchester-city-council-a-dead-tortoise-society-on-climate-change/">assessed progress so far</a>, based on Freedom of Information Act requests, and produced a “<a href="https://climateemergencymanchester.net/2019/10/21/report-with-love-and-rockets-dozens-dozens-of-practical-deliverable-and-immediate-climate-actions-for-manchester/">what could be done?</a>” report. As the council falls further behind on its promises, we will be stepping up our activity, trying to pressure it to do the right thing.</p>
<h2>Radical climate policy goes mainstream</h2>
<p><em><strong>Dénes Csala, lecturer in energy system dynamics, Lancaster University</strong></em></p>
<p>Before the 2019 UK general election, I <a href="https://theconversation.com/energy-expert-heres-where-boris-johnson-and-jeremy-corbyns-climate-pledges-leave-the-planet-127635">compared the Conservative and Labour election manifestos</a>, from a climate and energy perspective. Although the party with the clearly weaker plan won eventually, I am still stubborn enough to be hopeful with regard to the future of political action on climate change. </p>
<p>For the first time, in a major economy, a leading party’s manifesto had at its core climate action, transport electrification and full energy system decarbonisation, all on a timescale compatible with IPCC directives to avoid catastrophic climate change. This means the discussion that has been cooking at the highest levels since the 2015 Paris Agreement has started to boil down into tangible policies. </p>
<h2>Young people are on the march!</h2>
<p><em><strong>Mark Maslin, professor of earth system science, UCL</strong></em></p>
<p>In 2019, public awareness of climate change rose sharply, driven by the schools strikes, Extinction Rebellion, high impact IPCC reports, improved media coverage, a BBC One climate change documentary and the UK and other governments declaring a climate emergency. Two recent polls suggest that over <a href="https://bigthink.com/politics-current-affairs/climate-change-poll-americans">75% of Americans accept humans have caused climate change</a>.</p>
<p>Empowerment of the first truly <a href="https://theconversation.com/theyll-give-me-a-detention-but-itll-be-worth-it-a-climate-scientist-interviews-his-climate-striking-daughter-117689">globalised generation</a> has catalysed this new urgency. Young people can access knowledge at the click of a button. They know climate change science is real and see through the <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-five-corrupt-pillars-of-climate-change-denial-122893">deniers’ lies</a> because this generation does not access traditional media – in fact, they bypass it.</p>
<p>The awareness and concern regarding climate change will continue to grow. Next year will be an even bigger year as the UK will chair the <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-madrid-climate-talks-failed-spectacularly-heres-what-went-down-128921">UN climate change negotiations</a> in Glasgow – and expectation are running high.</p>
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<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/263883/original/file-20190314-28475-1mzxjur.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/263883/original/file-20190314-28475-1mzxjur.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=140&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/263883/original/file-20190314-28475-1mzxjur.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=140&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/263883/original/file-20190314-28475-1mzxjur.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=140&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/263883/original/file-20190314-28475-1mzxjur.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=176&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/263883/original/file-20190314-28475-1mzxjur.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=176&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/263883/original/file-20190314-28475-1mzxjur.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=176&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<p><em><a href="https://theconversation.com/imagine-newsletter-researchers-think-of-a-world-with-climate-action-113443?utm_source=TCUK&utm_medium=linkback&utm_campaign=TCUKengagement&utm_content=Imagineheader1129100">Click here to subscribe to our climate action newsletter. Climate change is inevitable. Our response to it isn’t.</a></em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/129100/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Dénes Csala receives funding from The Faraday Institution.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Hannah Cloke works with local flood groups and advises local and national government on flood emergencies. Her flood research is funded by the Natural Environment Research Council, the European Commission's Horizon 2020 programme.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Marc Hudson is the social media editor for the academic journal Environmental Politics. He is a member of Climate Emergency Manchester, which is trying to get Manchester City Council to implement its many fine words on the climate emergency.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Mark Maslin is a Founding Director of Rezatec Ltd, Director of The London NERC Doctoral Training Partnership and a member of Cheltenham Science Festival Advisory Committee. He is an unpaid member of the Sopra-Steria CSR Board. He has received grant funding in the past from the NERC, EPSRC, ESRC, Royal Society, DIFD, DECC, FCO, Innovate UK, Carbon Trust, UK Space Agency, European Space Agency, Wellcome Trust, Leverhulme Trust and British Council. He has received research funding in the past from The Lancet, Laithwaites, Seventh Generation, Channel 4, JLT Re, WWF, Hermes, CAFOD and Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Heather Alberro and Richard Hodgkins do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>We asked some climate researchers what kept them hopeful in 2019.Heather Alberro, Associate Lecturer/PhD Candidate in Political Ecology, Nottingham Trent UniversityDénes Csala, Lecturer in Energy Storage Systems Dynamics, Lancaster UniversityHannah Cloke, Professor of Hydrology, University of ReadingMarc Hudson, Researcher in Sustainable Consumption, University of ManchesterMark Maslin, Professor of Earth System Science, UCLRichard Hodgkins, Senior Lecturer in Physical Geography, Loughborough UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1117092019-03-05T22:13:08Z2019-03-05T22:13:08ZWhy your tourist brain may try to drown you<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/312321/original/file-20200128-81403-18t4qza.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=125%2C206%2C4940%2C3781&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Tourist are a high-risk group for drownings.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Shutterstock)</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>During the mid-winter break, many vacationers head south to sandy beaches and turquoise waters. But in their efforts to unwind — and warm up — they often put themselves at risk of drowning by committing a simple cognitive error referred to as “tourist brain.” </p>
<p>Tourist brain occurs when visual cues in unfamiliar places coax vacationers into taking risks. Recent studies suggest that tourists think <a href="https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-58304-4_24">beach access points and resorts are located adjacent to safe swimming areas</a>, particularly when <a href="https://doi.org/10.1007/s11069-018-3424-7">visual cues such as manicured paths and promotional posters promote swimming at those locations</a>. </p>
<p>There is a tendency for tourists to believe that tour guides know whether a beach is dangerous and that their <a href="https://doi.org/10.1007/s11069-015-1626-9">suggestions on where to swim is based on safety</a>. </p>
<p>In Costa Rica, for example, about 20 tourists drown each year. Most of those drownings involve tourists from the United States, Canada and Germany. The beaches of Costa Rica aren’t any more dangerous than others — the number of tourists who drown in other popular destinations is simply not known or reported. </p>
<h2>Why tourists drown</h2>
<p>Tourists are a high-risk group for drownings. They’re generally <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tourman.2017.06.017">unfamiliar with the beach and its safety measures</a>, and have <a href="https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1753-6405.2012.00888.x">poor knowledge of beach hazards such as rip currents and breaking waves</a>. This lack of knowledge is further exacerbated by language barriers, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/00049182.2014.953735">overconfidence in swimming ability</a> and the tendency to make unwise swimming decisions after <a href="https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1753-6405.2009.00367.x">too many beers and umbrella drinks</a>.</p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/258934/original/file-20190214-1758-15b99a8.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/258934/original/file-20190214-1758-15b99a8.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/258934/original/file-20190214-1758-15b99a8.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/258934/original/file-20190214-1758-15b99a8.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/258934/original/file-20190214-1758-15b99a8.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/258934/original/file-20190214-1758-15b99a8.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/258934/original/file-20190214-1758-15b99a8.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/258934/original/file-20190214-1758-15b99a8.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Visual cues such as this palm-lined walkway can draw you to the water. While one of the signs warns hotel guests to be careful swimming, the design makes it appear that swimming is encouraged. At the end of this pathway is a series of semi-permanent rip currents along a beach popular with tourists on the Pacific coast of Costa Rica.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Chris Houser)</span></span>
</figcaption>
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<p>Many visitors simply do not think about water safety because beaches also offer plenty of distraction and temptation — drinks, vendors and people watching. </p>
<p>Many beaches popular with tourists do not have lifeguards or systems in place to warn beach users about dangerous waves, fast-changing tidal conditions, dangerous marine life such as sharks and jellyfish, and rip currents. Rip currents are believed to be <a href="https://doi.org/10.5194/nhess-19-389-2019">the primary reason for rescues and drownings on recreational beaches in the U.S.</a> and around the world.</p>
<p>Beachgoers should heed the warnings and directions of lifeguards. The number of rescues and drownings may be greater when <a href="https://www.nat-hazards-earth-syst-sci.net/19/2541/2019/">lifeguards are perceived as being overly cautious</a>. Remember, lifeguards are trained to spot hazards and issue warnings, even when conditions may look safe to the untrained eye. </p>
<h2>Rip spotting</h2>
<p>Rip currents (commonly referred to as rips or colloquially as rip tides) are found on ocean beaches and some large lakes around the world. Driven by the breaking of waves, these currents extend away from the shoreline and can flow at speeds easily capable of carrying swimmers far from the beach. </p>
<p>While it can be difficult to spot a rip, they can be identified by an area of relatively calm water between breaking waves, a patch of darker water or the offshore flow of water, sediment and debris.</p>
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<p>A person caught in a rip is transported away from shore into deeper waters, but not pulled under the water. If they are a weak swimmer or try to fight the current, they may panic and fail to find a way out of the rip and back to shore. </p>
<h2>Peer pressure</h2>
<p>Even when people are aware of rip currents and other beach hazards, they may not make the right decisions. Despite the presence of warnings, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1007/s11069-018-3424-7">our actions are greatly influenced by the behaviour of others</a>, peer pressure and group think. The social cost of not entering the water with the group may appear to outweigh the risk posed by entering the water. </p>
<p>College students on spring break or <a href="https://eric.ed.gov/?id=EJ1123187">taking part in study abroad programs are prone to taking risks when on the beach</a>. Their actions are guided by peer participation, sensation seeking and perceived benefits of being part of the group. Weak swimmers will put themselves in danger by following the group into breaking waves and deeper water. Young men are the most at risk for following the group and putting themselves in a dangerous situation. </p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/258942/original/file-20190214-1730-1pyhbr1.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/258942/original/file-20190214-1730-1pyhbr1.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/258942/original/file-20190214-1730-1pyhbr1.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/258942/original/file-20190214-1730-1pyhbr1.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/258942/original/file-20190214-1730-1pyhbr1.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/258942/original/file-20190214-1730-1pyhbr1.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=565&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/258942/original/file-20190214-1730-1pyhbr1.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=565&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/258942/original/file-20190214-1730-1pyhbr1.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=565&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Respondents to a survey believed this beach was safe because people were on the beach and in the water. The rip current in the centre of the photograph was flowing at 1.5 meters per second.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Chris Houser)</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>In recent years, a large number of highly publicized drownings have involved students studying abroad. In 2011, for example, <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/costa-rica-finds-body-of-us-student-missing-at-sea/2011/05/06/AFwKiSDG_story.html">three teenagers from Ohio were swept out to sea</a> at <a href="https://doi.org/10.1007/s11069-015-1626-9">Playa Bejuco on the central Pacific coast of Costa Rica</a> and drowned. </p>
<h2>Confirmation bias among beachgoers</h2>
<p>Dangerous currents are not present everywhere or at all times on the beach — the risk is different every time and every place you enter the water.</p>
<p>If someone enters the water and does not encounter strong waves or currents, they’re more likely to engage in risky behaviour the next day and the next, and so on. The behaviour of beach users is affected by confirmation bias, a cognitive shortcut where a person selectively pays attention to evidence confirming their preexisting beliefs and ignores evidence to the contrary. </p>
<p>Simply put, people believe, “If I did not drown or need rescue in the past, I will not drown or need rescue today or in the future.” </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/262181/original/file-20190305-48423-po7k99.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/262181/original/file-20190305-48423-po7k99.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/262181/original/file-20190305-48423-po7k99.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/262181/original/file-20190305-48423-po7k99.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/262181/original/file-20190305-48423-po7k99.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/262181/original/file-20190305-48423-po7k99.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/262181/original/file-20190305-48423-po7k99.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">How to escape a rip current.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Pixabay)</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p><a href="https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1753-6405.2012.00888.x">Tourists are three times less likely to make safe swimming choices than residents and regular beachgoers from the region</a>.</p>
<p>Vacationers can stay safe only if they are aware that beaches at tourist destinations may be dangerous. They should swim at beaches patrolled by lifeguards who will rescue and <a href="https://stacks.cdc.gov/view/cdc/11284">intervene when someone puts themselves at risk</a>. </p>
<p>Just because a beach is accessible, has numerous attractions and is near to a resort, does not make it safe.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/111709/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Chris Houser has received funding from Texas Sea Grant, Florida Sea Grant, and the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council (NSERC) of Canada. </span></em></p>Just because a beach is accessible, has restaurants, lounge chairs and vendors, and is near a resort, does not mean it’s safe.Chris Houser, Professor of Earth and Environmental Science, and Dean of Science, University of WindsorLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1098412019-01-17T12:09:52Z2019-01-17T12:09:52ZSloths are far more adaptable than we realised<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/253716/original/file-20190114-43520-ov3lxa.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=12%2C24%2C4013%2C2655&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Parkol / shutterstock</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Unless you live in the tropical rainforests of South or Central America, most of the sloths you’ll encounter will be two-toed sloths. This is because they are able to eat <a href="https://search.proquest.com/docview/1664832565?accountid=11814">quite a varied diet</a> and are therefore relatively easy to keep in captivity. Their relatives, the three-toed sloths, on the other hand, have a very restricted diet, subsisting solely on <em>Cecropia:</em> a group of fast-growing tree species with soft wood and large, juicy leaves. </p>
<p>Or so it has always been thought. A paper published today by the <a href="https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/rspb.2018.2206">Royal Society</a> gives quite a different picture of the lifestyle of three-toed sloths.</p>
<p>The authors of the paper looked at how the availability of different tree species, including those of the genus <em>Cecropia</em>, affected the survival and reproduction rates of sloths. Given that these trees are the sloths’ favourite food, this specialist sloth species might be expected to spend most of its time in them. However, the authors found that at certain life stages, sloths may desert their favoured tree for other species.</p>
<p>Density of <em>Cecropia</em> is critical to the survival and reproductive success of adults, especially the males, but was not correlated with survival rates of juveniles. The authors attribute the differing importance of <em>Cecropia</em> at different life stages to the shape and growth habits of the tree, and they give a detailed analysis of its effects.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/254137/original/file-20190116-163292-o5n1wh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/254137/original/file-20190116-163292-o5n1wh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/254137/original/file-20190116-163292-o5n1wh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=383&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/254137/original/file-20190116-163292-o5n1wh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=383&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/254137/original/file-20190116-163292-o5n1wh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=383&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/254137/original/file-20190116-163292-o5n1wh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=481&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/254137/original/file-20190116-163292-o5n1wh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=481&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/254137/original/file-20190116-163292-o5n1wh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=481&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption"><em>Cecropia</em> trees grow quickly to fill any gaps in the forest canopy.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Wagner Campelo / shutterstock</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Because <em>Cecropia</em> species grow fast and produce lots of leaves with <a href="https://esajournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.2307/1942495">few chemical defences</a> rather than a few leaves that are defended by a lot of toxins, there are always young, palatable, easily-digestible leaves available for adult sloths. The leaves also contain essential nutrients that keep sloths in good health, which would suggest that juveniles should also favour them. </p>
<p><em>Cecropia</em> foliage consists of a fan of large leaves at the end of a long stem or branch with no other leaves on it, giving it an “open structure”. This means the tree does not make a good hiding place for young sloths, who may be more vulnerable than adults to predators like jaguars or eagles, even though they are quite well camouflaged. Similarly, mothers with babies may choose trees that have a thicker canopy as their maternity ward, moving back to the <em>Cecropia</em> tree when the baby is older. </p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/253713/original/file-20190114-43544-1hvbye2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/253713/original/file-20190114-43544-1hvbye2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/253713/original/file-20190114-43544-1hvbye2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=900&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/253713/original/file-20190114-43544-1hvbye2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=900&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/253713/original/file-20190114-43544-1hvbye2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=900&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/253713/original/file-20190114-43544-1hvbye2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1131&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/253713/original/file-20190114-43544-1hvbye2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1131&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/253713/original/file-20190114-43544-1hvbye2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1131&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Algae growing on their fur helps sloths blend in.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Kjersti Joergensen / shutterstock</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>This open structure is important when it comes to mating. Sloths are solitary creatures with <a href="http://www.scielo.br/scielo.php?pid=S0100-879X2000000200001&script=sci_arttext&tlng=es">extremely poor vision</a> and, when the time is right, they need to find a mate from a widely dispersed population. Since the males are not equipped to go rushing around the forest looking for a receptive female, it is vital that they are able to be seen and heard when communicating their intentions to the local females. The relatively sparse foliage of <em>Cecropia</em> species is ideal for this, allowing the mating calls of the lonely males to travel much further than in the denser canopy of other trees.</p>
<p>The authors of this paper suggest that, when necessary, three-toed sloths are able to live in habitats that are less high quality than virgin forest. Young sloths and nursing mothers may use tree species that are less nutritious than <em>Cecropia</em> in order to avoid the risk of predation, and in conservation terms, that may mean that they can exist on a less specialised diet if it is necessary to move or breed away from their natural habitat.</p>
<h2>Thriving in less specialised habitats</h2>
<p>This may be an important finding for sloths in the wild, since cocoa cultivation is a very present factor in their environment. Cocoa trees require a shady environment and, in Brazil, are <a href="http://www.cacaoforest.org/news/cocoaagroforestry">traditionally grown</a> as an understory layer beneath native forest trees. This is <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1616504710000984">great news for the three-toed sloth</a> as these areas of “agroforest” provide both the open structured <em>Cecropia</em> trees and a variety of other, denser canopied species, so can accommodate all the life stages of the sloth. Because they are of commercial use to humans, the cocoa trees are also less likely to be felled, so the habitat is relatively secure. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/254148/original/file-20190116-163280-19jpoyb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/254148/original/file-20190116-163280-19jpoyb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/254148/original/file-20190116-163280-19jpoyb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/254148/original/file-20190116-163280-19jpoyb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/254148/original/file-20190116-163280-19jpoyb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/254148/original/file-20190116-163280-19jpoyb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/254148/original/file-20190116-163280-19jpoyb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/254148/original/file-20190116-163280-19jpoyb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Chilling in <em>Cecropia</em>.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Josanel Sugasti / Shutterstock</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Until now, it has been thought that three-toed sloths are not able to make use of this agro-forest as two-toed sloths can, but this paper suggests otherwise. Since the <a href="https://www.iucn.org/news/forests/201712/supporting-cacao-production-and-restoration-brazil">agro-forestry project in Brazil</a> has an ultimate goal of 557,500 hectares of forest being used for cocoa production, it is important that sloths are able to make use of this habitat for at least part of their life cycle. The authors suggest that targeted conservation efforts, such as planting <em>Cecropia</em> trees as part of cocoa agro-forestry, could help sloths in areas such as Costa Rica, where they are of conservation concern. </p>
<p>This study may have significance for the conservation of other “specialised” herbivores across the globe, if it is found that sloths are not the only animal to be able to survive on less favoured plants. The authors remark that forests that are regenerating are better able to support specialist species than we thought – and given the current levels of deforestation globally, this must surely give us some hope for the future.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/sloths-arent-lazy-their-slowness-is-a-survival-skill-63568">Sloths aren't lazy – their slowness is a survival skill</a>
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<img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/109841/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Jan Hoole does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Sloths love Cecropia trees. But a new study shows they may sometimes desert their favourite for other species.Jan Hoole, Lecturer in Biology, Keele UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/949412018-04-23T15:28:30Z2018-04-23T15:28:30ZCosta Rican politics looks divided, but its people are hopeful<p>Three days after Costa Rica’s 2018 elections, the Supreme Elections Tribunal main building in San Jose was showered with flowers and grateful messages. “Thank you for the incredible work!”, read one. Another carried a drawing of crayons with a caption reading “our bullets” – a reference to the crayons Costa Ricans use to mark their ballots.</p>
<p>At the time, Costa Rica had just elected Carlos Alvarado as its new president. And at 38, he is the <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/apr/02/costa-rica-quesada-wins-presidency-in-vote-fought-on-gay-rights">youngest head of state</a> in modern Costa Rican history; he is supported by vice-president Epsy Campbell, the <a href="http://www.lavanguardia.com/politica/20180403/442165292342/costa-rica-hace-historia-con-unos-ineditos-cargos-despues-de-las-elecciones.html">first woman of African descent</a> to hold such a post anywhere in continental America. But they will have a steep hill to climb as they try to form a government: in the Legislative Assembly, Alvarado’s Citizens’ Action Party (PAC) counts <a href="https://www.nacion.com/gnfactory/especiales/2018/elecciones/elecciones.html">only ten of the 57 members of congress</a>.</p>
<p>This tough political calculus fits a pessimistic narrative that set in weeks long before Alvarado won the vote on April 2. Despite the groundbreaking nature of his candidacy and victory, international and local media has largely portrayed the election as bitterly divisive, some arguing that it fit a global trend towards increasingly polarised and irreconcilable politics. But this isn’t the whole story.</p>
<p>The elections produced a remarkable renewal of pride in the country’s longstanding democratic processes. The flowers and messages left at the tribunal building convey the deep respect and trust Costa Ricans have for their primary electoral institution, which ranks <a href="https://electoralintegrityproject.com/">fifth in the world</a> on electoral credibility and efficiency. Yet outside the country, little has been told so far about how the elections helped restore this respect and trust – and the extent to which Costa Ricans themselves took the initiative to preserve the health of their precious democracy.</p>
<p>Right after the election’s inconclusive first round, all sorts of grassroots movements and initiatives started to crop up. One was an online movement called Adopt a Deputy, which tried to organise citizens to be “responsible” for particular deputies in the Legislative Assembly, to follow up on their performance and to promote different agendas. But an even larger initiative came in the form of a Facebook group called <a href="https://www.nacion.com/el-pais/politica/que-es-el-grupo-coalicioncostarica/CAKPAW6VJ5BRPEGQG4FUJF66PQ/story/">Coalición Costa Rica</a>. </p>
<h2>Pulling together</h2>
<p>The group was created the day after the first round of elections in February. Within 48 hours, it grew to nearly 230,000 members; by the time of the second round, it had more than 275,000. Its <a href="https://www.facebook.com/groups/183571579068881/about/">page</a> describes it this way: “This space is created in order to identify mutual problems, to create dialogue and to suggest concrete and feasible proposals.”</p>
<p>The group counts members from different political parties, and many who don’t identify with any particular party. They were united in opposition to the other leading candidate, Fabricio Alvarado Muñoz – specifically his stances on human rights, such as his opposition to gay marriage and his willingness to <a href="https://www.nacion.com/el-pais/politica/fabricio-alvarado-someteria-a-referendo-salida-del/IUY2BX4RK5DCND3IV3C5JL2L7A/story/">withdraw the country</a> from the Inter-American Court of Human Rights. Consequently, one of the group’s main objectives was to mobilise as many people as possible to vote for Carlos Alvarado instead.</p>
<p>Many people used the groups to encourage others to vote, but others went further and actually offered hospitality, opening their houses to fellow Costa Ricans who don’t live near a voting centre. The distance from the voting centres prevented many people from voting in the first round, especially those abroad. While it is possible to vote from overseas, in most countries, the only place to do so is at a Costa Rican embassy, or sometimes at a consulate. The group’s <a href="https://www.nacion.com/el-pais/politica/ticas-en-europa-alojaran-a-compatriotas-en-sus/47TH6UCZRRHWJM7MW4FQZPL2JE/story/">efforts</a> meant voters all over the world, from the UK and Ireland to Germany and beyond, found places to stay while they travelled to cast their ballots.</p>
<p>Days prior the elections, members of the group proposed different strategies to increase the votes. The group was filled with posts such as “let’s convince one member of our family each” encouraging others. Many of these tactics worked as users flooded Facebook with pictures of their loved ones after voting, adding captions like “this is my grandma, I convinced her to vote”.</p>
<h2>National unity wins</h2>
<p>On another heartening front, in the second round, <a href="https://www.nacion.com/el-pais/politica/abstencionismo-del-3309-revierte-conducta-de/TZYD5FMGJRFMZOEOH4ILBTECO4/story/">turnout was 10% higher</a> than in the first round. This bucks a trend set by the last two elections, where the second round drew fewer voters than the first. Ottón Solís, founder of the Citizen Action Party (PAC), <a href="https://www.teletica.com/190235_otton-solis-la-juventud-confio-en-nosotros-y-debemos-cumplirle-en-estos-cuatro-anos">took heart</a> on this uncommon electoral behaviour: “Even though we won this second round, the great winner here is Costa Rica. Democracy won.”</p>
<p>Ottón’s message seems to resonate with Carlos Alvarado’s plan to form a National Unity Government, one that will assemble a more democratic cabinet by including all parties represented in the Legislative Assembly. This is unprecedented in modern Costa Rican politics. That it’s happened reflects not just the divided makeup of the Legislative Assembly, but the the two finalists’ anaemic performance in the first round of the election. <a href="https://www.teletica.com/190235_otton-solis-la-juventud-confio-en-nosotros-y-debemos-cumplirle-en-estos-cuatro-anos">Speaking on TV</a>, Ottón Solis put it this way: “The country gave [the PAC] 20% in the first round and gave Fabricio 24%. I think that the message from the people was talk to each other.”</p>
<p>These efforts towards unity in the country reflect an integral part of the Costa Rican national imagination: this is a country that celebrates democracy and peace. In this year’s election, division almost became the new narrative – but in the end, these deeper values won the day.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/94941/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Layla Zaglul does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Why use bullets when you have crayons?Layla Zaglul, PhD Candidate and Doctoral Tutor in Anthropology, University of SussexLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/942462018-04-02T21:12:03Z2018-04-02T21:12:03ZCosta Rica looks a little less exceptional after its heated election<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/212826/original/file-20180402-189816-6iqpui.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Progressive values won in Costa Rica -- for now, at least.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">AP Photo/Arnulfo Franco</span></span></figcaption></figure><p><em>Leer <a href="https://theconversation.com/despues-de-una-acalorada-eleccion-costa-rica-ya-no-parece-tan-excepcional-95206">en español</a>.</em></p>
<p>Carlos Alvarado Quesada has <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/the_americas/presidential-race-in-costa-rica-may-hinge-on-same-sex-marriage/2018/04/01/c0f2acd6-7077-41fa-8520-8db24b723c9f_story.html">won the Costa Rican presidency with 61 percent of the vote</a>, an overwhelming victory for a progressive candidate who entered election day in a dead heat with his conservative rival. </p>
<p>Alvarado Quesada, a 38-year-old former labor minister under the unpopular outgoing President Luis Guillermo Solis, ran on an “<a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-costarica-election/christian-singer-faces-leftist-author-in-costa-rica-presidential-runoff-idUSKBN1FP0QE">agenda of equality</a>” that included <a href="http://www.dw.com/en/costa-rica-chooses-new-president-in-conservative-country-split-over-gay-rights/a-43218270">support for same-sex marriage, public education and renewable energy</a>. In Costa Rica, this is a rather classic political platform.</p>
<p>But his opponent, Fabricio Alvarado Munoz – an evangelical senator and former Christian musician who opposes gay marriage, secularism and sex education in schools – <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-costa-rica-election-preview/photo-finish-beckons-for-costa-rican-election-fought-on-gay-rights-idUSKBN1H52L3">won the first round of Costa Rica’s election</a> in February. The April 1 runoff was widely viewed as a referendum on social values in country historically seen as stable and progressive.</p>
<p>In a region where nearly every other nation <a href="https://www.cfr.org/backgrounder/central-americas-violent-northern-triangle">faces extreme violence</a> and has a <a href="https://www.economist.com/node/18558254">history of political unpheaval</a>, peaceable Costa Rica is sometimes called “<a href="http://www.brownpoliticalreview.org/2017/04/intervention-less-key-costa-ricas-success/">the Switzerland of Central America</a>.” Many commentators will tout Alvarado Quesada’s triumph as a confirmation of Costa Rican exceptionalism. </p>
<p>I see things differently. In the 15 years I have <a href="http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/1065912913477734">studied Central American politics</a>, deep fractures have emerged in Costa Rica’s democracy – the same social and religious tensions that were on display in the 2018 election. </p>
<p>Meanwhile, I’ve watched troubled El Salvador and Guatemala become stronger democracies. Costa Rica is still an exception, but it is closer to the Central American average than ever before. </p>
<h2>Costa Rican equality</h2>
<p>The origins of Costa Rica’s exceptionalism are often attributed to <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2014/11/countries-without-militaries/382606/">the fact that it has no military</a>. President José Figueres <a href="http://articles.latimes.com/2013/dec/15/opinion/la-oe-barash-costa-rica-demilitarization-20131208">abolished it</a> after the country’s brief 1948 civil war. </p>
<p>As a result, modern Costa Rica has seen neither the military dictatorships nor protracted civil wars that plagued <a href="https://www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/central-america-caribbean/2001-11-01/new-battle-central-america">every other Central American Country during the 20th century</a>. </p>
<p>Less defense spending has freed up the national budget, allowing Costa Rica to <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2010/oct/25/costa-rica-biodiversity">invest in gold-standard environmental protections</a> and universal public education. Its population is among <a href="https://www.unicef.org/infobycountry/costarica_statistics.html">the world’s most literate</a>.</p>
<p>Costa Rica is also <a href="http://www.worldbank.org/en/country/costarica/overview">wealthier than the rest of Central America</a>, which is one of the poorest regions on the globe. It scores as well as European nations on <a href="http://hdr.undp.org/en/data">many of the United Nations’ human development measures</a>, including gender equality. About a third of seats in Costa Rica’s legislature are <a href="http://archive.ipu.org/wmn-e/classif.htm">held by women</a>, thanks to strong <a href="http://www.panoramas.pitt.edu/news-and-politics/gender-quotas-net-positive-latin-america">gender parity laws</a>. Costa Rica <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/09/world/americas/09costarica.html">had a woman president</a>, Laura Chinchilla, from 2010 to 2014. </p>
<p>The country is also <a href="https://www.vanderbilt.edu/lapop/regional-reports.php">Central America’s least corrupt</a>. Just 9 percent of Costa Ricans reporting having experienced corruption, according to Vanderbilt University’s AmericasBarometer survey. By comparison, a quarter of Guatemalans say they’ve been the victim of corruption.</p>
<h2>The state of democracy in Costa Rica</h2>
<p>In some ways, this year’s election was in keeping with Costa Rican tradition. Turnout was <a href="https://www.as-coa.org/articles/chart-deep-dive-voter-turnout-latin-america">typically high</a> – about <a href="https://www.telesurtv.net/english/news/carlos-alvarado-wins-costa-rica-20180401-0020.html">62 percent</a>. The election was free and fair, as Costa Rica’s elections usually are. There were <a href="http://www.cdnoticias.com.mx/articulos/oficialista-carlos-alvarado-gana-eleccion-presidencial-costa-rica/mundo">none of the irregularities</a> seen in, say, <a href="https://theconversation.com/hondurass-election-crisis-is-likely-to-end-in-violence-88625">Honduras’ contested November 2017 presidential election</a>. </p>
<p>But the campaign was still unusual. Nearly 40 percent of Costa Ricans voted for an ardently anti-gay candidate from the upstart Evangelical National Restoration Party. That is consequential in a <a href="https://www.telesurtv.net/english/news/Catholicism-on-the-Decline-in-Costa-Rica-20170412-0005.html">historically secular country</a>. </p>
<p>It is also significant that <a href="https://www.telesurtv.net/english/news/Costa-Rica-Evangelical-Candidate-Leads-1st-Round-of-Voting-20180204-0037.html">neither of the two finalists for president</a> was from a mainstream political party. </p>
<p>The National Liberation Party decided to back Alvarado Quesada after he progressed to the second round of the election, but it was the <a href="http://www.oxfordscholarship.com/view/10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199289653.001.0001/acprof-9780199289653-chapter-11">first time since the party’s founding in 1951</a> that its own nominee did not compete for Costa Rica’s presidency, indicating widespread voter discontent with politics as usual.</p>
<p>Neither did the official candidate of the Social Christian Unity Party, Costa Rica’s mainstream conservative opposition, which <a href="http://www.ticotimes.net/2018/03/26/presidential-candidates-in-costa-rica-close-campaigns-with-san-jose-rallies">did not back Alvarado Munoz</a>. </p>
<p>The rise in outsider candidates and the unexpected strength of evangelical voters this year demonstrate that Costa Rica is less unified and less progressive than it once appeared. </p>
<h2>Guatemala’s outsider candidates</h2>
<p>Alvarado Quesada’s victory does not erase these fissures. Watching him lag behind a religiously conservative, tough-on-crime political outsider with pop culture roots during most of the 2018 campaign, I was actually reminded of <a href="http://www.bbc.com/news/world-latin-america-34632485">neighboring Guatemala</a>. </p>
<p>In 2015 comedian Jimmy Morales won a surprise bid for that country’s presidency. Competing against a former first lady, he ran on the slogan “<a href="https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/jimmy-morales-how-the-comedian-became-president-of-guatemala-a6810931.html">Neither corrupt nor a thief</a>.”</p>
<p>Political parties in Guatemala <a href="https://blogs.iadb.org/ideasmatter/2017/11/09/guatemala-the-crisis-of-rule-of-law-and-a-weak-party-system/">are traditionally weak</a>, so an outsider candidacy was not surprising there. In fact, many saw the Morales win as a positive sign for Guatemalan democracy. </p>
<p>Morales was elected a month and a half after President Otto Pérez Molina stepped down to <a href="http://www.americasquarterly.org/content/amazing-case-proved-latin-americas-crackdown-corruption-real">face trial on corruption charges</a>. Molina is one of hundreds of Guatemalan officials to be tried for corruption since 2007, when <a href="https://www.csmonitor.com/World/Americas/2015/0521/Guatemala-How-a-corruption-scandal-forced-the-president-s-hand">the country invited in a UN-backed anti-corruption commission</a> to clean house. </p>
<p>Today Morales, a conservative, is <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2017/08/27/world/americas/jimmy-morales-guatemala-corruption.html">himself embroiled in a corruption scandal</a>, confirming that public malfeasance remains a major political problem. </p>
<p>But the nonviolent democratic transfer of power after a presidential resignation was a <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2015/10/26/world/americas/former-tv-comedian-jimmy-morales-seems-set-to-be-elected-guatemalas-president.html">sign that peaceful change was possible in Guatemala</a>. This alone was a significant step forward for a Central American nation with a long history of conflict. </p>
<h2>El Salvador on the rise</h2>
<p>Democracy is gaining ground in troubled El Salvador, too. There, the leftist Farabundo Martí National Liberation Front (FMLN) and its main conservative opposition, ARENA, have <a href="https://www.telesurtv.net/english/analysis/El-Salvador-Legislative-Elections-Between-Left-and-Right-20180301-0020.html">participated together in politics since 1992, when peace accords brought quiet to El Salvador</a>. The two factions once fought each other in bloody civil war. </p>
<p>Under the FMLN former revolutionaries, who <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/17/world/americas/17salvador.html">have been in power since 2009</a>, El Salvador has followed a moderate political path, seeking to <a href="http://www.worldbank.org/en/country/elsalvador/overview">improve access to social services and reduce inequality</a>. </p>
<p>I believe <a href="https://blogs.iadb.org/ideasmatter/2017/10/13/a-strong-party-system-and-peace-in-el-salvador/">El Salvador has actually replaced Costa Rica as having the strongest party system in Central America</a>. This is an especially impressive achievement just 26 years after <a href="https://www.usip.org/sites/default/files/file/ElSalvador-Report.pdf">the 12-year civil war ended decades of military dictatorships</a>.</p>
<p>In a <a href="https://www.insightcrime.org/el-salvador-organized-crime-news/">country battling perhaps the world’s highest homicide rates</a>, El Salvador has also <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-el-salvador-women-rights/judge-at-new-el-salvador-womens-courts-ready-to-tackle-gender-violence-idUSKCN1B42EV">created specialized courts</a> to address violence against women. </p>
<p>More <a href="http://www.latinamerica.undp.org/content/rblac/en/home/ourwork/democratic-governance/successstories/women-gain-ground-in-el-salvadors-politics.html">Salvadoran women are getting involved in politics</a>, too. From 2003 to 2012, the number of female mayors in El Salvador increased from 15 to 28, according to United Nations data. There are 262 mayors nationwide. </p>
<h2>Toward a Central American average</h2>
<p>Guatemala and El Salvador are far from perfect democracies. As I argued in <a href="http://www.cambridge.org/us/academic/subjects/law/comparative-law/achilles-heel-democracy-judicial-autonomy-and-rule-law-central-america?format=HB&isbn=9781107178328">my recent book</a>, both still struggle to build the rule of law. Corruption and crime <a href="https://theconversation.com/in-central-america-gangs-like-ms-13-are-bad-but-corrupt-politicians-may-be-worse-86113">remain huge challenges</a>.</p>
<p>Along with Uruguay, Costa Rica is still one of just two “<a href="https://www.eiu.com/topic/democracy-index">full democracies</a>” in all Latin America, according to the Economist Intelligence Unit, which ranks countries worldwide based on civil liberties, transparency and political participation, among other measures. </p>
<p>But its neighbors are making strides. <a href="http://www.electionguide.org/countries/id/90/">60 percent of Guatemalans vote regularly</a> – just shy of the Costa Rican average. Turnout is <a href="http://www.electionguide.org/countries/id/66/">even higher in El Salvador</a>. Central America is changing. </p>
<p>So is Costa Rica. In a region where democracy is improving, the 2018 election showed that it is just a little less of a Central American exception.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/94246/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Rachel E. Bowen does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Nearly 40 percent of voters in Costa Rica supported an anti-gay evangelical for president. Maybe progressive Costa Rica is more like its troubled neighboring countries than it once seemed.Rachel E. Bowen, Associate Professor of Political Science, The Ohio State UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/917072018-03-08T11:40:40Z2018-03-08T11:40:40ZFemale presidents don’t always help women while in office, study in Latin America finds<p>When Michelle Bachelet steps down as Chile’s president on March 11, she will bring to a close not just her own administration but also an <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2017/07/24/world/americas/michelle-bachelet-president-of-chile.html">era of female leadership in Latin America</a>.</p>
<p>Between 2006 and 2018, four women <a href="https://ecommons.cornell.edu/handle/1813/51646">served as presidents in the region</a>. On the political left, Bachelet and Argentina’s Cristina Fernández both completed two terms. Brazil’s Dilma Rousseff, of the progressive Workers’ Party, was <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/aug/31/dilma-rousseff-impeached-president-brazilian-senate-michel-temer">impeached a year into her second administration</a>. And, on the center-right, Laura Chinchilla governed Costa Rica from 2011 to 2014. </p>
<p>For <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=5xSYuXcAAAAJ&hl=en&oi=ao">gender researchers</a> like <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=tIONAuEAAAAJ&hl=en&oi=ao">ourselves</a>, this is a rare chance to assess how the president’s gender influences policy in Latin American countries. Global research has confirmed that having women in the highest echelons of power leads to <a href="http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1468-2508.2006.00402.x/full">greater political engagement among women and girls</a>. We wanted to know what Latin America’s four “presidentas” had done to promote gender equality while in power. </p>
<p>Here’s what <a href="https://academic.oup.com/sp/article-abstract/24/4/345/4775169?redirectedFrom=fulltext">we</a> learned. </p>
<h2>Reproductive rights not guaranteed</h2>
<p>Prior studies had already shown that Latin America’s presidentas <a href="http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1548-2456.2016.00316.x/full">nominated more female cabinet ministers</a>, paving the way for future generations of female leaders. </p>
<p>And based on <a href="http://www.schwindt.rice.edu/pdf/publications/reyeshousholder_schwindtbayer2016_book_chapter.pdf">public opinion survey data</a>, we knew that in Latin American countries with female heads of state, women were slightly more likely to participate in local politics than in countries run by men. Latin Americans who have a woman for president are also much less likely than other respondents to say they think men make better political leaders than women.</p>
<p>But <a href="https://academic.oup.com/sp/article-abstract/24/4/345/4775169?redirectedFrom=fulltext">our new research</a> disproves the admittedly tempting idea that merely putting a woman in power improves gender equality. Other factors, including party politics and the presence of strong social movements, turn out to exert more influence on a president’s policies. </p>
<p>Take abortion, for example, which is largely outlawed in <a href="http://www.pewforum.org/2014/11/13/religion-in-latin-america/">heavily Catholic</a> Latin America. Even in the few countries, <a href="https://theconversation.com/incest-case-attests-that-in-costa-rica-abortion-is-legal-in-name-only-75766">like Costa Rica</a>, that allow women to terminate pregnancies resulting from rape, the procedure is still <a href="https://theconversation.com/in-latin-america-is-there-a-link-between-abortion-rights-and-democracy-85444">extremely difficult to obtain</a>. Fully 97 percent of Latin American women <a href="https://www.guttmacher.org/fact-sheet/abortion-latin-america-and-caribbean">cannot get safe, legal abortions</a>, leading to <a href="http://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(16)30380-4/abstract">high rates of maternal mortality</a>. </p>
<p>But attempts to ease Latin American abortion laws have historically provoked a deep conservative backlash. In Brazil, Rousseff declared her support for abortion liberalization on the campaign trail in 2010, but <a href="http://vc.bridgew.edu/jiws/vol13/iss3/8/">had to backpedal due to intense media criticism</a>. Once in office, Rousseff remained silent on reproductive rights. </p>
<p>Bachelet also shied away from the issue during her first term. The Catholic opposition was well organized and, at the time, Chile’s feminist movement was relatively weak. Bachelet focused instead on <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2006/12/17/world/americas/17chile.html">access to emergency contraception</a>. </p>
<p>By the time she ran for re-election in 2013, however, feminists had <a href="http://lapeste.org/2014/01/autoayuda-practica-el-colectivo-feminista-linea-aborto-libre/">coalesced around abortion reform</a>. They pushed Bachelet to include reproductive rights in her campaign and kept the pressure on once she was in office. In 2017 Chile made abortion <a href="https://academic.oup.com/sp/article/24/4/481/4775171">legal in cases of rape, fetal deformity or danger to a mother’s life</a>.</p>
<p>In Argentina, meanwhile, Fernández – also a leftist – actually <a href="http://www.scielo.br/scielo.php?script=sci_abstract&pid=S1984-64872016000100022&lng=en&nrm=iso&tlng=es">quashed activists’ efforts</a> to expand reproductive rights. Perhaps unsurprisingly, <a href="https://www.nacion.com/el-pais/chinchilla-opuesta-a-matrimonio-gay-aborto-y-estado-laico/YPC7XHHH6RHGLN6UQXZLNBHBG4/story/">so did the conservative Laura Chinchilla in Costa Rica</a>.</p>
<h2>Gender equality lags under populists</h2>
<p>That’s because major social change requires more than just a woman president. The kind of political party she leads matters a lot – more, in fact, than her gender.</p>
<p>The <a href="http://foreignpolicy.com/2017/10/23/populism-is-coming-for-latin-america-in-2018/">left-wing populist parties that ruled Ecuador, Argentina and Venezuela</a> during the period we analyzed made no effort to liberalize abortions. In fact, we found that populist leaders, in their <a href="http://www.bbc.com/news/world-43301423">quest to appeal to the masses</a>, actively shut out feminist activists and ignored the demands of female constituents. </p>
<p>Fernández didn’t just <a href="http://www.scielo.br/scielo.php?script=sci_abstract&pid=S1984-64872016000100022&lng=en&nrm=iso&tlng=es">uphold Argentina’s harsh abortion restrictions</a> – she actually <a href="http://lasa.international.pitt.edu/LARR/prot/fulltext/vol49no1/49-1_104-127_piscopo.pdf">cut off funding for the country’s universal contraception program</a>, too. Rather than focus on women’s issues, her Justicialist Party expanded social welfare programs, including a hallmark cash-transfer program that <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2011/sep/05/argentina-child-allowance-poor-schools">subsidizes families with young children</a>. </p>
<p>Anti-poverty policies are typical of the <a href="https://www.economist.com/news/americas/21674783-argentinas-dominant-political-brand-defined-power-not-ideology-persistence">populist Peronist movement</a> that brought Fernández and her husband, former president Nestor Kirchner, into power. These initiatives may also help women, since <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/worldviews/wp/2018/02/14/women-poorer-and-hungrier-than-men-across-the-world-u-n-report-says/?utm_term=.f3f426f107c1">they are poorer than men</a>, but that’s not the main goal. </p>
<p>In the Latin American countries we studied, those where reproductive rights most improved in the early 21st century were ruled by what political scientists call “<a href="https://jhupbooks.press.jhu.edu/content/resurgence-latin-american-left">institutionalized parties</a>.” Such parties generally have a cogent ideology – though it could be left, right or center – a broad base of support and clear structures for responding to constituent demands. </p>
<p>When Bachelet finally loosened abortion restrictions, it was at the helm of a broad-based coalition called the New Majority. Likewise, Uruguay <a href="https://academic.oup.com/sp/article/24/4/481/4775171">fully legalized abortion</a> in 2012 under the presidency of José Mujica and his Broad Front alliance. </p>
<h2>Men help women, too</h2>
<p>Legalizing abortion – one of the world’s most polarizing policy debates – may be asking a lot. So we also assessed whether these four presidentas promoted gender equality in other ways.</p>
<p>We found they did somewhat better on childcare, which <a href="https://openknowledge.worldbank.org/bitstream/handle/10986/25082/9781464809026.pdf?sequence=6&isAllowed=y">enables women to return to the labor market after becoming mothers</a>. Argentina’s Fernández paid the topic little mind, but <a href="https://www.unicef.org/infobycountry/chile_36227.html">Bachelet</a>, <a href="http://www.loc.gov/law/foreign-news/article/brazil-national-education-plan-approved/">Rousseff</a> and even Costa Rica’s center-rightist <a href="http://www.wradio.com.co/noticias/internacional/laura-chinchilla-firma-ley-para-el-cuidado-de-ninos-y-ancianos/20140324/nota/2143827.aspx">Chinchilla</a> all expanded access to childcare during their tenures. </p>
<p>But <a href="http://www.presidencia.gub.uy/Comunicacion/comunicacionNoticias/vazquez-sistema-de-cuidados-primera-infancia">so did the men who governed Uruguay during the same period</a>. That supports the idea that party type matters more than the chief executive’s gender when it comes to a country’s women’s rights. </p>
<p>And when looking at perhaps the most dramatic improvement in gender equality in Latin American in recent years – the <a href="http://webarchive.ssrc.org/working-papers/CPPF_WomenInPolitics_02_Htun_Piscopo.pdf">high number of women in politics</a> – we see that these changes, too, were led by male and female politicians alike. </p>
<p>Improvements began in the early 1990s. Back then, <a href="https://www.vanderbilt.edu/lapop/pdfs/Schwindt-Bayer_SmallGrant_Publish.pdf">nearly every Latin American country adopted some form of gender quota</a>, which requires political parties to nominate a certain percentage of women for legislative office. In many cases, though, <a href="http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1548-2456.2015.00278.x/abstract">the early laws were rather weak</a>. Parties put women on the ballot in districts they could never win or didn’t get fully behind their campaigns.</p>
<p>Over the past decade, women politicians and feminists across the region have <a href="http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1548-2456.2015.00278.x/abstract">organized to improve political participation among women</a>. In every country where women <a href="https://academic.oup.com/sp/article/24/4/399/4775165">pushed stronger gender quotas through Congress</a>, those initiatives became law. </p>
<p>The payoff of this popular women’s mobilization has been huge: Between 1990 and 2018, the percentage of <a href="https://jenniferpiscopo.files.wordpress.com/2018/03/piscopo-feb-18-2018.pdf">female lawmakers in Latin America shot up, from 9 percent to 28 percent</a>.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/91707/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>New research on Latin America’s four recent female presidents disproves the idea that merely putting a woman in power will improve gender equality.Merike Blofield, Associate Professor, University of MiamiChristina Ewig, Professor of Public Affairs and Faculty Director of the Center on Women, Gender and Public Policy, Humphrey School of Public Affairs, University of MinnesotaJennifer M. Piscopo, Assistant Professor of Politics, Occidental CollegeLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/824012017-09-05T09:31:03Z2017-09-05T09:31:03ZCosta Rica’s Banco Popular shows how banks can be democratic, green – and financially sustainable<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/184529/original/file-20170904-17912-puiaxz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Thomas Marois</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>A decade on from the 2007-08 global financial crisis, the majority of private banks <a href="https://theconversation.com/how-to-reshape-the-financial-system-first-ditch-the-idea-of-the-free-market-80908">have changed very little</a>. Most remain solely concerned with maximising their returns, while sustainable or social goals remain subservient to this. For conventional economists, anything else remains an impossible or distant dream.</p>
<p>But there is hope for a different kind of bank – one that is run democratically and with sustainable principles at its core. Costa Rica’s cooperative Banco Popular and of Communal Development (or BPDC) illustrates a viable and desirable alternative to the average private bank. While not without its own challenges, it offers a number of lessons for the rest of the world.</p>
<p>Banco Popular was established in <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=49G4q8lkcq4&feature=youtu.be">1969 by the Costa Rican government</a> to promote economic development. The bank emerged from a tradition of <a href="http://www.nacion.com/ocio/artes/Nuevo-repasa-revoluciones-sociales-ticas_0_1441255877.html">solidarity</a>, and continues to reflect that today. Its mission is to serve the social and sustainable welfare of Costa Ricans. </p>
<p>BPDC is a distinctive, public-like cooperative bank that is worker-owned and controlled. Any worker holding a savings account for over a year has the right to share ownership in it. It combines commercial and developmental functions with clients that include workers, peasants, micro-, small- and medium-sized enterprises, as well as communal, cooperative, and municipal development associations. </p>
<p>Since 2000, the bank has grown into a large financial conglomerate (Costa Rica’s third largest bank), offering the gamut of banking, pension, stock market, investment and insurance services. It has 103 branches nationwide and employs 4,300 people. Assets exceeded US$5.4 billion in 2016 with a net income of US$68m. Its <a href="https://orbisbanks.bvdinfo.com/version-2017420/Report.serv?_CID=792&context=1SBI6S6TVJPXTHO">return on assets averages around 1.5%</a>, showing high returns for a retail bank. </p>
<p>The bank benefits from a unique form of permanent capitalisation: employers contribute 0.5% and workers 1% of their monthly wages to it. After a year, 1.25% of these “obligatory savings” are transferred to each worker’s individual pension fund. The BPDC keeps the remaining 0.25% as a capital contribution.</p>
<p>The BPDC qualitatively differs from typical private banks. Its <a href="https://www.bancopopular.fi.cr/BPOP/getmedia/4fc9f0eb-f8c3-4d14-88e1-76cfc2877d0b/Reporte-de-Sostenibilidad-Conglomerado-Financiero-Banco-Popular-2016;">current mandate</a> incorporates a triple bottom line: the economic; the environmental; and the social. Earning financial returns is placed on a par with serving the environmental and social good.</p>
<h2>Democratic decision-making</h2>
<p>The BPDC is perhaps the most democratic bank in the world. It has a workers’ assembly as its highest governing body which represents the 1.2m workers-cum-savers serviced by the bank (20% of the population). The assembly is made up of 290 representatives selected from a wide range of <a href="https://www.bancopopular.fi.cr/BPOP/Nosotros/Asamblea-de-Trabajadores/Sectores-Sociales.aspx">social and economic sectors</a>. It gives strategic direction to the bank’s board of directors, which is composed of four members from the assembly and three from the government.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/184541/original/file-20170904-31235-cyl00e.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/184541/original/file-20170904-31235-cyl00e.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/184541/original/file-20170904-31235-cyl00e.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/184541/original/file-20170904-31235-cyl00e.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/184541/original/file-20170904-31235-cyl00e.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/184541/original/file-20170904-31235-cyl00e.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/184541/original/file-20170904-31235-cyl00e.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">People power.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">shutterstock.com</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Popular consultation is a crucial part of the bank’s decision-making process. Its <a href="https://www.bancopopular.fi.cr/BPOP/getmedia/302d558a-3b0a-4cc0-bbb3-5421c3d939d4/08-Gobierno-Corporativo-JDN-2016-(version-FINAL-30-03-2017);">2017-2020 strategic plan</a> was informed by a three-year nationwide consultation, which reached nearly 1,500 participants across 11 regions.</p>
<p>The bank also puts a strong emphasis on gender equity. So at least 50% of the bank’s board must be women, earning the bank the distinction of being the first public organisation in Central America to establish at least 50% women in its decision-making bodies. The bank also has a Permanent Women’s Commission that makes gender equality a priority across the conglomerate.</p>
<p>What the BPDC is has much to do with its makeup.</p>
<h2>Acting sustainability</h2>
<p>The Banco Popular did not start out very green. But it has become a defining characteristic since 2014 when the left-leaning Citizens’ Action Party came to power and focused on making the economy <a href="http://www.unrisd.org/thinkpiece-utting2">promote social and environmental good</a>, as opposed to pure profit. </p>
<p>The bank has since developed speciality lending products, like eco-savings and eco-credits to help businesses fund more environmentally friendly projects. For example, earlier this year the bank helped finance the purchase and installation of residential solar energy panels. </p>
<p>On the developmental side, the BPDC supports local communal associations to provide sustainable water supply systems. It also works with regional energy cooperatives to finance everything from hydroelectric energy generation and energy-efficiency retrofitting, to conservation projects involving vulnerable nature areas.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/184513/original/file-20170904-16064-913a26.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/184513/original/file-20170904-16064-913a26.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/184513/original/file-20170904-16064-913a26.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/184513/original/file-20170904-16064-913a26.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/184513/original/file-20170904-16064-913a26.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/184513/original/file-20170904-16064-913a26.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/184513/original/file-20170904-16064-913a26.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A national park reclamation project part-financed by Banco Popular.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Thomas Marois</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/">CC BY-ND</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The bank has also started to green itself. It tracks its own consumption of energy, strategises how to reduce its carbon impact, and reports this annually following the international, independent <a href="http://www.globalreporting.org">Global Reporting Initiative</a>. The bank’s pensions division has been certified as “carbon neutral” for four years running. </p>
<h2>Room for improvement</h2>
<p>Clearly, there is much to commend the Banco Popular as a model of alternative banking. But it is not perfect. Since its inception nearly 50 years ago, the bank has been the object of intense political power struggles and it came close to near collapse during the 1980s. Calls to privatise it are ever-present. </p>
<p>The struggle over effective control rages. Should the BPDC move towards complete worker control of its board or maintain continued government oversight, but with greater popular representation? The problem goes to the heart of how the public interest can and should be democratically represented in the bank.</p>
<p>Operationally, the Bank’s green portfolio needs expanding to be more sustainable. This will demand innovative thinking around green projects that have some kind of financial return. But how its green impact is practically measured has yet to be resolved.</p>
<p>Finally, there are burning strategic questions. The BPDC is relatively profitable. From a solidarity perspective, is this socially justifiable? Still, earning good returns enables the bank to fund more social projects through its subsidiary <a href="https://www.bancopopular.fi.cr/BPOP/Banca-Social">Social Bank</a>. Some might argue that the whole of the bank’s operations be geared towards this.</p>
<p>These hitches of governance, greenness and socialness are important, but the beauty of the BPDC is that they are resolvable within the democratic processes of the bank and Costa Rican society. For those banking on alternatives to the private profit-maximising dogma of most banks, the Banco Popular offers hope and direction.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/82401/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Thomas Marois received funding in part from Transnational Institute, Amsterdam. </span></em></p>There is hope for a different kind of bank – that serves the public and shareholder good.Thomas Marois, Senior Lecturer in Development Studies, SOAS, University of LondonLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/800322017-08-17T22:39:37Z2017-08-17T22:39:37ZBeyond Chile, Costa Rica and Mexico, Latin America’s innovation potential is largely untapped<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/181877/original/file-20170813-11146-1e7obd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Santiago, the capital of Chile, is a hub for international corporate headquarters and local startups.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/6/6b/NS_93%2C_Metro_de_Santiago.jpg/800px-NS_93%2C_Metro_de_Santiago.jpg">Ariel Cruz Pizarro/Wikimedia</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Chile, Costa Rica and Mexico were Latin America’s big winners in the <a href="https://www.globalinnovationindex.org/gii-2017-report">2017 edition</a> of the <a href="https://www.globalinnovationindex.org/">Global Innovation Index</a> (GII), which ranks the world’s economies on their innovative capabilities (innovation inputs) and measurable results (innovation outputs). </p>
<p>The GII report, launched in June at the United Nations Headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland, was co-authored by <a href="https://www.cornell.edu/">Cornell University</a>, <a href="https://www.insead.edu/">INSEAD</a> and the <a href="http://www.wipo.int/portal/en/index.html">World Intellectual Property Organization</a>.</p>
<p>Innovation is now widely recognised as a central driver of economic growth, prosperity and development. The GII aims to provide countries with a snapshot of their innovation ecosystem, helping them to identify weaknesses and strengths. </p>
<h2>Latin America in the middle</h2>
<p>In Latin America as elsewhere, formulating effective innovation policies could serve as a potential antidote to regional and global economic and political uncertainties. Although the region’s overall scores increased 2% over <a href="http://www.wipo.int/edocs/pubdocs/en/wipo_pub_gii_2016.pdf">last year’s numbers</a>, countries in the region are still working to meet their innovation potential. </p>
<p>Out of 127 countries ranked, Chile came in 48th place, Costa Rica 53rd and Mexico 58th. Switzerland topped the list of the world’s most innovative economies, followed by Sweden and the Netherlands.</p>
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<p>None of the region’s countries outperform in innovation relative to their level of development (as India and Vietnam did, for example), and the largest countries in the region have not seen improvements in their rankings. </p>
<p>The region lags in terms of both inputs that catalyse innovation – including increases in investment, science and technology graduates, availability of credit markets and the like – and in innovation outcomes, such as patent applications filed and scientific articles published.</p>
<h2>And the Latin American innovator of the year is…</h2>
<p>Chile, ranked 46th most innovative country in the world, remains the number one economy in Latin America, as it has for the past four years, though it fell two positions in the overall rankings since 2016.</p>
<p>Its improvements in 2017 lie mainly in its knowledge and technology outputs, particularly in the number of new firms created, where it ranks 14th in the world with eight new company registrations per thousand population in 2014. This puts Chile in the good company of places like Bulgaria (with 8.9 per 1,000) and Iceland (with 9.5 per 1,000).</p>
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<p>Chile is tenth in the world for <a href="https://datahelpdesk.worldbank.org/knowledgebase/articles/114954-what-is-the-difference-between-foreign-direct-inve">foreign direct investment (FDI) net outflows</a> (meaning the amount invested that Chilean residents make in foreign countries); it represented 5% of GDP in the 2013 to 2015 period, putting Chile’s FDI output above that of countries like Canada and Norway. </p>
<p>The high-income South American nation also outpaces economies such as Finland and the US in tertiary education enrolments, with 88.6% of its population in 2015. This is the highest score in Latin America, followed by Uruguay (ranked 38th) and Colombia (47th). </p>
<h2>Strong contenders: Costa Rica and Mexico</h2>
<p>Costa Rica is the second-most innovative economy in Latin America and 53rd worldwide, down eight positions from its 2016 level. This is the seventh year that this small Central American country has ranked among the region’s three best-performing economies. </p>
<p>Its strengths lie primarily in business sophistication and creative outputs. Costa Rica is first in the world in cultural and creative-services exports like advertising, market research and public opinion polling services and fifth in the number of researchers in the business enterprise sector. </p>
<p>In the exports of services based on information and communication technologies, called ICT, Costa Rica also ranks top worldwide, tied with India, Ireland and Israel. In 2015, Costa Rica’s ICT services exports represented 14.6% of its total trade. </p>
<p>Most of Costa Rica’s weaknesses are on the innovation inputs side. The Central American country graduates a relatively low number of science and engineering students (91st worldwide) and developing few <a href="http://www.wipo.int/designs/en/">industrial designs</a> by origin (103rd). </p>
<p>Mexico has also done relatively well in innovation this past year, rising three spots to become the 58th most innovative economy worldwide. </p>
<p>It ranks seventh among 62 middle-income economies in the quality of innovation, a group that includes China, India and Brazil. In this indicator, Mexico performs above average in the quality of its domestic universities and the international impact of its local publications.</p>
<p>Not only did Mexico’s gross domestic expenditure in research and development (known as GERD) and its business-enterprise expenditures in research and development (known as BERD) not fall during the 2008-2009 world financial crisis, they’ve actually intensified since 2010. </p>
<p>GERD represented 0.55% of GDP in 2015, fully 34% higher than the 2008 levels. BERD was also 22% higher in 2015 relative to crisis-era levels. </p>
<p>Mexico, which is projected to become the <a href="http://statisticstimes.com/economy/countries-by-projected-gdp.php">world’s 16th-largest economy</a> in 2017, shows itself to be an active contributor to global value chains, including in high-tech sectors, with imports like aerospace equipment and scientific instruments, among others, representing 18.4% of total Mexican trade in 2015.</p>
<p>One of Mexico’s main weaknesses is political stability and safety. In this indicator, it ranked 104th out of the 127 countries worldwide. Gender is also a point for improvement: only 8.2% of employed <a href="https://theconversation.com/women-arent-failing-at-science-science-is-failing-women-71783">Mexican women had advanced degrees</a> (in comparison, 21.1% of working French women and 15.9% of working Chilean women do). </p>
<h2>Brazil: A for effort</h2>
<p>Brazil remains an important innovation actor in Latin America. This year, it came in 69th in the world and 7th in the Latin American region, ceding ground to economies like Panama and Uruguay. It has kept the same position as in 2016 and improved one position relative to 2015 when it was ranked 70th in the world. </p>
<p>Brazil made large gains in human capital and research, improving in expenditures in education, and the average score of the top three Brazilian universities at the <a href="https://www.topuniversities.com/university-rankings">QS university ranking</a> in 2016 ranks 24th worldwide, above countries like Austria and Italy.</p>
<p>Marked improvements in the <a href="https://www.globalinnovationindex.org/analysis-indicator">OECD Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA)</a> scores over 2003-12 were also registered, though tertiary education remains a bottleneck to innovation. Only 12% of all higher education students study science and engineering, putting Brazil at 96th worldwide out of 102 nations ranked. </p>
<h2>Unleashing its potential</h2>
<p>This year’s results show that although Latin American and Caribbean countries are increasingly investing in R&D and innovation inputs, they do not necessarily translate these inputs into innovation outputs like patents, scientific publications, quality certificates, high-tech products, trademarks, and the like. </p>
<p>This, in turn, is hampering the efficiency of the region’s innovation systems. With nearly 650 million people and a <a href="http://data.worldbank.org/region/latin-america-and-caribbean">combined GDP of US$5.2 trillion</a>, Latin America and the Caribbean has the potential to become a greater source of global intellectual production and high-tech manufactured products, among other possible areas for growth.</p>
<p>To unleash their shared power, the GII results reveal that countries in the region must emphasise enabling environments that are conducive to creativity domestically and as well as cooperate more in R&D and innovation at the regional level.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/80032/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Lorena Rivera León is affiliated with the World Intellectual Property Organization. </span></em></p>The 2017 Global Innovation Index shows that most countries in Latin America and the Caribbean could do much more to tap their innovation potentialLorena Rivera León, Economist and Research Fellow, United Nations UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/757662017-04-11T05:04:51Z2017-04-11T05:04:51ZIncest case attests that, in Costa Rica, abortion is legal in name only<p>In Costa Rica, women have had the right to abortion since 1970. Well, more or less. </p>
<p>The concept of the “unpunished abortion”, <a href="http://www.pgrweb.go.cr/scij/Busqueda/Normativa/Normas/nrm_articulo.aspx?param1=NRA&nValor1=1&nValor2=5027&nValor3=106996&nValor5=23901">established in article 121</a> of the <a href="http://www.pgrweb.go.cr/scij/Busqueda/Normativa/Normas/nrm_texto_completo.aspx?nValor1=1&nValor2=5027">penal code</a>, permits the termination of a pregnancy as long the procedure is consensual, performed by a doctor (or, if necessary, by an authorised obstetrician), and is the only way to protect the life or health of the woman. </p>
<p>This is commonly called a “therapeutic abortion”. And while it may be technically permissible, in practice <a href="http://www.nacion.com/opinion/foros/acceso-aborto-terapeutico-Costa-Rica_0_1201879881.html">the public hospitals where most Costa Ricans receive care</a> refuse to offer the procedure except when a woman’s life is in imminent danger. As in the case of an ectopic pregnancy, for instance. </p>
<p>For many women whose pregnancies constitute a physical or emotional risk – including women carrying deformed fetuses that will never survive outside the womb, rape victims, and pregnant girls – abortion is never an option.</p>
<p>This difference between the law and social practice is now the source of a legal battle that is dividing Costa Rican society. The case is in question involves a 12-year-old girl known under the pseudonym Andrea, who was impregnated by her father and prevented from terminating her pregnancy. </p>
<h2>Not a secular nation</h2>
<p>It exemplifies the contradictions of this Central American country. </p>
<p>On the one hand, Costa Rica <a href="http://www.inec.go.cr/sites/default/files/documetos-biblioteca-virtual/repoblacionmortalidadm022015.pdf">boasts a very low maternal mortality rate</a>, has ratified most international human rights treaties (whose requirements are privileged above its own national constitution), and decommissioned its army in 1948 to <a href="https://theconversation.com/is-costa-rica-the-worlds-happiest-greenest-country-71457">invest instead in health and education</a>.</p>
<p>On the other, the majority-Catholic country <a href="http://www.elfinancierocr.com/economia-y-politica/Costa-Rica-catolicos-protestantes-religion_0_837516250.html">is not secular</a>. And abortion continues to be taboo for health-care workers. As a result, the reproductive rights of women and girls are not real rights but “blue” laws – unheeded statutes that exist on paper only. </p>
<figure class="align-left ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/163963/original/image-20170404-5702-15rv7ae.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C135%2C873%2C676&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/163963/original/image-20170404-5702-15rv7ae.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/163963/original/image-20170404-5702-15rv7ae.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/163963/original/image-20170404-5702-15rv7ae.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/163963/original/image-20170404-5702-15rv7ae.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/163963/original/image-20170404-5702-15rv7ae.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/163963/original/image-20170404-5702-15rv7ae.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">From the ‘Girls, not mothers’ campaign.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Planned Parenthood Federation/CLACAI</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>In Andrea’s case, the lack of a technical protocol that provides legal protection to doctors who perform abortions meant that the medical procedure, which isn’t only not criminal but legally guaranteed, was never offered. </p>
<p>The girl’s life story started making headlines in February 2017 when her mother, using the only resource at her disposal to try to activate the judicial system, <a href="http://www.repretel.com/actualidad/denuncian-nuevo-caso-menor-embarazada--padre-67171">went public</a> about the sexual violence Andrea had suffered from her father. </p>
<p>As Andrea’s mother put it, “After she told me about what happened with her father, she became extremely anxious and told me she didn’t want to exist in this world any longer because of everything that had happened.” </p>
<p>Andrea is depressed, says her mother, barely eating, suffering extreme nausea from the pregnancy and – critically – says she does not want to have the baby. </p>
<h2>Rise of the religious right</h2>
<p>Rather than call for Costa Rican law to be enforced, the <a href="http://www.repretel.com/actualidad/-iglesia-opone-aborto-caso-nina-embarazada-violacion-padre-66646">media</a> has offered a platform for religious figures to voice their opinions. The <a href="https://www.facebook.com/FidesCR/videos/1799210656771905/">public debate about Andrea’s case</a> is being approached not from a medical or legal perspective <a href="http://www.elmostrador.cl/braga/2017/02/28/violacion-de-nina-por-su-padre-reabre-debate-sobre-aborto-en-costa-rica/">but via a Christian viewpoint</a>. </p>
<p>Churches and anti-choice organisations have contacted the girl and her mother, trying to convince them not to pursue the idea of terminating the pregnancy. </p>
<p>But there have also been some offers of help. The <a href="https://www.facebook.com/accedercr/">Asociación Ciudadana ACCEDER</a>, of which I am a member, offered legal counsel to help Andrea’s family make her case to the government. </p>
<p>But, in general, the <a href="http://www.repretel.com/actualidad/familia-abortar-nino-menor-violada-padre-66791">public discourse</a> around Andrea’s situation is one in which the words of religious leaders, originally published in national media outlets, have been reiterated throughout Costa Rican society. </p>
<p>The case demonstrates that even when confronted with a 12-year-old incest victim, who <a href="http://www.laprensalibre.cr/Noticias/detalle/103808/madre-de-nina-violada-por-su-padre-en-matina:-ella-quiere-morirse">says that she wants to die</a> and to abort her pregnancy, Costa Rica’s legal and medical establishment do not offer legal or medical responses. The country has shown itself immersed in prejudice, stereotypes and traditional gender roles, insisting that women carry a pregnancy to term even when it is clearly affecting their life and health. </p>
<p>This goes completely against the recent recommendations from the Organisation of American States’ Expert Committee that follows up on the <a href="http://www.oas.org/es/mesecvi/docs/MESECVI-EmbarazoInfantil-ES.pdf">Belém do Pará Convention</a> on sexual violence and child pregnancy.</p>
<h2>A regional issue</h2>
<p>Other Central American countries, including Honduras, El Salvador and Nicaragua also violate women’s rights by outlawing abortion under any circumstances, <a href="https://www.reproductiverights.org/sites/crr.civicactions.net/files/documents/Aborto-y-Derechos-Reproductivos-en-America-Latina.pdf">even when a woman’s life is in danger</a>. </p>
<p>In Costa Rica, we thought we were different from our neighbours who disdain a woman’s life and health. After all, national laws allow abortion to protect not just the <em>life</em> of the woman but also her <em>health</em> as defined by the <a href="http://www.who.int/mediacentre/factsheets/fs364/es/">World Health Organization</a> to cover well-being in the holistic – emotional as well as physical – sense. </p>
<p>But it turns out that’s not enough to guarantee access to abortion for those legally entitled to it. Costa Rica is no model state in protecting women’s rights. </p>
<p>Strategic litigation will be abortion rights’ groups’ main vehicle for change, as it was in recent years following the cases of <a href="https://www.reproductiverights.org/sites/crr.civicactions.net/files/documents/AN_v_Costa_Rica_Spanish.pdf">Ana</a> and <a href="https://www.reproductiverights.org/sites/crr.civicactions.net/files/documents/Aurora%20Fact%20Sheet%20Final.pdf">Aurora</a>, two Costa Rican women denied abortions despite having dangerously malformed fetuses. </p>
<p>They took their cases to the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights and described the torture of carrying a fetus that could never survive birth; of having their wombs act as tombs for their unborn babies; and the suffering it was causing not just them but also their fetuses. </p>
<p>“He was drowning in my stomach for weeks,” 32-year-old Aurora told La Nación newspaper, “with his lungs outside his body, ripped open by my own organs.”</p>
<p>The highly visible international cases of Ana and Aurora have compelled the Costa Rican government to write a technical norm that it insists will further enshrine legal protection for medical personnel who perform an abortion to avoid endangering the life and health of a pregnant woman. </p>
<p>And none too soon; stories of <a href="http://www.nacion.com/ocio/revista-dominical/caminos-aborto_0_1296270411.html">dangerous clandestine abortions</a> circulate. </p>
<p>As for Andrea, she will become a mother at 13, giving birth to her father’s child.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/75766/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Larissa Arroyo Navarrete is an activist for women's rights and LGBT movements and belongs to several related organisation, including ACCEDER, the civil society group mentioned in this article. ACCEDER has received funds from the Centre for Reproductive Rights. </span></em></p>The case of a 12-year-old Costa Rican girl, who was raped by her father and denied an abortion, is dividing a nation that prides itself on its human rights record.Larissa Arroyo Navarrete, Professor of Human Rights, Universidad de Costa Rica and Universidad Nacional, Universidad de Costa RicaLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/738992017-03-29T01:44:38Z2017-03-29T01:44:38ZThe rise of anti-immigrant attitudes, violence and nationalism in Costa Rica<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/163011/original/image-20170328-3819-u1inbo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Workers wash freshly harvested bananas on a banana plantation near Parrita, Costa Rica.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">AP Photo/Kent Gilbert</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Costa Rica is often thought of as the “Switzerland of the Americas.” </p>
<p>With a stable democracy and no standing army, the small Central American country of 4.8 million is often referred to as the <a href="http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/13569320701682542">“exception”</a> to the conflict, violence and poverty faced in other Latin American countries. In particular, Costa Ricans pride themselves on their strong health care and education systems.</p>
<p>But Costa Ricans have increasingly faced social and economic challenges that threaten their exceptional status. In response, many Costa Ricans have projected their anxieties onto immigrants. </p>
<p>In 2005, a Costa Rican congressman named Ricardo Toledo gave <a href="http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/imre.12073/full">a passionate speech</a> criticizing immigrants who “come to kill our women; many of them come to rob our banks; to rob our sons and daughters in the streets.” </p>
<p>He called on Costa Rica to close its borders to Nicaraguan immigrants.</p>
<p>In response to this kind of anti-immigrant attitude, the National Assembly passed a <a href="http://www.pgrweb.go.cr/scij/Busqueda/Normativa/Normas/nrm_texto_completo.aspx?param1=NRTC&nValor1=1&nValor2=56050&nValor3=79756&param2=1&strTipM=TC&lResultado=3&strSim=simp">law</a> that restricted residency, increased enforcement and limited immigrants’ opportunities for integration.</p>
<p>That same year, a 25-year-old Nicaraguan immigrant named Natividad Canda was mauled to death by two <a href="http://wvw.aldia.cr/ad_ee/2005/noviembre/11/sucesos0.html">Rottweilers</a>. According to some reports, several onlookers who witnessed the attack <a href="http://www.ticotimes.net/2006/01/27/probe-says-police-could-have-stopped-fatal-dog-attack">did nothing to help him</a>. Many Costa Ricans praised the dogs and condemned the victim as an alleged criminal and “illegal” immigrant.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/163012/original/image-20170328-3782-9ociz0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/163012/original/image-20170328-3782-9ociz0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=411&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/163012/original/image-20170328-3782-9ociz0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=411&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/163012/original/image-20170328-3782-9ociz0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=411&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/163012/original/image-20170328-3782-9ociz0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=516&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/163012/original/image-20170328-3782-9ociz0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=516&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/163012/original/image-20170328-3782-9ociz0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=516&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Approximately 1,000 mostly Nicaraguan families were being evicted from land they have been squatting on, 2005.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">AP Photo/Kent Gilbert</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>While Costa Rica has since stepped back from the worst of its explicitly xenophobic legislation, the discriminatory spirit that led to that law being passed still continues today. </p>
<p>In my <a href="http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/plar.12136/abstract">research</a> with Nicaraguan immigrants in San Jose, Costa Rica, I find that Nicaraguans continue to face widespread discrimination and major barriers to legal status and access to social services. <a href="http://www.unesco.org/new/en/social-and-human-sciences/themes/international-migration/glossary/xenophobia/">Attitudes and behaviors</a> that reject, vilify and exclude immigrants often solidify national identity when that identity is in <a href="http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/01419870.1997.9993946">crisis</a>.</p>
<h2>Decades of ‘us versus them’</h2>
<p>In Costa Rica, Nicaraguans make up <a href="http://www.inec.go.cr/censos/censos-2011">75 percent</a> of immigrants and represent around 7 percent of the total population. They often work in agriculture, construction and service sectors. </p>
<p>Nicaraguan migration to Costa Rica is not new, but attitudes toward Nicaraguans have become more prejudiced since the mid-20th century. Where Nicaraguans are seen as inherently violent, Costa Ricans see themselves as peace-loving. Where Nicaraguans are seen as poor, illiterate and uncultured, Costa Ricans see themselves as middle-class and educated. Where Nicaraguans are mestizo and dark-skinned, Costa Ricans are “white.” </p>
<p>The sense of difference and superiority felt by many Costa Ricans has been reinforced by stereotypes of Nicaraguans developed over decades of migration.</p>
<iframe src="https://www.google.com/maps/embed?pb=!1m18!1m12!1m3!1d7929305.717903751!2d-88.67147164556586!3d13.974592506838244!2m3!1f0!2f0!3f0!3m2!1i1024!2i768!4f13.1!3m3!1m2!1s0x8f92e56221acc925%3A0x6254f72535819a2b!2sCosta+Rica!5e0!3m2!1sen!2sus!4v1490722424255" width="100%" height="450" frameborder="0" style="border:0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<p>Nicaraguan migration to Costa Rica goes all the way back to colonial and 19th-century regional economic <a href="https://books.google.com/books?hl=en&lr=&id=EPyPSrFkO0YC&oi=fnd&pg=PR5&dq=patricia+alvarenga+costa+rica&ots=R48ot-zORU&sig=SLd7bZ8AXvJ718gRXUfiE_6ljvU#v=onepage&q=patricia%20alvarenga%20costa%20rica&f=false">developments</a>. Nicaraguan workers were instrumental to the rise of the Costa Rican coffee industry, the construction of its railroad and the establishment of the multinational banana industry. Later, during the Sandinista Revolution and Contra war in the 1980s, Nicaraguans <a href="https://www.brown.edu/Research/Understanding_the_Iran_Contra_Affair/timeline-nicaragua.php">fled</a> to Costa Rica for both political and economic reasons.</p>
<p>After the Fall of the Sandinistas in 1990, economic migration to Costa Rica increased dramatically. In 1998, <a href="https://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/oa/reports/mitch/mitch.html">Hurricane Mitch</a> devastated Nicaragua, leaving millions homeless and destroying infrastructure and the harvest.</p>
<p>As Nicaraguan migration increased in the ‘90’s, Costa Rica’s exceptional welfare system was weakened by cuts in public funding. <a href="http://www.nacion.com/nacional/educacion/">Crowded classrooms</a> and long waits for <a href="http://www.nacion.com/nacional/salud-publica/Caja-lleva-resolver-listas-espera_0_1508649137.html">health services</a> were compounded by <a href="http://www.latinobarometro.org/latNewsShow.jsp">perceptions</a> of rising crime and economic downturns. As Costa Ricans began to feel their privileges as citizens decline, they <a href="http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1548-1387.2009.01074.x/abstract">projected</a> their anxieties onto <a href="http://www.ohioswallow.com/book/Threatening+Others">Nicaraguan immigrants</a>.</p>
<p>Nicaraguan migration began to represent a demographic, cultural and racial threat to Costa Rican exceptionalism.</p>
<h2>Barriers in everyday life</h2>
<p>Although Costa Rica has stepped back from the most xenophobic of its immigration policies, legal restrictions and widespread attitudes of rejection continue. Nicaraguans still face discrimination and barriers to services and legal status.</p>
<p>For example, my colleague <a href="https://repub.eur.nl/pub/94392/">Koen Voorend</a> and I have found that Nicaraguan immigrants report being sent extra paperwork or conflicting directions to access <a href="http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/plar.12136/abstract">health care</a> or enroll children in school. Young people report hiding their Nicaraguan origins from classmates because of fear of being teased or bullied.</p>
<p>In health clinics, Nicaraguans say they are often treated as ignorant or stupid by <a href="http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/13648470.2015.1004503">doctors and nurses</a>. Clinic staff ask for extra documentation or refuse them care.</p>
<p>They also face discrimination, if not outright violence, on the streets. Nicaraguan immigrants often avoid speaking in public to avoid revealing their accent. They worry about being harassed on the bus. They stick close to home or work to avoid attracting the attention of immigration authorities. </p>
<p>Meanwhile, civil society organizations, academics and activists are working to create change. For example, “What Unites Us” is a <a href="https://loquenosune.org/category/campana-en-accion/costa-rica/">campaign</a> against xenophobia in Latin America and the Caribbean led by <a href="http://theret.org">RET International</a>, an organization that works to protect vulnerable young people through education. </p>
<p>The campaign is enlisting young people to discuss what brings immigrants and citizens together. In emphasizing what unites foreigners and nationals, the campaign breaks down the dividing line between deserving and undeserving, citizens and immigrants.</p>
<p>However, seeing what unites citizens and immigrants will not eliminate xenophobia. Citizens still feel that their way of life is under threat. When prized institutions fail to address people’s real social and economic problems, blaming immigrants serves as a useful distraction – one that may gain traction in the U.S. too.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/73899/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Caitlin Fouratt received funding from the Wenner-Gren Foundation and the Institute of International Education.</span></em></p>While Costa Ricans pride their country for being an oasis of stability in Latin America, the nation has struggled with restrictive laws and social attitudes toward immigrants from Nicaragua.Caitlin Fouratt, Professor of International Studies, California State University, Long BeachLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/714572017-02-02T07:50:46Z2017-02-02T07:50:46ZIs Costa Rica the world’s happiest, greenest country?<p>Costa Rica was the most environmentally advanced and happiest place on earth last year, followed by Mexico, Colombia, Vanuatu and Vietnam.</p>
<p>That was the conclusion of the New Economics Foundation’s <a href="http://happyplanetindex.org/">Happy Planet Index</a>, which recently released its 2016 ranking of “where in the world people are using ecological resources most efficiently to live long, happy lives”. </p>
<p>That neither the US nor any European nations make the <a href="https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2016/07/greenest-happiest-country-in-the-world?utm_content=bufferf4193&utm_medium=social&utm_source=facebook.com&utm_campaign=buffer">top ten</a> may be surprising, but Costa Rica’s winning position is not; this small Central American nation also topped the <a href="http://happyplanetindex.org/countries/costa-rica">2009 and 2012 rankings</a>. </p>
<p>The Happy Planet Index measures life expectancy, well-being, environmental footprint and inequality to calculate nations’ success – all areas where Costa Rica’s government has made significant effort and investment. </p>
<h2>Less war, more health</h2>
<p>In 1949, Costa Rica took a big gamble of eliminating its army and investing military funds into health and education. The decision has paid off on numerous fronts.</p>
<p>By <a href="http://www.elfinancierocr.com/opinion/educacion_publica-presupuesto-gasto-gasto_publico_0_994100615.html">2016</a>, education comprised 8% of Costa Rica’s national budget – up from 2.6% in 1994 and 5.9% 2014, according to a <a href="http://www.academiaca.or.cr/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/Analisis-Ronulfo-6-2014C.pdf">2014 study</a>.</p>
<p>By <a href="http://www.datosmacro.com/estado/gasto/educacion">comparison</a>, nearby El Salvador spends 3.42% of GDP on education, the US spends 5.22% and Colombia allocates 4.67%.</p>
<p>In the environmental realm, Costa Rica has long been a pioneer. In the 1990s, the country passed a series of “green culture” laws including the tax-funded <a href="https://www.cne.go.cr/cedo_dvd5/files/flash_content/pdf/spa/doc387/doc387-contenido.pdf">National Forests law</a> that protects forests, waters, biodiversity and natural beauty as both tourist attractions and scientific resources. It also developed a <a href="http://www.fonafifo.go.cr/psa/">financing system</a>, supported by both the government and by international organisations, such as the <a href="https://www.oas.org/dsd/Documents/Lospagosporserviciosambientales.pdf">World Bank</a>, to pay for environmental protection programmes. </p>
<p>Other green initiatives include the <a href="http://reddcr.go.cr/fbs/ecomarchamo">Eco-Marchamo</a>, which is a voluntary complementary tax that allows drivers to offset 100% of the emissions generated by fuel consumption for one year and the <a href="http://www.ambientico.una.ac.cr/pdfs/ambientico/247.pdf">Carbon Neutral Framework</a> that incentivises good environmental practice by Costa Rican companies.</p>
<p>Under President Luis Guillermo Solís, Costa Rica’s <a href="https://www.ministeriodesalud.go.cr/index.php/biblioteca-de-archivos/sobre-el-ministerio/politcas-y-planes-en-salud/politicas-en-salud/2746-politica-nacional-de-salud-2015/file">national health policy</a> also now includes the explicit goal of achieving “environmentally sustainable socio-economic development”, based on the theory that such growth will better position the small country to face big international challenges, such as health crises, increasing violence and climate change.</p>
<p>In short, Costa Rica has built into its whole governance model the ability to face the major environmental and health challenges facing the world.</p>
<p>As a result, in addition to its top ranking on the Happy Planet Index, Costa Rica also does very well on the <a href="https://www.larepublica.net/noticia/costa-rica-es-tercero-en-indice-global-de-trabajadores-felices">Global Index of Happy Workers</a> (at number three), in <a href="https://www.larepublica.net/noticia/costa-rica-entre-los-mas-competitivos-de-america-latina">Doing Business 2017</a> (at number five) in the region Latin American and on the <a href="https://www.larepublica.net/noticia/costa-rica-es-segundo-en-la-region-en-libertad-individual">Individual Liberties Index</a>. Costa Rica is also a <a href="https://www.larepublica.net/noticia/costa-rica-lider-en-centroamerica-en-respeto-a-derechos-laborales">leader within Central America in labour rights</a> and ranks among the <a href="https://www.larepublica.net/noticia/costa-rica-entre-los-mas-competitivos-de-america-latina">most competitive economies in Latin America</a>. (There’s more, too – <a href="https://www.larepublica.net/seccion/ranking">you can find it here</a>). </p>
<p>This reveals a key issue highlighted by the Happy Place Index: public policies have a great impact on the well-being of a populace. </p>
<h2>Limits to the rankings</h2>
<p>But they’re not the only factor and such rankings, while perhaps a point of pride for a tiny Central American nation, have serious limitations. </p>
<p>First, global indexes inevitably include certain indicators and exclude others. This can lead to certain cognitive dissonance. It is notable that among the WEF’s <a href="https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2016/07/greenest-happiest-country-in-the-world?utm_content=bufferf4193&utm_medium=social&utm_source=facebook.com&utm_campaign=buffer">top ten</a> “happiest” places are two highly under-developed nations, Vanuatu and Bangladesh. Both not only have <a href="http://www3.weforum.org/docs/gcr/2015-2016/Global_Competitiveness_Report_2015-2016.pdf">low global competitiveness</a> but also do badly on the <a href="http://hdr.undp.org/sites/default/files/hdr_2015_statistical_annex.pdf">UN’s Human Development Index</a> (134th and 142nd, respectively). </p>
<p>How is it possible for a country to be eco-happy but underdeveloped? </p>
<p>Well, the Happy Planet Index does not look at such indicators as education, income, access to water and electricity or poverty rates. Accounting for those facts would create a more complete, and probably very different, perception of happiness. </p>
<p>Vanuatu, which the Happy Planet Index ranks fourth happiest in terms of sustainability, comes in 134th on Yale University’s <a href="http://epi.yale.edu/sites/default/files/2016EPI_Full_Report_opt.pdf">Environmental Performance Index</a>, which examines how countries protect human health and the ecosystem. Costa Rica, first on the 2016 Happy Planet Index, ranks 42 place on the EPI. Meanwhile, Ecuador, tenth on the Happy Planet Index, <a href="http://www.cdi.org.pe/InformeGlobaldeCompetitividad/index.html">is 76th</a> in global competitiveness, according to the CDI’s 2016-2017 rankings, and 103rd on Yale’s EPI.</p>
<p>According to the <a href="http://unctad.org/es/Paginas/PressRelease.aspx?OriginalVersionID=160">UN’s Conference on Trade and Development</a>, the world’s least-developed countries are characterised by having deficient per capita income and economic vulnerability. That is, at least <a href="http://unctad.org/es/Paginas/PressRelease.aspx?OriginalVersionID=382">50%</a> of the population lives in extreme poverty. They’re also the countries that are most exposed to <a href="http://www.newwayssustainability.org/2016/11/02/medidas-alentar-desarollo-paises-menos-adelantados/">climate change and its consequences</a>. </p>
<p>So is a country that’s green necessarily a happy place? </p>
<h2>What is happiness?</h2>
<p>The Happy Planet Index is useful in reconceptualising happiness in terms of environmental well-being and sustainable practices, but it needs fine-tuning. </p>
<p>In underdeveloped countries, a low carbon footprint clearly has more to do with the lack of industry than with environmental policy. These countries simply didn’t undergo the same economic growth processes that the rich world did, from the Industrial Revolution through to the second world war. </p>
<p>And it is <a href="https://theconversation.com/how-do-we-measure-well-being-70967">confusing</a> to talk about happiness in countries where life conditions are not even minimally acceptable. Even the authors of the report on the Happy Planet Index note <a href="http://happyplanetindex.org/countries/costa-rica">when discussing Costa Rica</a> that despite its environmental commitment, Costa Rica’s ecological footprint is not small enough to be totally sustainable, and that its income <a href="http://happyplanetindex.org/countries/costa-rica">inequality</a> remains quite high. </p>
<p>The same could be noted of the other top countries in the Happy Planet Index, <a href="http://datos.bancomundial.org/indicador/SI.POV.GINI">Mexico and Colombia</a>, whose 2014 GINI ratings of 48.2 and 53.5, respectively, reflect starkly uneven wealth distribution. In fact, Colombia is the <a href="http://www.bbc.com/mundo/noticias/2016/03/160308_america_latina_economia_desigualdad_ab">second-most unequal</a> country in Latin America, a region characterised by its wealth gap. </p>
<p>Costa Rica has achieved a lot since it turned away from war and toward national well-being a half century ago. But many challenges – from preventing violence to increasing income equality – remain for it to become both green and truly happy. </p>
<p>To create the kind of sustainability that fundamentally links human, environmental and social development, policy, science, education and citizen activism must all work together. </p>
<p>That’s how we’ll redefine the meaning of happiness – in Costa Rica and beyond.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/71457/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Ariana López Peña does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Environmental sustainability has a role in increasing national well-being.Ariana López Peña, Professor, School of International Relations, Universidad Nacional de Costa RicaLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/635682016-08-19T13:19:47Z2016-08-19T13:19:47ZSloths aren’t lazy – their slowness is a survival skill<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/134262/original/image-20160816-12998-tf916v.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Slow-moving, strategic sloths.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.suzieszterhas.com/">Suzi Eszterhas, www.suzieszterhas.com</a>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Conventional wisdom has it that sloths are simple, lazy creatures that do very little other than sleep all day. Even the very name “sloth” in most languages translates as some version of “lazy”. It seems astonishing that such an animal survives in the wild at all. </p>
<p>In 1749, French naturalist Georges Buffon was the <a href="http://theday.co.uk/opinion/why-i-believe-the-sloth-is-a-hero-of-evolution">first to describe the creature</a> in his encyclopedia of life sciences, saying: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>Slowness, habitual pain, and stupidity are the results of this strange and bungled conformation. These sloths are the lowest form of existence. One more defect would have made their lives impossible.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Given such a precedent, it is of little surprise that sloths are subject to such profound speculation and misinterpretation, ranging <a href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/7396356.stm">from the benign</a> – that they sleep all day – to the creative anecdotes I regularly hear, such as: “Sloths are so stupid that they mistake their own arm for a tree branch”. </p>
<p>The truth is that sloths are incredibly slow movers, but for a very simple reason: survival. The fact that slow sloths have been on this planet for almost 64m years shows that they have a winning strategy. But in order to understand exactly what it is that makes them such slow movers, and why this works so well, we have to look at the biology of these unusual animals in more detail.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/134256/original/image-20160816-12998-1b01yla.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/134256/original/image-20160816-12998-1b01yla.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/134256/original/image-20160816-12998-1b01yla.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/134256/original/image-20160816-12998-1b01yla.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/134256/original/image-20160816-12998-1b01yla.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/134256/original/image-20160816-12998-1b01yla.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/134256/original/image-20160816-12998-1b01yla.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Plenty of time to hang around for this little sloth.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.suzieszterhas.com/">Suzi Eszterhas, www.suzieszterhas.com</a>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Three-toed sloths are indeed the <a href="http://animals.nationalgeographic.com/animals/mammals/three-toed-sloth/">slowest-moving mammals</a> on the planet, but exactly how slow is slow? At the world’s <a href="http://www.slothsanctuary.com/">only sloth sanctuary</a> in Costa Rica, we have been monitoring the movement and activity patterns of wild sloths using <a href="http://thefoundationforantarcticresearch.org/index.php/projects-2/dr-rory-wilson/">small data loggers combined with tracking devices</a> inside <a href="http://www.slothsanctuary.com/research/the-sloth-backpack-project/">specially built “sloth backpacks”</a>. We’ve found that, contrary to popular belief, sloths don’t actually spend inordinate amounts of time sleeping; they sleep for just eight to ten hours a day in the wild. They do move, but very slowly and always at the same, almost measured, pace. </p>
<p>Moving slowly unequivocally requires less energy than moving fast, and it is this principal that underlies the sloths’ unusual ecology.</p>
<p>Sloths are not the only creatures in the animal kingdom to adopt a slow pace. Cold-blooded ectotherms such as frogs and snakes, are commonly subject to enforced slow movement when faced with cold temperatures, due to their inability to regulate their own temperature independently of the environment. Just like any chemical reaction, cold muscles are slow muscles so cold reptiles are slow reptiles. </p>
<p>This is in stark contrast to most homeothermic mammals which maintain a stable, high core temperature via a process of <a href="http://medical-dictionary.thefreedictionary.com/adaptive+thermogenesis">adaptive thermogenesis</a>, and are consequently able to move fast and effectively regardless of the ambient conditions. But this athletic ability comes at a cost: high body temperatures mean high metabolic rates, and somehow the energy bill must be paid using food.</p>
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<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/TX1Cjh3M8Mk?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
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<p>So where do sloths fit into this dichotomy? They move slowly at all temperatures and, unsurprisingly, deviate from the typical homeothermic mammalian plan by operating at lower body temperatures than most mammals, while apparently having a reduced ability to thermoregulate. The average temperature of the three-toed sloth is <a href="https://animalcorner.co.uk/animals/sloth/">around 32.7°C</a> (91°F), compared to <a href="https://www.urmc.rochester.edu/encyclopedia/content.aspx?ContentTypeID=85&ContentID=P00866">humans’ 36.5°C/97.8°F</a>.</p>
<p>Much in the manner of ectotherms, sloths depend on <a href="http://natureinstitute.org/nature/sloth.htm">behavioural and postural adjustments</a> to control their own heat loss and gain, showing daily core temperature fluctuations of up to 10°C. By perpetually moving slowly and partially departing from full homeothermy, sloths burn very little energy and are <a href="http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/laid-back-sloths-are-the-masters-of-slow/">able to function with the lowest metabolic rate</a> of any non-hibernating mammal, with estimates ranging from <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/1379840?seq=1#page_scan_tab_contents">40–74% of the predicted value relative</a> to the sloth’s body mass.</p>
<p>As a result of all this, <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/274384020_Sloths_like_it_hot_Ambient_temperature_modulates_food_intake_in_the_brown-throated_sloth_Bradypus_variegatus">sloths don’t need to acquire much energy</a> or to spend time looking for it. Both two and three-fingered sloths have a predominantly folivorous (leaf-based) diet, consuming material with a notably low caloric content. There are plenty of other mammals which specialise on a leaf-based diet, but usually these animals compensate for their low-calorie diet by consuming relatively large quantities of food. Fellow leaf-eating howler monkeys move at a normal pace but consume three times as many leaves per kilogram of body mass as sloths, digesting their foodstuff comparatively quickly. </p>
<p>Therein lies another sloth peculiarity: for the majority of mammals, <a href="http://www.stufftoblowyourmind.com/blog/animal-fastest-digestive-system/">digestion rate depends on body size</a>, with larger animals generally taking longer to digest their food. Sloths appear to break this rule to an unprecedented extent. The <a href="http://www.slothsanctuary.com/research/sloth-digestion/">exact rate of digestion</a> remains unclear, but current estimations for the passage of food from ingestion to excretion range from 157 hours to a staggering 50 days (1,200 hours).</p>
<p>Unsurprisingly, the sloth’s four-chambered stomach is constantly full, and so more leaves can only be ingested when digesta leaves the stomach and enters the small intestine. Food intake and, critically, energy expenditure are likely limited by digestion rate and room in the stomach. Indeed, the abdominal contents of a sloth can account for up to 37% of their body mass.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/134249/original/image-20160816-12998-i2w3ml.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/134249/original/image-20160816-12998-i2w3ml.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/134249/original/image-20160816-12998-i2w3ml.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/134249/original/image-20160816-12998-i2w3ml.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/134249/original/image-20160816-12998-i2w3ml.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/134249/original/image-20160816-12998-i2w3ml.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/134249/original/image-20160816-12998-i2w3ml.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">A sloth sports its backpack tracker.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>All this points to an extraordinary lifestyle, with sloths living on a metabolic knife edge where minimal energy expenditure is finely balanced with minimal energy intake.</p>
<p>With their plethora of energy-saving adaptations, sloths physically don’t have the ability to move very fast. And with this, they do not have the capacity to defend themselves or run away from predators, as a monkey might. Instead, their survival is entirely dependent upon camouflage – a factor aided by their symbiotic relationship with <a href="http://blogs.biomedcentral.com/on-biology/2010/04/14/sloth-fur-has-symbiotic-relationship-with-green-algae/">algae growing on their fur</a>. Sloths’ main predators – big cats like jaguars, ocelots and birds such as harpy eagles – all primarily detect their prey visually, and it is likely that sloths simply move at a pace that doesn’t get them noticed. </p>
<p>The sloth life is certainly not the “lowest form of existence”, but as strategic as that of any other animal. They are energy-saving mammals taking life at a slow pace to avoid the rush and tumble for food, while subscribing the movement patterns that help them avoid being identified as prey. There must be a lesson somewhere in that for all of us.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/63568/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Becky Cliffe does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Sloths have been moving slowly for 64m years.Becky Cliffe, PhD Researcher, Swansea UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/595762016-06-23T10:04:36Z2016-06-23T10:04:36ZIs Panama on the verge of a scientific brain drain?<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/126169/original/image-20160610-17209-1cyn17x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Panama City, Panama. The gleaming metropolis reflects a rapid economic growth with a marginal national investment in research and development.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Carlos A. Donado Morcillo</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Government support for research into new scientific learning and new technologies is crucial – and difficult to get. What little money is available is hotly contested among researchers. They fight to justify investing taxpayer dollars in projects that at times appear risky, but offer significant returns if they are successful – solving global problems, advancing human knowledge and improving economic development.</p>
<p>In developed nations, national research and development expenditure is at most <a href="http://data.worldbank.org/indicator/GB.XPD.RSDV.GD.ZS">four percent of gross domestic product (GDP)</a>, including funding for industrial, military and commercial work. Israel, South Korea, Japan, Sweden, Finland, Austria and the United States <a href="http://www.oecd.org/innovation/inno/researchanddevelopmentstatisticsrds.htm">lead the pack</a>. </p>
<p>Even so, scientists’ struggle for funding is commonplace. In France, <a href="http://www.sciencemag.org/news/2016/05/top-french-scientists-slam-surprise-budget-cut">massive research budget cuts</a> have the scientific community <a href="https://theconversation.com/la-recherche-francaise-est-elle-en-crise-61233">raising its voice in disapproval</a>. Research results and funding are two sides of the same coin: To get <a href="http://www.chiefscientist.gov.au/2015/03/science-a-major-contributor-to-the-economy/">political backing for funding</a>, researchers need <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/533S20a">patents and publications</a>.</p>
<p>In developing nations, scientists have an even more difficult task. Scientists working in countries without <a href="http://www.scidev.net/global/technology/news/developing-nations-urged-spend-on-science-UN.html">advanced manufacturing infrastructure</a> and <a href="https://www.cairn.info/revue-journal-of-innovation-economics-2013-2-page-13.htm">strong military programs</a> have fewer opportunities to offer local benefits. And their cultures of science, technology and innovation are often <a href="http://www.uis.unesco.org/Library/Documents/tech%205-eng.pdf">not as developed</a>. That leaves just one major incentive for government to invest in science and technology: improving scores in <a href="http://rieoei.org/rie30a03.htm">international competitiveness comparisons</a>, like those <a href="https://www.oecd.org/development/WP319%20AE.pdf">published by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD)</a>.</p>
<p>In Panama, where we work, there is a <a href="http://www.forbes.com/sites/steveforbes/2016/05/10/the-real-story-about-panama/">thriving service economy</a> and <a href="http://www.tradingeconomics.com/panama/gdp-growth-annual">sustained GDP growth</a>. But since 2001, government expenditure for science has been a <a href="http://www.tradingeconomics.com/panama/research-and-development-expenditure-percent-of-gdp-wb-data.html">decreasing share of GDP</a>. This research funding crisis may have dire consequences for <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/469462a">Panama’s lofty ambitions</a> to develop a sustainable scientific ecosystem.</p>
<h2>The Panamanian reality</h2>
<p>National investment in research has remained below 0.4 percent <a href="http://www.senacyt.gob.pa/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/Resolucion_Plan-y-Politicas.pdf">since 1991</a>. In the late 1990s, scientific and political pressure pushed Panama to create SENACYT (the Spanish-language acronym for the National Secretariat for Science, Technology and Innovation). The agency’s search for funding began internationally, seeking loans from <a href="http://idbdocs.iadb.org/wsdocs/getdocument.aspx?docnum=460887">the Inter-American Development Bank</a> for money to fund research grants, scholarships and other science programs. The goal was to strengthen the local scientific system and to lure Panamanians with science experience back from abroad to build their careers at home. </p>
<p>In the mid-2000s, the country’s investment expanded to include an ambitious scholarship program helping Panamanians pursue graduate studies at <a href="http://www.senacyt.gob.pa/transparencia/descargas/103/2012_inf.pdf">top universities abroad</a>. Most of them went to study in the U.S. and Spain, in areas related to biology, engineering and information technology.</p>
<p>Since 2010, more than 200 newly minted Ph.D. graduates have returned to find little improvement to the country’s extremely limited infrastructure and funding. Rather than boosting a growing academic community, this new generation of scholars has increased competition for the scarce funding that is available to keep Panamanian science afloat.</p>
<p>SENACYT had projected an increase of government funding <a href="http://www.nature.com/news/2011/110126/full/469462a.html">to 0.6 percent of GDP would be needed by 2014 to support the returning talent</a>. But today, it’s only <a href="http://www.senacyt.gob.pa/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/Resolucion_Plan-y-Politicas.pdf">0.2 percent</a> of GDP. In fact, the share of GDP dedicated to SENACYT science funding has <a href="http://www.prensa.com/sociedad/ciencia-dinero-limitado_0_4478552228.html">shrunk since 2014</a>. And in 2017, SENACYT’s budget will be no higher than it is <a href="http://www.prensa.com/sociedad/ciencia-dinero-limitado_0_4478552228.html">this year</a> – about US$33 million.</p>
<p>Julio Escobar, head of SENACYT from 2004 to 2009, told us this effort has been equivalent to “moving the machinery, materials and building a bridge, but once built, leaving it without access to any main roads, thus not solving any real traffic problems.”</p>
<h2>Across Central America</h2>
<p>The story is quite different in Costa Rica, a country with slightly larger population and GDP than Panama. Investment in science is around 0.5 percent of the GDP – still far lower than in developed nations, but much closer than Panama to the OECD Latin American average of 0.7 percent. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/127776/original/image-20160622-7181-1nrpife.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/127776/original/image-20160622-7181-1nrpife.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/127776/original/image-20160622-7181-1nrpife.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/127776/original/image-20160622-7181-1nrpife.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/127776/original/image-20160622-7181-1nrpife.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/127776/original/image-20160622-7181-1nrpife.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/127776/original/image-20160622-7181-1nrpife.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/127776/original/image-20160622-7181-1nrpife.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Pacific entrance of The Panama Canal. The predominant service based economy, fueled by the Panama Canal and the porting industry, seeks immediate profit rather than the long-term returns offered by research programs.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Carlos A. Donado Morcillo</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Like Panama, Costa Rica does not have a defense program. But Costa Rica’s active manufacturing industry is a key driver of the country’s science spending. In contrast,
the <a href="http://www.senacyt.gob.pa/transparencia/descargas/93/Resolucion_Plan-y-Politica.pdf">Panamanian National Plan for Science, Technology and Innovation for 2015-2019</a> forecasts virtually no private-sector research investment – at most 0.3 percent of the total amount spent. Panamanian government efforts to encourage private investment have not succeeded, because of the predominantly <a href="http://www.senacyt.gob.pa/transparencia/descargas/93/Resolucion_Plan-y-Politica.pdf">low-tech, service business culture</a>, which seeks immediate profit rather than the long-term returns offered by research programs.</p>
<p>Other Central American governments are even farther behind in backing science. For instance, research and development investment in Guatemala, Honduras, El Salvador and Nicaragua is still <a href="http://data.worldbank.org/indicator/GB.XPD.RSDV.GD.ZS">below 0.05 percent</a> of their respective GDPs. However, support from international agencies in <a href="https://www.giz.de/en/worldwide/north_and_central_america.html">Germany</a>, <a href="http://www.jica.go.jp/project/english/area/america.html">Japan</a> and the <a href="http://eeas.europa.eu/ca/index_en.htm">European Union</a> has helped provide funding. The EU also <a href="http://eranet-lac.eu/index.php">offers specific grants</a> <a href="http://eulachealth.eu/description/">to Latin America</a>, and a <a href="http://www.enlace-project.eu">Central America-specific program</a> as well.</p>
<h2>Looking to the future</h2>
<p>Panamanian leaders have struggled to understand the importance of science and technology in a country where economic growth has been steady with only minute investments in research. Today, however, the potential benefits of the investment already made in developing scientific talent are at risk. With scarce resources, scientists are forced to seek opportunities abroad – which could escalate into a national brain drain problem.</p>
<p>Weak science investment forces returning scholars to become entrepreneurs and politicians, which not all researchers enjoy. In addition to doing scientific work, they must find ways to promote research in a country that has no definite political commitment to its long-term scientific development plan.</p>
<p>A solution to this crisis will not be found in science. Building a truly viable science and technology sector in Panama – and across Central America – will require continuous political lobbying, cohesive planning and research spending increases proportional to economic growth. </p>
<p>Beyond academic institutions, the promotion of a culture that embraces research and science will have to permeate industry, government, and the general public. The new generation of scientists is up for the task, but will they be heard?</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/59576/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Javier Sanchez-Galan received funding from SENACYT for pursuing his masters and doctoral studies.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Carlos A. Donado Morcillo does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>In the midst of a rapidly growing economy, research budget shortcomings threaten a young scientific community that struggles to stay afloat.Javier E. Sanchez-Galan, Associate research scientist, Universidad Tecnológica de PanamáCarlos A. Donado Morcillo, Adjunct Researcher, Universidad Católica Santa María La AntiguaLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/394612015-04-01T09:30:35Z2015-04-01T09:30:35ZShark-counting divers off Costa Rica reveal limits of marine reserves<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/76629/original/image-20150331-1245-jhdaod.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Despite the high concentration of sharks in Cocos, some species have declined in number – a signal on the effectiveness of marine preserves.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.underseahunter.com">Genna Marie Robustelli </a>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Marine protected areas – essentially nature preserves in the ocean – are meant to provide a safe harbor for sharks, rays and other ocean species being lost because of intense and often unregulated fishing.</p>
<p>In a <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/cobi.12478">study published in Conservation Biology</a> last week, we and other collaborators set out to quantify how populations of sharks and rays have changed over time at Cocos Island, a UNESCO World Heritage Site and one of the world’s oldest marine protected areas.</p>
<p>Perched 550 kilometers (340 miles) off the Pacific coast of Costa Rica, <a href="http://www.nature.org/ourinitiatives/regions/centralamerica/costarica/cocos-island-national-park.xml">Cocos</a> is an isolated paradise. Jacques Cousteau called it the most beautiful island in the world, and its lush rain forests were the inspiration for Michael Crichton’s novel Jurassic Park.</p>
<p>Underwater, Cocos teems with life. It is renowned amongst scuba divers as the best place in the world to swim with large schools of hammerhead sharks. Giant manta rays, sea turtles, yellowfin tunas, and whales sharks are also regularly seen.</p>
<p>And yet, there is trouble in paradise. We analyzed data on fish sightings reported after divemasters’ trips collected over the past two decades and found that all four of the most common shark and ray species at Cocos have declined significantly.</p>
<h2>Ecosystem changes</h2>
<p>Among the declines, we found the number of scalloped hammerhead sharks has dropped by almost half during that time. This tragedy is not altogether unexpected because hammerhead fins are highly prized in the international shark fin trade. These iconic sharks roam widely along coastlines in the eastern tropical Pacific Ocean, migrating between Cocos, Malpelo Island, and the Galapagos. Each of these islands is designated as a marine protected area, but hammerheads are still caught both within and outside of these areas.</p>
<p>More surprising, was the precipitous drop in Cocos’s other common shark and ray species, which inhabit the protected area year round. The whitetip reef shark is still seen on most dives at Cocos, but the number of this small reef-restricted species has plummeted by three-quarters. Ditto for the marble ray, a large stingray. Numbers of eagle rays, a large majestic pelagic species, have dropped by a third. All three of these species are thought to be reef-restricted and thus should be protected within the waters surrounding Cocos. Not so.</p>
<p>The declines in the number of sharks and rays restricted to the waters surrounding Cocos are a clear indication that the protected area isn’t working.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/76632/original/image-20150331-1253-d5e7yt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/76632/original/image-20150331-1253-d5e7yt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/76632/original/image-20150331-1253-d5e7yt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=429&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/76632/original/image-20150331-1253-d5e7yt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=429&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/76632/original/image-20150331-1253-d5e7yt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=429&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/76632/original/image-20150331-1253-d5e7yt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=539&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/76632/original/image-20150331-1253-d5e7yt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=539&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/76632/original/image-20150331-1253-d5e7yt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=539&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption"></span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.underseahunter.com">Genna Marie Robustelli</a>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>We also found that there have been increases in a few species. Not a single tiger shark was seen by divers at Cocos in our data until 2000. These large distinctive sharks are now seen on over 10% of dives. The abrupt increase suggests that some tiger sharks have simply set up shop at Cocos. Observations of the blacktip shark and the Galapagos shark also increased in frequency, so the Cocos marine protected area may be working for these two smaller reef-restricted shark species.</p>
<p>One can point to the increases in tiger, blacktip, and Galapagos sharks as signs the protected area is working. This is probably partially correct. But it also reflects a larger shift in which species inhabit the waters around Cocos Island. </p>
<p>In other words, increases in several species may be a sign of larger problems caused by changes in the ecosystem around Cocos Island. Higher numbers of some species, in particular large predatory species such as the tiger shark, may alter the relationships between species already present.</p>
<h2>Paper park?</h2>
<p>On land, parks with inadequate enforcement against hunting are often referred to as “paper parks” – existing merely as boundaries drawn on paper but with little on the ground protection. This conveys a false sense of conservation.</p>
<p>Perhaps understandably, <a href="http://www.ticotimes.net/2014/03/15/illegal-fishing-continues-unabated-in-costa-ricas-treasured-isla-del-coco-national-park">illegal fishing</a> is rampant within the Cocos Island marine protected area: the island is remote, enforcement has been limited, and shark fins are a hot commodity. Cocos is a 36 hour boat ride away from the mainland. This remoteness is part of what makes Cocos such a draw for divers from around the world, but it also makes the island a <a href="http://journals.cambridge.org/action/displayAbstract?fromPage=online&aid=9314184&fileId=S0030605314000337">sitting duck for illicit fishing activities</a>. </p>
<p>Funding for monitoring and enforcement has been minimal. MarViva, a regional environmental NGO, has patrolled the island along with the Costa Rican Coast Guard since 2003 and caught illegal fishing in the process. Costa Rican laws make it tough to prove [illegal fishing] has occurred, however, and most cases to date have been dismissed in court. As a result, the illegal fishing continues.</p>
<h2>A labour of love</h2>
<p>Many divers, however, recognize Cocos for the treasure that it is.</p>
<p>Over the past 21 years, a group of dedicated divemasters working at Undersea Hunter, a live-aboard dive company specializing in trips to Cocos Island, has meticulously recorded every shark and ray they saw while diving at the island.</p>
<p>Our study synthesized their observations of over 1.4 million sharks and rays.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/76633/original/image-20150331-1249-1jv4uxd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/76633/original/image-20150331-1249-1jv4uxd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/76633/original/image-20150331-1249-1jv4uxd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/76633/original/image-20150331-1249-1jv4uxd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/76633/original/image-20150331-1249-1jv4uxd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/76633/original/image-20150331-1249-1jv4uxd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/76633/original/image-20150331-1249-1jv4uxd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/76633/original/image-20150331-1249-1jv4uxd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption"></span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.underseahunter.com">Genna Marie Robustelli</a>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Without these data, it would be impossible to know how underwater life at Cocos is changing. Like many parts of the developing world, Costa Rican waters are without dedicated marine research surveys or comprehensive fisheries data. The foresight of Undersea Hunter’s owner Avi Klapfer to begin their monitoring program, and the dedication of the divemasters to continue it over two decades, is a testament to their love of Cocos.</p>
<p>In this remote area, with no official monitoring, the Undersea Hunter data provide a window to see how sharks and rays have changed over two decades in this isolated and globally unique marine reserve.</p>
<p><a href="https://vimeo.com/121911018">Watching sharks and rays at Cocos</a>, it is hard to believe that there used to be even more of these beautiful animals. The reef still appears to be covered with them despite the declines recorded by the divemasters over the years. </p>
<p>So what can be done?</p>
<p>More effort needs to be directed towards enforcement and monitoring at Cocos. Recent efforts by environmental non-governmental organizations (eNGOs), including MarViva, Forever Costa Rica, and Conservation International are encouraging. The groups are now working together, with assistance from Oceans 5, to install a radar on the island to help control illegal fishing. The Costa Rican government also needs to get serious about prosecuting offenders.</p>
<p>If Costa Rica is to maintain its status as a leader for progressive environmental policies, it needs to double down on efforts to protect its most iconic species and the national treasure that is Cocos Island.</p>
<p><em>To read more on the marine protection areas, see:</em></p>
<ul>
<li><a href="https://theconversation.com/pacific-remote-islands-protection-not-just-a-drop-in-the-ocean-32421">Pacific Remote Islands protection not just a drop in the ocean</a></li>
<li><a href="https://theconversation.com/worlds-largest-survey-of-marine-parks-shows-conservation-can-be-greatly-improved-22827">World’s largest survey of marine parks shows conservation can be greatly improved</a></li>
</ul><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/39461/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Julia Baum received funding from the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada and the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Easton White received funding from Fulbright Canada and the National Science Foundation.</span></em></p>Divers at the famed Cocos site off Costa Rica record declines in a number of shark species – a sign that marine preserves are limited protection against illegal fishing.Julia K. Baum, Assistant Professor of Biology, University of VictoriaEaston R. White, PhD Student, University of California, DavisLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.