Costa Rica Among the Five Best Tourist Destinations of 2021. Photo: Lauren Harrigan/UNSPALSH

Costa Rica is a lush wonderland of rainforests and exotic plant and animal wildlife — from crocodiles and dolphins to blue-jeans poison-dart Frogs and howler monkeys — that has attracted tourists from all over the globe.

In an effort to keep the tourist economy there strong, government leaders have partnered with researchers from the Stanford Natural Capital Project to learn about the ways Costa Rica’s unique environment is an asset to its tourism.

Through their research, published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, the international team based at Stanford University — which includes academics and professionals from the Chinese Academy of Sciences, the World Wildlife Fund, the Stockholm Resilience Centre, The Nature Conservancy and the University of Minnesota — discovered that tourists favor areas with roads and lodging that provide easy access to Costa Rica’s remarkable variety of wildlife, Stanford News reported.

Read more: https://www.ecowatch.com/costa-rica-tourism-wildlife-conservation.html