Page 485 - Sustainable Cities and Communities Design Handbook

Sustainable Communities in Costa Rica Chapter j 22 455

Costa Rica is located in the Central America isthmus, with Nicaragua to
the north, Panama to the south, the Pacific Ocean to the west, and the Atlantic
Ocean to the east.

The above figure shows the Coat of Arms. The colors of the Costar Rican
flag are shown below.

A Jewel in Latin America
Costa Rica stands out as one of the developing tropical countries for its
commitment toward environmental and natural resource issues. In my opinion
one of the best things the government of Costa Rica has done is to decentralize
the decision-making process for sustainability to improve the management of
biodiversity conservation by local groups. This decentralization has helped
expedite work of projects needed by the local regions, minimized corruption as
the local regions are very much interested in the benefits for that area, and has
made the formation of alliances with foreign organizations more easy as less
“red tape” is needed and the foreign organizations may be very much inter-
ested in just that one region. Despite the fact that hotel constructions are
rampant in some areas and harming the environment, Costa Rica is a good