Topic
History
7 articles
Articles tagged with this topic across every collection on the site.
The People Who Knew the Forest
For 12,000 years, indigenous peoples managed Costa Rica's forests as living systems. The forests they shaped were better than pristine.
The First Tree
Seventy million years of tectonic collision and pioneer colonization built the most species-dense country on Earth. Most of it was cleared in a generation.
It Was Just Pasture
Costa Rica's forest cover climbed from 21 to 52 percent. The recovery is real. It is also a real-estate sales pitch, and the part it leaves out is the part worth telling.
The Whale Tail
In 1968, ALCOA bought the right to strip-mine the Valle del General. The students who lost the protest saved Punta Uvita anyway.
How the Térraba Kept Flowing
Costa Rica declared a hydroelectric dam on indigenous territory "national convenience." Fourteen years and $146 million later, the Sala IV killed it.
The People of the Diquís Delta
An airport survey turned up traces of a society that read this flood-prone delta far better than the engineers planning to pave it.
Paradise Lost and Regained: Costa Rica's Forest Revolution
How a tropical nation nearly destroyed its forests in 50 years, then became the first to reverse deforestation. A deep dive into Costa Rica's conservation revolution and the forces that now threaten to undo it.