About the size of West Virginia and with a population of almost 4 million, Costa Rica is an exemplar for the conservation of natural resources and economic sustainability. Almost one-third of its land is protected by land management laws, more than any other country on Earth. Costa Rica's traditional agricultural export economy (including coffee and bananas) has been supplanted by tourism and high tech exports.

Course Offerings - 6 credit hours
Students will earn 6 upper-division credits from the University of Utah.  Both courses can be applied towards the Environmental Studies major.

POLS 5500 The Politics of Public Lands Management
Satisfies Group F Human Behavior/Policy Elective of ENVST Major
Costa Rica has one of the most unique land management policies in the world;  their democratic government decided that the country's amazing natural beauty was its greatest asset.  As a result, 11% of the country is set aside as national parks, and fully 33% of the country is protected in some form by land management laws. Protective strategies include both public and private reserves, biological corridors, ecotourism incentives, and carbon credits. Land management policies have allowed the country to shift from a traditional agricultural export economy to a tourist-based economy. Costa Rica has become a model for nations that hope to encourage economic development within a framework of environmental protection and ecosystem sustainability.  In this course we will meet with Costa Rican land managers, elected officials, and interest groups.  We will also visit different areas of the country that illustrate various land management strategies.  The objective of the course is to assess the political viability of the Costa Rican model: How well is it working?  What political strategies are most successful in sustaining progressive land management policies?  How has the success of ecotourism affected political support for land stewardship?  And finally, the most important question:  what is the relationship between having a democratically elected government, and the ability to initiate and sustain progressive land stewardship policies?

HIST 4300/6680 Nature and History in Costa Rica
Satisfies Group D Humanities/Aesthetics Elective of ENVST Major
The stunning diversity of Costa Rica 's forests, beaches, countryside, cityscapes, and the people that live there, provide the backdrop for this environmental history class. We will explore how Costa Rica 's remarkable experience with nature conservation developed in tandem with coffee and banana economies followed by rapid ecotourism. As one of the "new" histories, environmental history borrows insights from many disciplines to examine how nature both modifies and is modified by human societies. We will consider such subtopics as parks and gardens, indigenous peoples, farming and fishing, religion, invasive species, environmentalism, tropicality, and restoring/renaturing. Our primary documents for this course will be the people and places themselves. Our primary activity will be extensive field trips for seeing what historians might learn by viewing the land and by hearing from the people who make their livelihoods from it. Our itinerary will start and end in the capital city of San Jose , while taking us to both coasts and visiting plantations, volcanoes, cloud forests, and wildlife reserves by bus, boat, and foot.

Honors Coursework Opportunities
If you are a student in the Honors Program, it is possible to register for these courses and receive Honors credit.

The Honors Program is also offering a $1,000 scholarship to Honors students participating in the Honors Study Abroad Program. Contact the Honors Program for more information: 801-581-7383.

Excursions and Activities
The program will begin in Santa Ana, a suburbof San Jose, where students will stay with local families before traveling to the coastal town of ManuelAntonio. Students will then travel to La Fortuna, Monteverde Cloud Forest, La Selva Biological Research Station and Tortuguero. Along the way students will see an active volcano, banana and coffee plantations, and the cloud and rain forests. Students will have the opportunity to travel at their own expense after the program.