La Lima, Cortes is a beautiful city in Latin America which is an attractive place for tourists. The city is split into two divisions by river Chamelecon. On the western part of the river is La Lima Vieja and La Lima Nueva on the eastern part of the river. Being a tourist attraction region, the country has benefited from foreign exchange. The top earners of foreign exchange in the region are bananas and coffee which are always on high demand by tourists. The nature and eco system enhance great adventure for tourists who visit the region. This essay will give a general discussion of the history of La Lima.
In La Lima, ecotourism is a significant business venture that has boosted economic growth in the country. The available eco-tourism sites such parks, wildlife in the Palomino Islands and the Larco museum offer tourists a great experience with nature. As a result of various tourist attraction features, the wellbeing of the citizens is improved through the income earned from the tourist attraction sites. The region has countless natural areas which conserve the environment and boost the living standards of the local people. There are different tourism attraction sites such as the eco-playa, which is a beach that has grey/black sand, ecological rent-a-cat which rents vehicles to tourists, eco-music songs that contain themes about the environment, Eco lodges and Eco safaris among many others.
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Most enterprises are categorized as ecotourism lite which means that everyone adheres to the environmental conservation principles. As a way to enhance conservation of the ecosystem, many hotels in Costa Rica offer their visitors the eco-option which expects them to keep their towels and not offer them for laundry everyday as a way of conserving the ecosystem.
Tourists have contributed towards employment opportunities in La Lima. The job creation opportunity generates foreign exchange and boosts tax revenues. However there are negative impacts to the society which result from tourism such as mismanagement of the environment and pollution. Cultural pollution has resulted from the tourists introducing bad habits such as the use of drugs. Most tourists view the local people as a threat to their security because of the numerous tourism-related crimes experienced in different areas. The tourists collide with the local people in many occasions as they are viewed as poor individuals who are a risk to their security.
In recent years, the environmental conservation movements in La Lima have succeeded in their goal towards environmental conservation. Initially, the environmental conservation groups consisted of middle-class individual and concentrated in urban regions. The work of such groups towards environmental conservation has resulted in air pollution control within the region. It has as well enhanced the growth of green industries such as the ecotourism industry which has boosted the income earned from tourists who get attracted by the combination of beaches and beautiful game reserves. Another group of environmental activities in the region consist of groups of poor people who get affected by pollution from oil industries.
La Lima city is however facing the effects of global warming (Vázquez-Rowe et al., 2017) . Glaciers are melting up rapidly in many regions. Big parts of the Antarctic ice are melting and disappearing form the sea. Such are effects brought about by global warming. Through research, scientist have provided information that more effects of global warming are yet to be experienced in the country. The effects could turn the semi-arid parts into deserts and the future of the farmers especially in the northern regions could be dimmed by the climate change impacts. The residents are faced by threats such as an increase in the disastrous weather cycles known as El Niño and La Nina and warm and cold water currents that bring about severe floods and droughts. If such phenomenal occur in the future as a result of global warming, the poor and vulnerable communities will be the most affected.
Another challenge that the city faces is the loss of its volcanoes. The Volcano Mountains rarely erupt due to the heavy blanket of smog that covers them. The government has tried to bring the situation back to normal by coming up with the idea of drilling holes through the mountains to allow in air as a way of clearing the smog which is a difficult idea to implement. The thermal inversion has prevented the city’s filthy air from escaping. Air pollution is a big concern in the region. A huge number of babies born have been recorded to have some levels of lead in their blood.
The environment is generally affected by the forest burning seasons which start in June as a method used by citizens to create more space for economic development. Every year, the flames consume a huge area of the available rain forests. The forests got burnt at the rate of 4.5 hectares per minute by the 2005. Currently, a large area of the region has no forests due to deforestation. Studies have it that more forests are yet to be eliminated. This damage stretches to all corners of the country. Resort developers have filled up the available mangrove swamps and built resorts on top of them. This environmental damage has destroyed the buffer formed by the swamps against the strong winds and waves. The mangrove swamp areas that have not been affected by development and construction have become exposed to overfishing and degradation. The rainforests in other regions have been polluted by oil companies due to the toxic wastes that get dumped in the environment annually.
Nature has been destroyed by severe soil erosion which has brought about food crisis in the region. This has enhanced a reduction on the indigenous population through diseases and forced labor. The environmental crisis in the urban regions took off in the 20 th century after the unfavorable industrialization programs that were introduced in the 1930s and 1940s. This is because of the many industries that have no regulations and contribute towards air and water pollution. Many vehicle deployed in the urban regions release toxic gasses such as carbon monoxide in the environment.
The government has contributed towards the environmental damage caused to La Lima
(Ioris, 2016) . The international lenders, through the projects that they introduced in the city, have brought a lot of damage to the general environment. The big dams, mining projects, the road programs and the mining complexes brought about due to economic development enhanced massive effects to the environment. The established roads brought much damaged to the forests. Building of the roads caused deforestation and took up the farms initially used by the local people who have then been forced to move away to allow space for the construction of roads.
The region is currently the receiver of the world’s largest share of mining investment. In the early 1990s, the region attracted close to 12 percent of the global investment in mining. The amount further increase by 2000 to almost 33 percent. Serious environmental threats have been posed due to such activities. The mining that takes place in forested regions causes deforestation while the many waste products of the minerals cause pollution in rivers and farms. Foreign mining projects in the area are a major environmental hazard. Apart from that, the miners introduced guns, diseases such as malaria and mercury that is used in the crude process in the separation of gold dust from mud.
Deforestation caused the emergence of the green movement aimed at protecting the environment. This has brought about massive negative effects that have implications on global warming. Forests get burned to create land for economic activities. The destruction of the forests has caused most rivers to fall to the lowest levels they have ever been. The cattle ranches that are introduced by foreigners have caused the soils to deteriorate and this leaves behind huge lands with barren soils.
High levels of deforestation in the region have enhanced soil erosion as the top layers of soil is washed away into rivers. The soil fills up streams and disrupts marine ecosystem along the coastal regions. The fight by local citizens against soil erosion was not successful as the lands were already being used for economic purposes. Deforestation has disrupted the local climate due to elimination of the trees that regulate rain and water. Most local people rely on fuel as a source of energy. Such individual have to travel further in search of wood as there is an increase in the scarcity due to deforestation.
People living in the region have no hope for surviving even for new settlers. Over-intensive agriculture practiced by the local people has brought about soil erosion effects which is an environmental hazard. This has highly undermined the agricultural production. The peasant farmers carry out maize and beans farming on the steep hill sides while below the hills, rich farmers carry out large scale farming for cotton and sugarcane. The El Niño weather hazard has resulted into hurricanes and floods and this has highly affected the environment. Such effects are a result of deforestation and over intensive farming.
The pesticides used on exportation crops are a hazard to personal health and the environment. Such pesticides are poisonous. Chemicals such as DDT used in the pesticides have been banned and restricted due to the negative health effects. These environmental pollution activities will continue being a hazard to the country if measures against them are taken.
References
Ioris, A. A. (2016). Water scarcity and the exclusionary city: the struggle for water justice in Lima, Peru. Water international , 41 (1), 125-139.
Vázquez-Rowe, I., Kahhat, R., & Lorenzo-Toja, Y. (2017). Natural disasters and climate change call for the urgent decentralization of urban water systems. Science of the Total Environment , 605 , 246-250.
