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Dr. 0 .. ;.11 ...... ,. J1"If- '" biologfa en ,.

U.iMsUbI '" 1'_''''''' Y proftsor Iron""";" '" bio""" en ,. ~ '" C""," Rial y" Uni.."U/Ad MIciorulI '" Colt. Rial. Su InIbojo en ,. o:olog(o '" "'" """, ... lropiall" _ y ,. refoTtJlttlci6n • 0IJft0Cid0 murrdildmnrte. H4 tserit.296 IIrlfcu/os y cqttu"," '" libr .. Y d..",l11< .... 27 """' '" INbrIjo Iro rtdbidD "Um1rtJ1t7S pre:miol. Entre db se meumfnm el PmrIiD CTflfoord en <ctJlogfo w-<OO/uciD7urrio (1984), Hij. n""", '" G""""""" (1987). GIoI>U 500 Roll of Honour, UN£P (1987), MocArlhur F,'lowship (1989), y Fdlow, Amm"," Itauhmy of Arls .. d Scinu:ts (1990).

Costa Rica desde el Punto de Vista de un Extranjero

Dr. Daniel Janzen

Hoy quisiera presentarles el punto de vista que nonnalmente presento a la comunidad intemadonal en conferendas, universidades, entrevtstas periodlstic.as, etc. Se trata de Costa Rica desde el punta de vista de un extranjero. Me gustarla que tomaran mis palabras con cierta precaud6n, como si estuviera poniendo un espejo !rente a ustedes y Ie estuvtera pidlendo al mundo que los mirara en dicho espejo.

QuizU ustedes no estanin de acuerdo con Ia manera en que les voy a presentar esto, y es~ mas que lnvttados a haeerla y panerta es sus propias palabras, pero pienso que el fen6meno que voy a presentarles es un fen6meno que tiene sus rakes en la verdad, en 10 que esta ocurriendo dia a dfa.

Esta es Costa Rica. Es el centro del mundo como se puede ver periectamente. i.Qu~ es Costa Rica? Es una corporad6n que tiene.50 mllldl6metros cuadrados, 3 millones de acdonistas y alrededor de 12 milld16metros cuadrados de lnvemaderos, dentro de los cuales existe medio mill6n de especies. &to significa que Costa Rica tiene un CEO que se llama 'presidente', una junta directiva que se llama 'asamblea', y mirdstros que son los ejecutivos. Tlene toda Ja estructura de una corporaci6n y estos son los bienes de dicha corporad6n. Como corporaci6n, ,c6mo pianeamos, manejamos y usamos estos bienes para a1canzar los trWdmos benefic:ios para los 3 millones de acdonistas? Igual como se hace en cualquier otra compafda.

,Que es esto? Es un mapa de Costa Rica. CuaJquier costarricense que 10 yea dir.i: "Ob, sl. Ese es un mapa de Costa Rica; el color rosado representa las Areas agricolas y el color verde las Areas COlTespondientes a los parques nacionales.H £sa es 1a reacci6n instantinea pero no es la COlTecta. EI color rosado representa simplemente un tipo de usa de la tierra Y el verde otro tipo de uso. Hay dertas tipos de productos en cada zona; 5610 dOlI listas con pequet\as diferencias. No caigamos en Ia trampa de afirmar que tsO es conservaci6n. como 51 fuera algo que estj, dentro de una botella sobre un estante para que todos 10 miren. y que aqueUo es algo que es lltil a 1a sociedad..

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c;., .... / f( >f ,·J· , ,." ...c.;,P')ff 5'!> Ja Dr. D .. ;.I , •• _ is Prafaso, of Biology ot the U"it><rsity of P"'nsyl"""illond Honorary Prafrssor of Biology at the U"it><rsidad de Costa RicA and tk U7Iivmid4d. NacioMI, Costo Rial. His work on til< tcology of dry tropiaII {arms .nd ,t[ortStotion is world· rmownt4. He hils authored 296 paptTS And booIc c/oJptm ."d om- his 27 Y"''' of work his rtaitttJ numtrO"' tlWfITds. Among them are til< CrafoMd Priu in C"""utionllry Ecology (1984), Hijo de /I.me de G""""""t< (1987), Glabol500 IWII of Honou" UNEP (1987), MllcArthur Fdlowl;hip (1989), ond F<IIotD, Amniam Aaademy of Arts o"d Scienas (1990) .

Costa Rica from a Foreigner's Point of View Dr. Daniel Janzen

The point of view which I would like to present to you very briefly today is a point of view that I often present to the international community at conferences, universities, interviews with journalists, and so forth. This is the point of view of Costa Rica of a foreigner. So I would like you to listen with some caution. 1 am putting a mirror in front of you and asking the world to look at you in that mirror.

Perhaps you will not agree with the manner in which I am going to present this, and you are welcome to put the same material in your own words, but I think that the phenomenon that I am going to present is a phenomenon that has its roots in the truth of what is happening day by day.

This is Costa Rica. It is the center of the world. as you can see perfectly well. What is Costa Rica? It is a corporation that has 50 thousand square kilometers, three million shareholders, and more or less 12 thousand square kilometers of greenhouses - and within those 12 thousand square kilometers of greenhouses, there are half a milllon species. That is to say, Costa Rica has a CEO who is caUed the president, a board of directors that is called the assembly, and ministers who are the executives. It has aU the structures and assets of a corporation. As a corporation, how do we manage, plan and use those assets in order to achieve the greatest benefits for those 3 million shareholde~? We manage these structures and. assets just as any other company would.

What Is this? It Is a map of Costa Ria. Any Costa Rican looking alit Is going to say, "Oh yes. that's a map of Costa Rica, and the pink represents agricultural areas and the green areas are the national parks." That is the immediate reaction. No. The pink is one type of land use, and the green is another type of land use, pure and Simple. There are products here and products there­just two lists, and they are a little different. Let's not falllnto the trap of saying tlrdt is conservation, like something in a bottle on a shelf to look at. and this is something that is useful to society. No, here we have two types of products, two types of uses, two types of land, both useful.

Let's go to the margin between the green and the pink. What do we have here? The pink. It's an orange grove of 16 thousand hectares. What is this here above it? Virgin forest. Areas

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No; aqui tenemos dos tipos de productos, dos Upos de usos, dos Upos de Uerras que pueden ser usadas.

Vearnos ahara los limites entre 10 rosado y 10 verde. ,Que tenemos aqui? EI color rosado es un naranjal de 16 mil hectareas. ,Que es esto que esta sobre el? Es un bosque virgen; areas que han sido conservadas par su biodiversidad. Honestamente, ese es el destine de Costa Rica: areas destinadas a un producto y areas destinadas a otro producto. La pregunta es ,como podemos prooucir a1 maximo aqui y como producir al maximo alii? Todos tenemos la rrusma responsabilidad, la misma tarea. Yo, como conservacionista, como biologo, tengo una responsabilidad enorme por estas tierras verdes, y el dueflo de estas tierras tiene una enorme responsabilidad por estas tierras rosadas.

"Cultivar el bosque. Los ecoturistas son una mejor forma de ganado." Esta es una presentacion de diapositivas y dentro de la logica de una presentacion de este tipo sus mentes est3n preparadas para ver una foto de un ecoturista. Aquf tenemos un ecoturista. Es una joven de once aflos tocando una culebra por primera vez en su vida. Ella no es de Michigan ni de Nueva York. Tampoco es de Florida. Es de una colonia agricola en el centro de Ia provincia de Guanacaste. ,Como paga ella la visita al parque? En nueve anos mas ella pagara con un voto. Ustedes van a dectr que esas jOvenes probablemente estan en Ia escuela secundaria donde estudian computaci6n. No; eUas son ecoturistas buscando datos sobre 10 que hay en el parque. Ustedes van a decir que ella es una parataxonoma aprendiendo a agarrar una culebra. No; ella es una indigena de Costa Rica reaprendiendo 10 que sus abuelos sabian y que ella hoy ignora.

,Que es esto? Un libro quese llama "Costa Rican Natural History". Eso es un mejor tipo de alambre de pUas para el ganado que es llamado ecoturista. ,Que es esto? Un libro que se llama "Historia natural de Costa Rica". Mejorarruentos del potrero. Y esto si es mejoramiento. Es dectr, traduciendo esta Fuente de informacion del ingles al castellano, esto quiere door poner abono en la cosecha llamada "ecoturismo". Hace ocho anos, cuando surgi6la idea de hacer este libro -que es una coleccion del traba;o sobre Ia historia natural de Costa Rica hecho por muchas personas-Ia intendon era que sirviera para estudiantes de postgrado en los Estados Unidos y para los ecoturistas de Dlinois. Hoy dia nos damos cuenta que l!se fue un grave error. Este libra deberia haber side escrito para el usuario latino, considerando la sociedad como un todo, y luego traducido al ingles.

La prospection en biodiversidad hoy dia trata con informaci6n y productos que son producidos por el bosque, Todos hablan hoy de eso. Obviamente, es muy, muy importante, Es otra manera de cultivar el bosque y todas las preguntas sobre como aseguramos de que no destruiremos el bosque, de que no salgamos perdiendo en el mercado intemacionat etc. Esas SOn las preguntas cL1sicas de cualquier corporadon en el mundo. Como invertir sus ganancias y c6mo mantener la fabrica. Todas esas preguntas se las estamos aplicando a una corporadon llamada Costa Rica.

,Que significa prospecd.on en biocliversidad? Bueno, esto es un chapulin. Simplemente un chapulin. Pero wando ese chapulin vio que me estaba aproximando para sacarle una feto me mostro un ala roja. ,Que significa esa ala rop.? Quiere dedr: "Alto, yo tengo un sabor muy desagradable" Al decir esto, estoy leyendo la literatura que nos ofrece esa biblioteca Hamada bosquo. Estoy hablando acorea do aliabetismo biol6gico. Voted .. quizAs aUn «onen dudas y piensan que estas colores no son mAs que una decoration. Observen 10 que pasa cuando es agarrado. Produce una espuma y si yo la toco con m.i lengua es como 51 mordiera una amarga balTa de jabOn. Tiene un sabor horrible. Es esta defensa 10 que el mundo quiere investigar y explorar a traves del estudio de 13 biodiversidad.

,Que necesitamos, entonces, para preparamos hada un desarrollo en esta dlrecd6n? Necesitamos areas de conservacion. Este es el ingrediente crftico. Tenemos que tener orgarusmos. No importa si se los estamos mostrando a una joven de once aftos para que ella pueda leer como podia hacerlo su abuela, 0 si los consideramos productos de 1a biodiversidad. Necesitamos elArea, la zona ffsica. Necesitamos personas que sean capaces de entrar en esa biblioteca, buscar un libro,

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conserved for biodiversity Frankly, that is the future of Costa Rica: some areas managed for one product, other areas managed for another product. The question is, how do we produce the great­est output here, and how do we produce the greatest output there? All of us have the same respon­sibility, the same duty. I, as a conservationist, as a biologist, have an enormous responsibility to these green lands, and the owner of these lands has an enormous responsibility to these pink lands.

"Fanning the forest. Ecotourists are a much better form of cattle." [slide) Now, this is a slide presentation, and in the logic of a slideshow, your mind is now prepared for a photo of an ecotourist. Here is an ecotourist. It is an eleven-year old girl touching a snake for the first time in her life. She's not from Michigan. She's not from New York. She's not from Ronda. She's from an agricultural settlement in the center of Guanacaste Province. And how does she pay for the visit to park? In nine years, she will pay with a vote.

You are going to say that these are girls who are probably about junior-high age studying a computer. No, they are ecotourists looking at the data about what there is in the park. Vou are going to say that is a parataxonomist learning how to hold a snake. No, she is an indigenous Costa Rican relearning what her great-grandparents knew, and what she today does not know.

What is this? A book called "Costa Rican Natural History". It is a better type of barbed wire fence for the cow that is called the ecotourist. What is this? A book called "Historia natural de Costa Rica". Improvements for the cattle ranch. And this [slide of cover of book on Costa Rican natural history) is definitely an improvement. That is to say, translating this source of information from English into Spanish, putting fertilizer on the crop called "ecotourism". Eight years ago, when the idea was suggested to produce this book, which is a collection of many peoples' work on natu­ral history in Costa Rica, it was intended for postgraduate students in the United States, for the ecotourist from Dlinois. Today, we see that was a very serious error. That book should be written for the local users and then translated into English.

Biodiversity prospecting today deals with products and information that the forest pro­duces. Everyone is now talking about this. ObViously, it is very, very important. It is another way to farm the forest. And all of the questions about how to ensure that we do not destroy the forest, and how to ensure that we don' t lose out in the international market how to ensure this and that.. .. Those are the classic questions of any type of corporation in the world. How to invest their profits and how to maintain the factory. All those questions we are applying to the corporation called Costa Rica.

What is "biodiversity prospecting"? WeD, it is a grasshopper. A grasshopper, pure and Simple. But when that grasshopper saw that I was approaching to take a pkture, it showed me a red wing. What is that red wing? It is "Hey, I have a very distasteful flavor!" When I say this, I am reading theliteralure from that library that is called the forest. I am talking about biologicalllt-eraey.

Okay, you might still have doubts that these colors are just decoration. Look what ha~ when I grab it. (slide). It produces a foam here, ard if I touch thJs with my tongue, it is like biting a bar of soap. A horrible taste. This is the defense that the world wants to explore and investigate in biodiversity prospecting.

So, what do we need as preparation for development in this direction? We need conserva­tion areas. This is the critical ingredient. We must have organJsms. It doesn't matter if we're showing them to an eleven-year old girl so that she can read llke her grandmother could read, or as products ofbiodivl!I5ity. We need thea"", - the physlcal part.

We need the people who are capable of entering that Ubrary, looking for a book, opening a book, reading what they find within it, and communicating that information to us. They are the parataxonomisls in this case. They could be paraecologists, or any people who are capable of reading this information. A center is needed where that information arrives and is processed. This is INDio. You, lOOking at this sUde, see it and thJ.nk. "Oh, a building.. near a capitol dty." 'That is what registers in the head. Somebody thinldng in terms of development, like a minister of plan­ning, is not going to notice that. He is going to notice this. What is thJs? Sixty-percent of the popu-

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abrirlo, leer 10 que en et enruentren y comunicamos esa informad6n a nosotros. Ellos son, es este caso, los parataxonomos. Podrian ser paraecoiogistas, 0 cualquier otra persona que sea capaz de leer esta informacion. Se necesita un centro donde se envie y se procese dkha informacion. Este es el INBio. Al mirar esta diapositiva ustedes piensan: "Oh, un edificio cerca de una dudad capital" . Eso es 10 que queda registrado en la mente. Sin embargo, alguien que piensa en tet-minos de desarrollo, como un ministro de planificacton, no va a notar eso. EI va a notar esto. ,Que es esto? Sesenta por dento de la pobladon de Costa Rica, a esta corta distancia de esta fuente de informacion. Estamos hablando de algo mAs que arumular, masticar, digerlr, y devolver esa informadon. Estamos hablando de ponerla directamente en el centro de ese ruerpo humano.

,Que es esto? Es el primer avion que volo con su propia fuente de energia . Es el avion de los hermanos Wright. ,Que es Costa Rica, ademas de ser una corporact6n? Es un proyecto piloto. Pura Y simplemente un proyecto piloto. Es el equivalente de este avi6n. Y Costa Rica nunca sera mas que eslo. Costa Rica es una pats pequei\o; su biodiversidad es pequei\a. Su territorio nacional es pequeno. Mexico es ruarenta veces mas grande que Costa Rica . Tiene 35 veces mas gente y tiene mas biodiversidad que la que tiene Costa Rica. 1.0 mismo ocurre con Indonesia, Brasil y otras Areas grandes. Peru tiene tres veces mas biodiversidad que Costa Rica. El futuro de Costa Rica es utilizar su pequei\o aeroplano, estar en la vanguardia. Ese es el futuro de Costa Rica.

,Que es esto? Podriamos door que es Heredia en tres ai\os, pero en realidad es el centro de ciudad de Mexico. Una' zona donde viven diecinueve millones de personas como sardinas. Este pais, inspirado quizAs por el trabajo de Rodrigo Gamez y la gente de INBio, form6, ellS de febrero, su propio INaio. Aqui tenemos al presidente Salinas frente a su gente didendo: "Este es un problema y vamos a resolverlo y la voluntad politica esta aqui para resolverlo. Aqui tienen diez millones de d6lares para empezar este proceso y quiero que tengan la eslructura lista, con un director, dentro de un mes." Eso fue inspirado, no copiado. EIINBio creci6 de abajo hacia arriba; ese esta comenzando dearriba y luego irA hada abajo.

,Que es esto? Es un pats que tiene casi sesenta veces mas genie que Costa Rica. Es enonne en comparaci6n con Costa Rica. Tiene mucha mas biodiversidad que Costa Rica. Hace un mes Indonesia vino a Costa Rica y Ie dijo: "Costa Rica, hi eres pequet\a, enset\anos a construir un J.N'Bio." Ese es nuestro rol; ser profesores, maestros. Yesa es la cuesti6n. 5i pudieran empezar de nuevo, ,c6mo planearian la hadenda Costa Rica? Es aquf donde se encuenlTan hoy dia. Replanificando su pais, y su pats tiene la capaddad. para hacerlo. Muchas gracias.

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lalian of Costa Rica, at this distance from this source of information. We're talking about more than accumulating, chewing, digesting, and regurgitating that information. W~re talking about putting it directly in the center of that human body.

What is this? The first airplane that flew by its own power. It is the Wright Brothers' air. plane. What is Costa Rica in addition to being a corporation? It is a pilot project. Pure and simple, a pilot project. It is the equivalent of this airplane. And Costa Rica will never be more than this. Costa Rica is a tiny country. Her biodiversity is tiny. Her national territory is tiny. Mexico is 40 times larger than Costa Rica. It has 35 times more people. It has more biodiversity than Costa Rica has. You can see the same data for Indonesia, Brazil. and other large areas. Peru has about three times more biodiversity than does Costa Rica. The future of Costa Rica is to use her Uttle airplane to be on the cutting edge. That is the future for Costa Rica .

What is this? We can say that it's Heredia in three years. But in reality it is the center of Mexico City. A zone of nineteen million human beings, like sardines. This country formed its own INBio on February 15. This was inspired by the work of Rodrigo Gamez and the people at the INBio. Here we have President Salinas, putting himself in front of the people of Mexico and saying, 'This is a problem and we' re going to solve it and the political will is there to solve it. Here are $10 million to start the process and I want the structure ready in a month, with a director." That was inspired, it was not copied. INBio grew from the bottom up; that one is starting from above and will flow down.

What is this? It is a country with almost 60 times more people than Costa Rica. It is enor· mous in comparison with Costa Rica. It has much more biodiversity than Costa Rica. A month ago, Indonesia came to Costa Rica and said: "Costa Rica, you are tiny. Help us to build an INaio." That is your role· to be professors, teachers. And that is the question. If you could begin again, how would you plan the hacienda Costa Rica? That is where you are today, replanning your country - and your country ~as the capacity to do it.

Thank you very much.

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