Making magic real

South America is the home of magic realism, literature where the everyday is utterly transformed. Suddenly, characters in novels find their lives intertwined with butterflies that mutter and pumas that sing — the real and the magical know no bounds here.

But while many South American countries embellished magic realism in their writing, Costa Rica made this come alive. A quizzically-shaped land, Costa Rica links southernmost North America to South America, stirring a rich melange of Western and indigenous cultures.



It has only 0.03% of the world’s land— yet, endowed with mountains, man-groves and volcanos, Costa Rica is among the world’s twenty leading countries containing the richest biodiversity. More than 5,00,000 species — over 5% of Earth’s biodiversity — is found here and Costa Rica has zealously protected these.

In the 1940s, struck by socio-political violence, the country saw a democratic revolution abolishing its military. This meant the availability of resources for free public education and conservation.



This was no easy task though. As the World Bank explains, Costa Rica was heavily dependent on agriculture — by 1980, it had lost half its mature forests to farming. However, visionary measures were established to halt such denudation, including the Payments for Environmental Services (PES) which (also by tapping into fuel taxes) gave farmers incentives for reforestation, agroforestry and sil-vopastoralism, combining tree growing with livestock.



Costa Rica’s forest cover now encompasses 60% of its land, compared to 26% in 1983, making it the only South American nation to reverse deforestation. Alongside, 25% of the country comprises protected reserves, encouraging ecotourism, giving local communities further stakes in protecting biodiversity.

Generating 99% of its electricity from renewables now, Costa Rica is writing a modern story. It also recently became the first Latin American economy to receive World Bank payments for reducing carbon emissions linked to deforestation.

As Times Evoke’s global experts emphasise, this should ideally be the first tranche of returns this small, large-hearted country earns for preserving biodiversity. Other rewards, of course, include encountering hummingbirds which fly backwards, enigmatic iguanas living on trees and frogs gleaming like jewels in rainforest canopies.

Join Times Evoke in exploring a country which made its magic real.