Sales, Marketing, and Sustainability

A Tale of Two Rainforests

At the age of 19, I visited the Ecuadorian Amazon Rainforest. By accident really. I was in Ecuador because I wanted to learn to speak Spanish. By luck, I had befriended an Ecuadorian exchange student in the states who invited me to her home for a visit.

I spent a few weeks at my friend’s home on the coast of Ecuador and another six weeks riding around the country on buses and exploring on my own. While exploring, I studied Spanish from a workbook and practiced speaking with friendly locals.

In Quito, Ecuador’s capital, I saw a sign on the window of a travel agency promoting tours to the Amazon. That sounded great.

The Amazon Rainforest

The 3-day trip was a “glam camping” experience to be sure. I travelled with other tourists to an area with comfortable, hotel-like cabins. We enjoyed short walks into the Amazon Forest surrounding the cabins. One of the tour guides, sensing that I was up for greater adventure, suggested that I return for a more authentic experience of the Amazon and its people.

When the tour ended, I took a bus out of the Amazon back to Quito. It was full of locals (and a few chickens). As I looked for an open seat, I spotted a woman who did not fit in. I took the open seat next to her.

Her name was Judith Kimerling. She was an American lawyer who was in Ecuador on behalf of RAN - the Rainforest Action Network. She was documenting the oil industry’s pollution in the Amazon. She had just completed writing a report that would eventually become “Amazon Crude,” a 132-page published report on Ecuador’s oil industry.?

Judith told me about how a single ruptured pipeline that had spilled nearly 300,000 gallons of oil into the Napo River, turning the water and surrounding soil and plants black, and affecting families living as far into the forest as near the Peruvian border. The occurred because there were only stop valves on every 35 miles of pipe meaning that when a rupture occurred, 35 miles of oil would spill out into the area. She shared how the spill affected more than 550 families who, among other injuries, lost their gardens—an important source of their daily sustenance. Walking barefoot along dirt roads had become unsafe due to oil waste on the road that would give walkers sores on their legs.

She told me about open oil waste pits that Texaco used to dispose of formation water and drilling waste, both hazardous byproducts of oil extraction filled with heavy metals and other toxic chemicals. In fact, Texaco was dumping at least 3.2 million gallons of toxic produced water per day, flared nearly 50 million cubic feet of noxious gas daily and spilled 17 million gallons of crude from the main pipeline alone in the rainforest during its three decades of Ecuadorian operations.?

When I returned to the states, I joined the Rainforest Action Network and began planning my next trip to Ecuador.

Amazon Rainforest Trip Two

A year later I returned to the Amazon, bringing a group of people with me. There was very little “glam” on this 8-day trip. Our group slept in hammocks in the open air. Toilets and showers were not part of the experience.

We travelled up Rio Napo and up one of the smaller rivers that fed into it— further into the Amazon to places less frequented by tourists. We took long walks and experienced unforgettable nature and wildlife. The Amazon is one of the most biodiverse places on Earth with over 3 million species.

Our group visited a village where locals shared with us that they could no longer drink water from the river and that fishing had become more difficult because of the pollution.

I returned to the US exhilarated by the entire experience and disheartened by the actions and irresponsibility of American oil companies in Ecuador.

Tourism in the Napo area was and still is very important. In fact, as of 2023, it was the second most important source of economic income in the area after agriculture. Despite this, the Ecuadorian government has not solved the problem of environmental pollution in the Amazon. After three decades, Judith Kimerling is still working to help the indigenous people adversely affected.

The Costa Rican Rainforest

I recently took another trip to a rainforest—this time the rainforest of Costa Rica.

Our group stayed at the Arenal-Oasis Eco Lodge & Wildlife Refuge at the base of the Arenal Volcano—a place where holler monkeys chatter and swing in the trees above the cabins and guests enjoy night frog tours. We took advantage of the many amazing experiences the area had to offer including zip lining, ATV, water rafting, a coffee farm and even a sloth tour.

Apart from the natural beauty of the area, the most striking quality of the area was the consistent message we heard from everyone we spoke to. This message was one of caring for the environment. One of our tour guides described how the importance of environmental responsibility and sustainable practice is taught to Costa Rican children beginning in elementary school. Also striking was the lack of garbage on the streets of the towns and cities we saw, including San Jose, the capital.

Costa Rica was not always so environmentally conscious. Between 1940 and 1980, deforestation and intense exploitation of Costa Rica’s natural resources took a great toll. So much of the rainforest was cleared for agriculture, logging and development that it threatened the biodiversity of the area. Species like jaguars, macaws and sea turtles were pushed to the brink of endangerment.

This all changed in the late 80s and 90s when the Costa Rican government introduced a number of conservation policies and initiatives. But it did not stop there. Along with the government’s own commitment came marketing and selling the dream of environmental stewardship to Non-Governmental Organizations and local communities. Many communities began actively participating in reforestation, wildlife conservation, and ecotourism ventures.

The sales and marketing of environmental responsibility to the people of Costa Rica have paid off. The well cared for environment of Costa Rica attracts over 1.7 million tourists each year, the majority from the US and Canada. These tourists bring an additional $1.7 billion US dollars into the Costa Rican economy. Not surprisingly, tourism is the main source of income for Costa Rica.

The marketing campaign extends beyond to the citizens of Costa Rica. The environmental mission of Costa Rica has reached companies like Gore and Bionic Yarn who are working in Costa Rica to recover, process, and convert plastic debris into high performance textiles and products.

The message of environmental stewardship and love for the nature of Costa Rican is also marketed and sold to everyone who visits.

At the San Jose International Airport hangs a sign—a message for all exiting travelers.

“You’ve been branded—essential Costa Rica. Fly Away. Tell the Tale. Be the Legend.”

So, on Earth Day 2024, I am telling the tale—the tale of two rainforests and hoping that this story can become the story not just of Costa Rica, but of Earth.

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Postscript: It is worthy to note that Costa Rica does not have oil reserves. Ecuador, at 8.3 billion barrels of proven crude oil reserves, has the third most reserves in South America. This fact gives those who would protect the rainforest and environment of Ecuador the additional burden of dealing with mammoth outside interests like Texaco. ??