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Through this broad range of categories, the National Blue Flag Commission has sought to align local community development efforts in its multiple forms and general public wellbeing with the protection of the country's enormous wealth of natural resources. This pioneer program capitalizes on the creativity and proaction of local residents by converting them into stakeholders, giving leaders a symbol around which to organize their efforts in protecting public goods and open areas. Aside from improving general living standards, these grass-roots efforts combine to form part of the national development strategy. The preservation of public and civic areas, in addition to the country's immense biodiversity assures the continued strengthening of the national tourism industry (by far the main driver of the economy) and the consequent growth of related industries.
Given all this, La Cusinga decided last year it was time to join this terrific initiative. Since the beginning we have sought to structure the property, and later the hotel, to be a sustainable-business model, combining stewardship for the area's resources and a mutual respect shared with local residents with an exceptional service for our guests. While our affiliation did not imply any large changes (as many of the Blue Flag requirements have been part of our philosophy for over 30 years), we fully support the initiative's fundamental goal of uniting local action on a national scale. As a leader in the area, we felt the strong need to participate in the program and thereby promote these timely and necessary efforts, and the “Actions to Curb Climate Change” seemed the most appropriate starting point.
Due to the undisputable climate effects of global warming caused by human production of green-house gases such as Carbon Dioxide and Methane, the Costa Rican Environment Ministry (MINAET) headed a new initiative called “Peace with Nature”: National Strategy against Climate Change, which seeks to unite the National Agenda with International efforts. This strategy consists in two main parts: Mitigation and Adaptation.
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