A Rafting & Adventure Company That Makes a Positive Difference
The founders of Rios Tropicales were expert paddlers who loved rivers and wanted to share the incredible rivers of Costa Rica with others through rafting and kayaking adventure. But, from the very beginning, they also wanted to incorporate conservation, protection, and community support into their company’s daily business practices. Their mission became to protect and conserve the rivers and rainforests of Costa Rica while empowering and engaging the local community members, including the native Cabecar Indians, to play leading roles in this effort for their own economic, educational, health, and soulful well-being. If Rios Tropicales did not exist, the Pacuare may have been flooded by a huge dam,
Working with these communities, local and National leaders; the Pacuare River may have been flooded by a huge dam, the Cabecar Indians would have lost their lands to a new lake, the El Tigre Community would not be involved in sustainable farming and development, families would not have new education, career, and economic opportunities - the list goes on. Our staff and owners of Rios are proud to be able to make a positive difference. See more about our Eco-Initiatives
How We Do This
• Rios Tropicales actively engages and collaborates with the local communities and their individual eco/geo-tourism entrepreneurs.
• Rios hires community members to manage its Rios Tropicales Lodge and sustainable farming projects.
• Our staff is 95% Costa Ricans across all our operations. We take it a step further, and directly facilitate the establishment of complementary geo-tourism companies owned solely by Rios’ former top guides, now turned ecopreneurs. See Sustainable Tourism/sustainable communities for details.
• In 1994 we established the Fundacion Rios Tropicales (Rios Tropicales Foundation) a non-profit environmental organization established to assist in the preservation, protection and restoration of the rivers, streams and watersheds of Costa Rica. Through donations from customers, friends, and our own staff, we have been successful in raising funds to purchase rainforest land for environmental protection and stop the development of two separate dams threatening the Pacuare river basin.
• We have expanded our Rainforest land protection and reforestation efforts by a factor of nine to our current total of 800 hectares (1975 acres).
• Build our Rios Tropicales Lodge in 1991 entirely in accordance with green construction principles that is powered by 100% renewable energy,
• We started environmental education programs in elementary schools.
• We support our local communities, including the indigenous Cabecar Indian community, near where we operate our adventure tours, through employment, development assistance including donation of computers, building of health clinics and schools, and by providing a consistent, profitable market for local organic produce, private label organic coffee, and sustainable fish and cattle farming. |
