Developing an Agro-ecotourism Route in Copey de Dota

64 Pages·2016·13.28 MB·English

Developing an Agro-ecotourism Route in
Copey de Dota
Developing an Agro-ecotourism Route in
Copey de Dota

An Interactive Qualifying Project Report submitted to the Faculty of Worcester Polytechnic
Institute in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Degree of Bachelor of Science in
cooperation with El Ministerio de Agricultura y Ganadería (MAG)

Submitted by:
Jared Danaher
Janine Fatal
Jeffrey Letourneau
Michael McMahon

Submitted to:
Professor Melissa Belz, PhD, Worcester Polytechnic Institute
Professor Derren Rosbach, PhD, Worcester Polytechnic Institute

Sponsor contact: Mauricio Segura
Submitted on: 28 April 2016
Abstract
In recent years, Costa Rican farmers have been shifting from conventional to sustainable
methods of farming. However, conversion comes with high startup costs, low initial return on
investment, and lack of consumer attention. We worked with the Costa Rican Ministry of
Agriculture & Livestock to develop an agro-ecotourism route in Copey de Dota. The goal of this
route is to raise awareness of sustainable farm practices and increase revenue for farmers. We toured
farms and interviewed farmers to determine characteristics of an appealing visitor farm. We
interviewed tourist agencies and assessed community offerings to determine potential tourist
interest. By identifying ideal tourist amenities, and assessing farms, we offered recommendations for
route development and community promotion.

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Acknowledgements
We would like to acknowledge the following people who helped make this project possible.
Mauricio Segura ― Our sponsor within El Ministerio de Agricultura y Ganadería, for his
resources and guidance.
Seidy Rodriguez ― Community leader of Copey de Dota, who supplied valuable information and
organized visits with farm and business owners.
Professor Melissa Belz, PhD and Professor Derren Rosbach, PhD ― Our advisors from
Worcester Polytechnic Institute for their feedback and guidance for the duration of our project.
Jimmy and Marcela Music ― Coordinators for the San José, Costa Rica project site who helped
organize the projects.
All of the interviewees for speaking with us and contributing to our project.

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Executive Summary
Introduction generate income for the farmers while
educating tourists about sustainable practices.
The concept of agriculture as a potential Background
tourist activity may not at first seem entirely
intuitive. However, a day spent touring lush
For much of Costa Rica’s history, the
avocado, passion fruit, and coffee fields
agricultural industry has been dominated by
followed by sampling local artisanal goods is
large-scale production of cash crops such as
the type of experience gaining popularity in
coffee and bananas. According to the CIA
Costa Rica. Activities such as these attract
World Factbook, agriculture constitutes
tourists to Costa Rica’s developing agro-
fourteen percent of the labor force as well as
ecotourism industry. Combining agriculture
six percent of the Costa Rica’s Gross
and ecotourism to bring tourists to rural
Domestic Product (Central America and the
communities has the potential to better the
Caribbean: Costa Rica, 2016). However, there
lives of small-scale farmers who have recently
is a need for more revenue among the small
begun to shift from conventional to more
farmer community due to increasing price of
sustainable methods. This shift is apparent in
commodities and decreasing profits from
the Copey de Dota region of Costa Rica,
farming (Babin, 2015). MAG is a Costa Rican
where we worked with El Ministerio de
government body dedicated to serving small
Agricultura y Ganadería (MAG) and members
and medium scale farmers and supporting
of the community to assess the current
their livelihoods. Our team worked with
capabilities of the region in supporting
MAG to create an agro-ecotourism route
tourism. Our efforts have laid the foundation
through the district of Copey located within
for an agro-ecotourism route that will
the canton of Dota. The emerging industry of
agro-ecotourism offers potential to better the
lives of farmers by providing new sources of
income without the need to abandon their
livelihood.
Objectives and Methods
The goal of this project was to develop
the foundation for an agro-ecotourism route
connecting farms in the Copey de Dota region
in order to raise awareness of sustainable farm
practices and increase revenue for the farmers.
We worked with MAG to accomplish the
following objectives:
Figure 1: Path at Finca Tocha

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1. Determine characteristics that make fulfilled.
farms most suitable for tourism.
This analysis led to our determination of
2. Analyze the current capabilities of
appropriate regional development strategies
individual farms and the region as a
by identifying ways in which farms can
whole for supporting tourism.
emulate others that scored higher in certain
3. Determine appropriate regional
categories. With a solid understanding of the
development strategies for the agro-
region as a whole and directions for
ecotourism route.
improvement, we focused on determining
4. Assist MAG in determining effective
marketing strategies to promote the route. We
outreach and promotion strategies for
interviewed a MAG employee and a web
the agro-ecotourism route.
developer to explore potential promotional
Through interviews and analysis of ideas for the route. Then, we reached out to
information acquired from our fieldwork in various tourism agencies in Costa Rica to
Copey, we collected qualitative data. We acquire data on rural tourism promotion
conducted semi-standardized interviews with strategies. We sought to use this data to
farmers and business owners and recorded support and build upon our own research and
observations on farm characteristics during connect MAG and Copey with agencies that
our visits. We developed selection of criteria can help market the route.
for a Farm Assessment Matrix (FAM) in order
to assess the strengths and weaknesses of each Table 1: Farms in the Copey agro-ecotourism route
individual farm in the pre-determined
categories. From these assessments, we were
able to compare farms to determine those
best suited for tourism and which areas
needed improvement in the region as a whole.
Specifically, the FAM allowed us to identify
which farms are in the best condition in each
category by counting the number of details

Findings
Through discussions with Seidy
Rodríguez, a community leader and farm
owner, we identified eight farms in Copey that
wish to be included in the agro-ecotourism
route, shown in Table 1. These farms
specialize in high-altitude fruits such as
avocados, apples, blackberries, and granadillas
and incorporate sustainable practices
including biodigesters and mountain
microbes. Some of these farms have

additional amenities including restaurants,
Figure 2: Sign for goat house at Finca Integral Educativa cabins, and trout fishing, and others have
San Francisco de Asís
plans to construct such features in the near

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future. Data obtained from the Instituto
Recommendations and
Costarricense de Turismo (Costa Rican
Tourism Institute), as shown in Table 2,
Deliverables
shows that interest in rural tourism is on the
rise and that many tourists already participate
in activities similar to those offered in Copey. Based on our data analysis, we were able
Our visits to farms and agribusinesses in to develop a set of recommendations to give
Copey de Dota allowed us to determine the to MAG and the community members of
characteristics necessary to support tourism as
well as extra features that help to diversify the
route.
With the Farm Assessment Matrix (FAM),
we made comparisons between the farms in
Table 2: Costa Rican Tourism Institute estimates of
non-resident tourists visiting

Figure 3: Lake for trout fishing at Finca Integral
Sostenible Toro Careto
Copey in order to facilitate the development
of agro-ecotourism in the region. We decided
that the most effective display of a tourism
route is a map of the region highlighting the

farms and agribusinesses. Tourists can use this
the route and assessed the readiness of
map, shown in Figure 4, to set their own
individual farms for tourism based on each
itinerary with the attractions they are
category. The categories included in the FAM
interested in.
are accessibility, paths, signs, products,
sustainability, additional features, and nature. To promote Copey’s agro-ecotourism
Without clearly established paths, tourists risk route, we coordinated with the software
getting lost or getting hurt due to a misstep engineer for the municipality of Dota to
caused by difficult terrain. Coupled with create a website. The map of the route will be
paths, effective signs are necessary for visible on the website along with product
directing a tourist through the farm while also information for each farm and business in the
identifying and connecting specific points of route for use by tourists while planning their
interest on the farm. The existence of trip. In addition, we have recommended the
sustainable practices is also important to creation of a Facebook page to provide social
expand tourists’ knowledge of organic and media updates on the Copey route as well as
responsible farming technique. link to the website.
Since the farmers we interviewed
expressed strong interest in the educational
aspect of tourism, we advocated the addition

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of certain educational
components on their farm. One
important addition is the use of
signs to show the steps involved
in sustainable processes such as
mountain microorganisms or
the production of cheese, wine,
jams, and other value-added
goods. A poster with a diagram
showing the integrated features
of the farm would also teach
tourists and fulfill the farmers’
goal of highlighting and sharing
their sustainable practices. In
order to further emphasize the
environmental focus of the
farms and attract more tourists
interested in learning about this
aspect of farming, we also
suggested that MAG should
help the farmers apply for
Bandera Azul Ecológica
certification. This program is a
preeminent ecological label in
Costa Rica that is used to
designate a business as
sustainable.

In addition to education, we
recommended that farmers Figure 4: Tourist map of farms, agribusinesses, and points of interest in Copey
de Dota
make improvements to
infrastructure on their farm
based on our analysis using the
ecotourism. We made recommendations to
FAM. We have recommended designating
the farmers of Copey, but the fate of the
parking areas within the town center of Copey
project lies within the community because it is
as well as within farms that we judged to have
their efforts that will lead to the success of the
the capacity for such a feature. We also
route. The results of this project and the
suggested changes to improve the walking
recommendations we made will serve as a
conditions of paths within farms as well as
starting point within Dota and Costa Rica at
adding signs to complement the paths. These
large to foster this rural form of tourism and
include directional arrows to various points of
set an example for the development of similar
interest and labels for the different areas of a
routes in the future.
farm.
We found that the existing infrastructure
and future plans of farms in Copey make the
region ideal for the implementation of agro-

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Authorship
The authorship is broken down by the team member who mainly contributed to each
section. All team members participated in the edits and revisions of every section. All photos within
this report were taken by team members.

1. Introduction
Hook and General Topic Jared Danaher
Environmental Issues, Socio-Economic Issues Michael McMahon
Specific Project Goals Jeffrey Letourneau
Objectives Janine Fatal
2. Background
2. Introduction Collaboration
2.1 Agriculture in Costa Rica Michael McMahon
2.2 The Ecotourism Industry in Costa Rica Jeffrey Letourneau
2.3 Combining Agriculture and Ecotourism Janine Fatal
2.4 El Ministerio de Agricultura y Ganaderí­a Jared Danaher
3. Methodology
3. Introduction Collaboration
3.1 Objective 1 Michael McMahon
3.2 Objective 2 Jeffrey Letourneau
3.3 Objective 3 Janine Fatal
3.4 Objective 4 Jared Danaher

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4. Findings
4. Introduction Collaboration
4.1. The Farms Collaboration
4.1.1. Finca Agropecuaria Los Quetzales Janine Fatal
4.1.2. Finca Cima Verde Janine Fatal
4.1.3. Finca Integral Sostenible ElMon Jared Danaher
4.1.4. Finca Integral Educativa San Francisco de Asís Jared Danaher
4.1.5. Finca Integral Sostenible Toro Careto Michael McMahon
4.1.6. Finca Las Manzanas Michael McMahon
4.1.7. Finca Valchi Jeffrey Letourneau
4.1.8. Finca Tocha Jeffrey Letourneau
4.2. Farm Assessment Matrix (FAM) Collaboration
4.2.1. Accessibility Michael McMahon
4.2.2. Paths Jared Danaher
4.2.3. Signs Janine Fatal
4.2.4. Products Jeffrey Letourneau
4.2.5. Sustainable Practices Michael McMahon
4.2.6. Additional Features Michael McMahon
4.2.7. Nature Janine Fatal
4.3. Model Farms Michael McMahon
4.4. Evidence for Tourist Interest Jeffrey Letourneau
5. Limitations Collaboration

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