An excellent example of how tourism and conservation can work hand in hand is found south of the Flamingo Beach complex. Starting at Playa Grande and continuing south to Playa Tamarindo, a broad, sandy beach serves as nesting grounds for endangered leatherback turtles. It used to be that local residents awaited the arrival of these huge, prehistoric survivors, collected the eggs in buckets as they were being deposited, and sold the harvest to bars and restaurants all over the country.
Alarmed by the possibility of the turtles extinction, the Costa Rican government instituted a model conservation program. Local people are enlisted to help protect the nesting grounds. Guarding the beaches and guiding tourists through the nesting grounds put local people to work. Hotels and restaurants have opened to accommodate the ever-increasing number of tourists. Jobs are created for even more local residents. This boom has only begun; future ecotourism development seems inevitable.
Conservationists have expressed mixed feelings about this program. While they praise the protection of the nesting grounds, they point out that the extra tourist foot traffic causes damage when visitors inadvertently step on the hatchlings. On the other hand, the number of baby turtles killed in this manner is nothing when compared with the unborn ones that used to end up as a tasty boca in San Jose bars.

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