Abstract

QUESADA-ROMAN, Adolfo  and  DIAZ-BOLANOS, Ronald. Environmental impacts in the agricultural colonization in Coto Brus, Costa Rica (1940-2018). Rev. Geog. Amer. Central [online]. 2019, n.63, pp.171-203. ISSN 2215-2563.  http://dx.doi.org/10.15359/rgac.63-2.8.

Coto Brus is a canton in the southeast of Costa Rica which serves as a melting pot of Indigenous, Costa Rican, Panamanian and Italian cultures that shaped its territory during the last seventy years. The objective of this paper is to analyze the environmental impact of the agricultural colonization of Coto Brus and the changes in the landscape experienced in its territory since 1940. This study highlights the other side of the explosive development that Coto Brus had in his first decades of existence and also how multicultural patterns deprived the growth of the agricultural frontier in one of the least studied regions of the country. The methodology is based on a documentary review of different bibliographical sources among books, articles, historical accounts and legislation. From a historical geographical analysis it was possible to determine three historical periods that synthesize the impact on the environment of productive activities for more than seven decades.

Keywords : Costa Rica; Coto Brus; Environment; Colonization; Coffee..

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