Costa Rica ranks first in the Americas and fifth worldwide for its environmental concerns according to World Economic Forum’s Environmental Action Index for 2008. The index was assembled by a noted tem of environmentalists from Yale and Columbia Universities.

The Index based its ranking criteria on 25 indicators according to six standards such as environmental health, air pollution, water resources, habitat and biodiversity, natural resource products and climate change.

The designation of Costa Rica as the best in the Americas stems from its clear policies with respect to environmental conservation, according to President Oscar Arias.

“We are one of the few countries, by way of development, that have recovered forest area in the last twenty years, to the point that more than half of our territory is woodland”, he added.

Arias also highlighted the push toward sustainable tourism, eco-friendly production, and incentives for socially and environmentally companies. “All this because, as I’ve said many times, the future of Costa Rica will be green”.