Northwest Guanacaste is cattle country. Before the tourist boom gripped the area, most people were farmers who spent their days herding cattle and working the land. Those who weren’t farmers or ranchers were probably fishermen.

People who are used to the freedom of the fields or the ocean are never in very much of a hurry. They live their lives on their own time. This lifestyle fit well with the early overseas visitors, the surfers and backpackers who came to get away from it all, just happy to catch a wave or a bus to the next town.

Now, on top of this rhythm, developers, realtors and lawyers are carving out their own Northwest Guanacaste: One that brings luxury travel to an exotic location, and one that – they hope – will bring them fat returns on their property and development investments. Ticos – some willingly, some not so much – are selling their family farms to developers all along the coast. Construction is big money. There’s so much construction in Guanacaste that it has at times even created a nation-wide shortage of cheap labor.

The local economy has become extremely dependent on foreign investment in tourist-related real estate. In recent years, the new investment has provided new employment both for people from the area and for professionals and managers from San José brought in to run businesses, restaurants and hotels. It’s the first time in recent memory that people have begun moving out of the Central Valley, instead of into it, to look for work.

Local reactions to the rapid changes in Guanacaste have been mixed. For the most part they’re accepted, though not necessarily enthusiastically. The changes seem to have happened so quickly that they were completely unexpected all around. Things are still sinking in.

According to Professor René Castro a professor at INCAE business school, politician, and Guanacasteco himself, at the moment there are two main areas of concern: The demand being placed on natural resources and the stress on local communities. As you will read below, serious water treatment and water access issues have sprung up in certain areas, and local groups of both expatriates and Ticos have been pushing for a solution. The need for comprehensive planning along the coast is urgent, yet unmet. Without a vision for the future that includes effective regulation, the pace of development of the last few years simply cannot be sustained. The devastating effect it is having and will continue to have on the environment is threatening to put an end to the one of the very things that attracted people to Costa Rica in the first place: It’s natural diversity.

Secondly, Castro said he is starting to see the beginning of an “us” versus “them” mentality among the local populace. Though the locals have traditionally welcomed foreigners with open arms, they now find themselves priced out of the market and excluded from the enclaves that have become playgrounds for rich foreigners. Without efforts to foster understanding on both sides, the bad feelings have the potential to flare up into open conflict, as they did recently when locals in the small town of Sardinal burned machinery that was being used to build an aqueduct designed to direct water to the coast.

INCAE has launched a project in the region designed to help the community and the developers work through these potential social and environmental problems, but it remains to be seen what kind of actions the government will take.