Costa Rica was selected as a focus country to examine the environmental impacts of ecotourism due to its strong reputation as an ecotourism destination and because, increasingly, its economy has been fueled by ecotourism. In-depth, semistructured interviews were conducted between October 2010- April 2011 with four respondents. . Interviews lasted between thirty minutes to an hour and a half. Notes were collected from interviews and additional notes were written once the interview was complete about personal observations and thoughts. All interview participants have experience with the industry and three of the four have been involved with or work within the ecotourism industry. The interview questions (see
appendix B) and informed consent form (see appendices A and C) were created in both English and Spanish. The University of Nebraska at Lincoln Internal Review Board (IRB) approved all research protocols in September 2010. This study focuses
solely on the environmental impacts of ecotourism, therefore questions and answers regarding culture and economics were omitted unless they were relevant to ecological impacts.