La Tigra Forest, the Talamanca-Caribe Biological Corridor and the Hitoy Cerere Biological Reserve, as well as other landscapes with cocoa, abaca, and banana plantations are some of the Costa Rican natural scenarios that were exhibited this weekend in Egypt.
Through a video with virtual reality technology, the country showed its biodiversity in a stand at the conference of the Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity of the United Nations Organization, which took place in Cairo.
The Minister of Environment and Energy, Carlos Gutiérrez explained that this stand seeks to demonstrate the importance of Costa Rica’s biological diversity as an economic engine, involving the State, the private sector, international cooperation, and civil society in the preservation of resources.
Costa Rica wanted to project to the world the wealth it has in terms of biodiversity and through a tool as novel as virtual reality, we allow people to visit us, to be part of a journey with a lot of adrenaline and feel in a natural paradise that reflects the results of many years of effort in environmental conservation,”
said Rodriguez.
The virtual reality device was made of a sort of binoculars and a bicycle connected to this virtual world. The route is guided by audio clips with information and characteristics of the different scenarios, as well as the species that observed and heard along the way: birds such as the scarlet macaw, agoutis, tapirs and snakes; a sample of the fauna that has been protected thanks to multi-sectorial efforts.
The Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) is an international treaty whose objective is to promote measures that lead to a sustainable future and which has been ratified by 196 countries. Every two years, at the Conference of the Parties (COP), the signatory nations meet to analyze progress, set priorities, set goals and adopt work plans.