Costa Rica has been ranked the 5th cleanest country in the world in a study conducted by scientists at Yale and Columbia Universites. The study, called the Environmental Performance Index (EPI), ranked 149 countries on 25 indicators tracked acrossed 6 established policy indicators: Environmental Health, Air Pollution, Water Resources, Bio-diversity and Habitat, Productive Natural Resources, and Climate Change.
The study's results were published in Forbes Magazine. According to the magazine, the robust ecotourist industry forms the base of Costa Rica's economy, an economy that that benefits from public and private initiatives to protect biodiversity, prevent deforestation and promote reforestation.
The 4 countries that out ranked Costa Rica are: Switzerland, Sweden, Norway and Finland. The only other countries in the Western Hemisphere to make the Top 20 were Colombia (#9) and Canada (#12). The United States came in at #39.
Costa Rica currently has an initiave to become a carbon neutral country by the year 2021. So look out Switzerland! Costa Rica is on the move.
The complete EPI report can be found at http://www.epi.yale.edu/
