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A brief historical approach to this technique
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Text and photography by Javier Martín |
Click on images to enlarge, alow your system to open a new window |
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Exploration of the tropical rainforest canopy kept away from biologists for long time, reason for this is quite simple, tree trunks in these environments are normally covered by epiphyte plants, like moss, orchids, bromeliads and more, among all this vegetation lives a large number of species that may be harmful for humans like, scorpions, ants, spiders and deadly poisonous snakes, under such conditions trying to climb the tree by the trunk is an insane idea. |
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Donald Perry and John Williams developed a rocky climbing device that could aloud a person to climb the tree without having contact with the tree trunk, because of this invention; Perry obtained a Rolex Award for Enterprise in 1984, check: http://rolexawards.com/en/the-laureates/donaldperry-home.jsp
I feel an special bond with Donald Perry since we worked together some years ago, and I was able to learn a lot from him.
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After, the important discoveries made by Nalini Nadkarni at the Monteverde Cloud Forest Preserve in Costa Rica, revealed a completely unknown environment and lead to the understanding that 70% of biodiversity in a tropical rain forest is at the tree tops, check:
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Even though we haven't met, I feel profound admiration towards Nadkarni's biology field work, and feel in gratitud to Nalini that gave me permission to publish part of her book, Monteverde, check next link. |
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During mid 1990s the zip line canopy tours became an explosive touristic business in Costa Rica and by now, a big number of forests near touristic destinations in Costa Rica have at least one of this canopy tours for people to enjoy this totally new environment for humans.
This has become a very important source of income for local youth in Costa Rica who are now working as guides in these canopy tours, and best of all, they realize that the core of this income lays in the preservation of the Tropical Rain Forest of Costa Rica. |
Try the Puerto Limon zip Line Canopy Tour and get to see this outstanding environment and live this intense experience. |
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