Environmental Science 15th Edition by Scott Spoolman,Tyler Miller

Exercise 25

In the early 1990s, Miguel Sanchez, a subsistence farmer in Costa Rica, was offered $600,000 by a hotel developer for a piece of land that he and his family had been using sustainably for many years. An area under rapid development surrounded the land, which contained an old-growth rain forest and a black sand beach. Sanchez refused the offer. Explain how Sanchez's decision was an application of one of the social science principles of sustainability. What would you have done if you were Sanchez? Explain.