In Summer 2025, Auburn College of Forestry, Wildlife and Environment (CFWE) students and others had the opportunity to participate in a seven-week study abroad program in Costa Rica to complete a minor in Tropical Conservation and Sustainable Development. This interdisciplinary program brought together 14 students from six different colleges and ten majors, offering a unique opportunity for collaboration. The program was hosted at the Tropical Agricultural Research and Higher Education Center (CATIE) in Turrialba where students lived, studied and completed their courses.
Led by faculty members Wayde Morse and Latif Kalinin the College of Forestry, Wildlife and Environment; Chandana Mitra, in the College of Science and Mathematics; Yaniv Olshansky, in the College of Agriculture; and Miriam Wyman, in University College Sustainability Studies, the course topics included climate change, tropical soils, protected area management, ecosystem services and watershed management. These classes blended lectures with hands-on field research and collaboration with CATIE faculty and local experts.
A program highlight was the travel course, where students toured the country’s protected areas, engaged with local managers and community members and visited some of Costa Rica’s most significant ecological and cultural sights. In Yorkin, within the Bribri Indigenous Territory, students learned about traditional cacao farming, medicinal plants and community-run ecotourism programs. At Cahuita National Park, students explored a model of community co-management where local guides and park rangers collaborated to protect coral reefs and coastal ecosystems.
Other highlights included a stay at La Selva Biological Station, managed by the Organization for Tropical Studies, where students studied biodiversity conservation during lectures and guided day and night hikes. In La Fortuna, students toured the waterfall reserve and Mistico Park’s hanging bridges, learning about private conservation and community-run ecotourism. In Monteverde, students were immersed in the world-famous cloud forest, studied Quaker-led conservation history, attended lectures on cloud forest conservation, went birding, learned about coffee cooperatives and intercropping and had fun ziplining.
Once they returned to CATIE’s campus, the students concluded the minor with courses on ecosystem services and watershed management. Fieldwork included visits to organic farms, cattle and poultry operations implementing Costa Rica’s climate-smart agriculture program (NAMA) and forests managed through the nation’s Payment for Ecosystem Services (PES) system. Students also had the opportunity to climb Volcan Turrialba, tour CODEFORSA’s reforestation projects and learn traditional cheese-making at a local farm.
By the end of the trip, these transformational experiences had given the students an exceptional interdisciplinary perspective on tropical conservation. They had not only earned15 academic credits and acquired valuable field skills in conservation and agriculture but had also gained a greater appreciation for how communities and ecosystems intertwine, and a deeper understanding of Costa Rica’s standing as a global leader in sustainability.
