Our Project Redesign Testing - 2023

Las Nubes Project supports the protection of the biological, ecological and social values of the Las Nubes Biological Reserve and adjacent area in southern Costa Rica.

Under the direction of Dr. Felipe Montoya, the Las Nubes Project's mission is to contribute to community wellbeing in ways that are compatible and conducive to environmental conservation. Las Nubes does this through faculty and student research, environmental education, and community engagement initiatives.

Through the Project’s permanent and long-term presence and relationship with local communities and organizations, Las Nubes aims to develop a grounded theory and praxis around the sustainability of healthy and gratifying rural lifeways respectful of, and in harmony with the natural environment.

At the same time, working with educational institutions in Costa Rica (Universidad de Costa Rica, Universidad Nacional de Costa Rica, Universidad Técnica Nacional of Costa Rica, San Carlos Campus, Instituto Tecnológico de Costa Rica), the Las Nubes Project has made significant achievements in research and conservation programs in biodiversity protection, rural sustainability, environmental education in local schools, and the use of Geographic Information Systems (GIS) and remote sensing as decision-support tools for environmental management.

We also try and align all our work with the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and its Sustainable Development Goals.

Education

Las Nubes Project has dedicated a great part of its efforts to educate Canadian and Costa Rican students, as well as local communities within the Alexander Skutch Biological Corridor (COBAS – Spanish Acronym), on environmental issues and sustainable practices.

By the mid-2000s, Las Nubes Project had established a field course focused on tropical ecology, sustainability and environmental education. The success of the field course led to the creation of the Summer Abroad program, which started in Summer 2017. In 2018, we also began to offer a course during Reading Week.

Through our programs, students can experience first-hand lessons on tropical ecology, sustainability, indigenous education, arts, health, and conservation through the courses now offered. Participants are given an unprecedented opportunity to interact with and learn from the local rural Costa Rican communities. If you are interested in registering in one (or more) of our courses, visit the Programs section of our website.
Additionally, the exchange of knowledge between rural communities and York University students and faculty contributes to the creation of educational programs for adults and children in local schools.

In Canada, Las Nubes Program presents a series of lectures exploring issues around Neotropical and environmental conservation, rural wellbeing, and Indigenous peoples. Students can get involved through the Las Nubes Students Association (LNSA), as several activities are carried out during the year to create awareness among consumers and to promote and raise funds to support research and local education and conservation activities in COBAS.

Research

The permanent presence of Las Nubes in the Alexander Skutch Biological Corridor and its ongoing relationship with local and regional communities and stakeholders give us a privileged position to carry out long-term research.

Las Nubes supports student research through research grants and promotes Faculty research projects in collaboration with partners outside York University. Research emphasis has been interdisciplinary and often action-oriented, including on establishing the current status of the biological populations in the area, as well as promoting sustainable land management practices, exploring options of rural community tourism, arts-based research on social-environmental relations, and corroborating links between different land uses and biodiversity richness, such as the important link between a multilayered and diversified shade coffee canopy and avian migratory habitat, among others.

Current Projects

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Study Abroad

The Study Abroad Program at Las Nubes EcoCampus offers several courses during the academic year, though which students are given an unprecedented opportunity to interact with and learn from the local rural Costa Rican communities through first-hand lessons on tropical ecology, sustainability, indigenous education, arts, health, and conservation. The emphasis of our programs is on experiential education, building on our long-standing relationships with diverse communities and groups in Southern Costa Rica, including women’s organizations, agricultural cooperatives and producers, environmental protection and social justice groups, and indigenous communities, within others.

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Research

The permanent presence of Las Nubes in the Alexander Skutch Biological Corridor and its ongoing relationship with local and regional communities and stakeholders give us a privileged position to carry out long-term research. Las Nubes supports student research through research grants and promotes Faculty research projects in collaboration with partners outside York University. Research emphasis has been interdisciplinary and often action-oriented, including on establishing the current status of the biological populations in the area, as well as promoting sustainable land management practices, exploring options of rural community tourism, arts-based research on social-environmental relations, and corroborating links between different land uses and biodiversity richness, such as the important link between a multilayered and diversified shade coffee canopy and avian migratory habitat, among others.

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Community Engagement

One of the pillars of our project is community engagement. For over two decades, Las Nubes Project has worked hard to create a space in which local concerns and initiatives are heard and addressed when possible. Our presence in the area was key to the creation of the Alexander Skutch Biological Corridor (ASBC) in 2006. This collective initiative involving local communities, NGOs, universities (including York), and other groups has provided an identity and pride to the communities. Our EcoCampus, the Lillian Meighen Wright Centre, located across the Las Nubes Biological Reserve serves as a local, national, and international hub dedicated to promoting Neotropical conservation and livelihood improvement, and is open to all visitors. Access to all the conservation areas is free of charge. Visitors must contact Las Nubes to book a visit.

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Mammal Monitoring Project

This project continues to generate valuable information about biodiversity in the region, including the confirmation of at least 13 species of mammals, including armadillos, wild boars, ant-eaters, white-collared peccaries, coyotes, ocelots, pumas (mountain lion), and the endangered river otter among others in the biological corridor. This project has already provided evidence of the presence of endangered species in the corridor, key information that continues to confirm the vital importance that the corridor and its ecological connectivity have for species conservation. With the SINAC, MINAE & Tropical Science Centre, we currently have 8 cameras in the Alexander Skutch Biological Corridor.

Transdisciplinarity in Rural Wellbeing

This new project is a collaboration between the Las Nubes Project in the Faculty of Environmental and Urban Change and the York University Libraries at York University in Canada with the Brandenburg University of Technology in Germany, that connects interdisciplinary and multidisciplinary research in the context of human and non-human wellbeing in rural environments.

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Emancipatory Autonomies

The objective of this project is to review and assess multi-level emancipatory autonomies in Central America and the obstacles and challenges to their exercise through the exchange of information about the different dimensions or manifestations of self-determination in national contexts. The project will also provide an innovative forum that will both enable the sharing of information on local responses and engagements with the Inter American Commission of Human Rights’ thematic report on self-determination in the Americas, as well as supporting its dissemination within the participating Indigenous and Afro-descendant organizations.

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Community Engagement

One of the pillars of our project is community engagement. For over two decades, Las Nubes Project has worked hard to create a space in which local concerns and initiatives are heard and addressed when possible. Our presence in the area was key to the creation of the Alexander Skutch Biological Corridor (ASBC) in 2006. This collective initiative involving local communities, NGOs, universities (including York), and other groups has provided an identity and pride to the communities.

Our EcoCampus, the Lillian Meighen Wright Centre, located across the Las Nubes Biological Reserve serves as a local, national, and international hub dedicated to promoting Neotropical conservation and livelihood improvement, and is open to all visitors. Access to all the conservation areas is free of charge. Visitors must contact Las Nubes to book a visit.

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Las Nubes Student Association (LNSA)

The Las Nubes Student Association (LNSA) is an organized student group at York University that was initiated to promote sustainable ecological conservation and social sustainability practices in the biological corridor of the Las Nubes region of Costa Rica. At the LNSA, we aim to create awareness about the Las Nubes project, and to get students excited and involved in our various activities and events! Keep your eyes out for our general meetings and emails, as there are plenty of upcoming opportunities to get involved!     My name is James and I'm 27 years old. My educational path has been very circuitous; I started in aquatic rescue, moved into therapeutic recreation, and now find myself in environmental studies. I am also training to be a commercial pilot, so it goes without saying that I have a passion for travelling and experiencing other cultures. In the summer of 2022, I had the privilege of participating in York's Las Nubes program. I stayed with a host family that treated me as one of their own, and I was lucky enough to participate in the Alexander Skutch Festival (ExpoCobas). I had such a wonderful time that I decided to return the favour by helping to spread awareness about the Las Nubes program. It is the experience of a lifetime!  

ExpoCOBAS

Every year we celebrate the Alexander Skutch Festival on the weekend closest to his birthday, May 20th. This date coincides with the Summer Abroad program, and so the Festival serves as a space that gathers together York students and local communities.   The Festival began in 2013 and was started by Professor Felipe Montoya as a space that would showcase the wealth of the Corridor, in terms of agricultural production, scientific and academic production, artistic and cultural production, as well as the natural ecological wealth that the corridor embraces. The two-day festival provides a space for local artisans to show and sell their wares, and for local artists, musicians and dancers to perform. It is a space for environmental education, and above all, an opportunity to consolidate identity around the Alexander Skutch Biological Corridor, and around the legacy of Alexander Skutch, a renowned naturalist and ornithologist who made his home in what is now known as the Alexander Skutch Biological Corridor. The Festival is now being organized by local stakeholders who have continued to add new elements, such as a mountain bike race around the corridor, traditional horse races, inter-community soccer matches, and much more. The sale of food and beverages is a source of funding for the local school. This Festival has now become a tradition within the Corridor.

Casita Azul

La Casita Azul is an education and learning resource centre that supports York’s increasing socio-environmental research, education and community outreach within Costa Rica. Situated in the midst of the local communities in Costa Rica, La Casita Azul supports and enhances York’s Eco-Campus in Costa Rica while playing an important role in research intensification, knowledge mobilization, community engagement, citizen science, research dissemination, engagement and outreach. Working closely with local community members and organizations, Diandra Arias-Vasquez oversees the day-to-day operations of the centre and plays many other roles such as organizing patron-driven courses. La Casita Azul offers access to the internet, online and print resources, printing and a place to study. It will continue to grow and develop relevant print and online resources in English and Spanish as well as continue to provide equitable access to relevant resources. Updates and weekly schedules are available on their Facebook page. Please contact York librarians, Dana Craig and Tom Scott, with your questions and suggestions as well as to plan your visit.

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