Las Nubes: Conservation in the Cloud Forests of Costa Rica

“Las Nubes is Spanish for ‘the clouds’, and Las Nubes Biological Reserve is a place where the opportunity for discovery is as limitless as the sky,” write its authors, 91��ɫ environmental studies PhD candidate Chris Saker (MES ’09) and Ana Maria Martinez (MES ’10), a PhD candidate in 91��ɫ’s Faculty of Education.

Organic shade-grown coffee beans. All photos by Brett Cole

Las Nubes: Conservation in the Cloud Forests of Costa Rica (Rainforest Editions), available through the 91��ɫ Bookstore, is dedicated to the memory of the late 91��ɫ environmental studies Professor Howard Daugherty.

Golden-hooded Tanager

“The book is intended to raise awareness of the natural beauty of this ecosystem and the research, teaching and outreach programs conducted at Las Nubes,” says Barbara Rahder, former dean of the Faculty of Environmental Studies (FES). “It is also a fundraising project for FES and the Fisher Fund.”

But it is also what Rahder calls “a tribute to the years Professor Howard Daugherty spent developing our educational and research programs at Las Nubes.” Daugherty first conceived of the book as a way of showcasing the program's accomplishments, and the reserve itself, as well as promoting conservation. He spent some two years on the book, hand picking the photos from the thousands that had been taken, and helping to fashion the storyline. After his death, the work was continued by his colleagues, students and friends.

Laughing Falcons

The book contains 200 photographs by nature photographer Brett Cole, of everything colourful, strange and wonderful that thrives and fights for life amid the towering rainforests – from birds, such as the Golden-hooded Tanager and flowers like the Apostle’s Iris, to the Morpho butterfly, a caterpillar dotted with parasites, and spiders and shiny-backed beetles.

Cole was commissioned by FES in 2007 “to capture the fragile, but diverse ecosystem at Las Nubes,” says Rahder. And capture it he did, showing a glimpse of the rich diversity of the 124 hectares of protected rainforest on the Pacific slopes of the Talamanca Mountains in southern Costa Rica. It was this piece of rainforest that was donated to 91��ɫ by Dr. M.M. (Woody) Fisher in 1998.

It’s not only an essential refuge for tropical biodiversity, but a place where students and researchers from 91��ɫ’s FES, as well as other academic institutions, go to learn and conduct research in tropical conservation, sustainable development and biodiversity, while working with local communities.

Apostle's Iris

“Hundreds of our undergraduate and graduate students have been able to do fieldwork at Las Nubes. 91��ɫ is committed to social justice and that is embodied in our fair trade Las Nubes coffee, which is grown by local farmers in shaded coffee farms,” says Rahder.

Orchard spider

All proceeds from the sale of this book go to the Fisher Fund in Neo-Tropical Conservation, Faculty of Environmental Studies, 91��ɫ, to support student and faculty research at Las Nubes.

Order single copies through the or by contacting Steve Glassman, bookstore director, at glassman@yorku.ca or ext. 33018.

For more photos, visit the at the bottom of the .

Republished courtesy of YFile– 91��ɫ’s daily e-bulletin.

The post History of Las Nubes captured in stunning photo book appeared first on UAP 2026-30.

The Environmental Cooperation and Israel-Palestinian Peace event will take place March 15 at 1pm at 280A 91��ɫ Lanes, Keele campus.

Environmental cooperation has been much-lauded as a force of peace in the Middle East and has been leveraged in support of Track I peacemaking processes between Israel and the Palestinian Authority. It has been pursued as a practice of peace-building, valued for its ability to foster partnership-building, cooperation, identity change and sustainability. Still, the Israel-Palestinian conflict persists, even manifesting through cooperative environmental relations.

�ʲ��Ա���������ٲ��� (right), an international development, peace-building and dialogue researcher-practitioner, and Stuart Schoenfeld (left), chair of the Department of Sociology at 91��ɫ’s Glendon College, will present and discuss the issue. Drawing on their direct experience of working with practitioners, governments and stakeholders in the Middle East, they will critically examine assumptions and practices of environmental cooperation between Israel and the Palestinians. Abitbol and Schoenfeld co-chaired the AVOW initiative (Adaptive Visions of Water in the Middle East), hosted at IRIS from 2007-2009.

Abitbol specializes in hydropolitical issues, with a particular interest in Israeli-Palestinian relations. A Chevening Scholar and associate Fellow at IRIS, he is pursuing a PhD in peace studies at the University of Bradford in the United Kingdom, while teaching university courses at the nexus of environment and peace. As a consultant, he recently conducted the Conflict and Peace Effects Study of the Israel-Palestinian Authority-Jordan-World Bank "Red Sea Dead Sea Conveyance" initiative.

Schoenfeld's research on regional environmentalism in the Middle East began in the late 1990s. A network of Israelis, Palestinians and Jordanians began to work towards a common understanding of issues of water, energy, waste, transportation, consumption, biodiversity and sustainable development, and to fashion a way of turning that common understanding into one of the elements for peace and human security in the region.

The project continues to investigate this network and other regional frameworks. The project has produced publications on transboundary environmental networks, environmental peace building, approaches to regional environmental governance and the role of empathy in environmental peace-building.

For more information, visit the website.

Republished courtesy of YFile– 91��ɫ’s daily e-bulletin.

The post Panel to examine peace-building and the environment in the Middle East appeared first on UAP 2026-30.

, director of 91��ɫ’s (IRIS), also dismissed as “rubbish” assertions by the Animal Alliance of Canada that non-lethal interventions like discouraging feeding and erecting better fences have successfully cut problem deer numbers at the Sifton Bog in London, Ont.

A biology professor in 91��ɫ’s , Bazely said London politicians backed down from a deer hunt favoured by neighbouring residents last year after a councillor and opponents denounced shooting deer as barbaric and “worse than abortion.”

She accused Animal Alliance of exploiting the “Bambi” emotional factor and ignoring the damage deer are doing at Iroquois Heights, where an aerial survey in January of last year counted 102 in a 66-hectare section, 90 more than considered healthy.

“Why aren’t they campaigning for cockroaches?” said Bazely, who outlined the impact deer have on forest ecology and biodiversity to a Hamilton Conservation Authority committee that is considering how to deal with the deer population. “We exterminate other single species. Where’s the campaign for rats? Where’s the campaign for raccoons?”

During her presentation, Bazely said it’s “not debatable” that deer populations of more than 10 per square kilometre kill future trees because they eat any new growth up to two metres above ground. They also devour native plants like trillium, allowing invasive plants to take over, she said. “The entire middle layer of the forest, it’s not there any more,” she said.

Republished courtesy of YFile – 91��ɫ’s daily e-bulletin.

The post Professor Dawn Bazely, director of IRIS, on climate change and Hamilton-area deer populations appeared first on UAP 2026-30.