Toronto Physician Donates Costa Rican Rainforest To York University

TORONTO, October 27, 1998 -- Las Nubes - The Clouds - is a rainforest in Costa Rica which has been generously donated to York University by Dr. Woody Fisher, a prominent Toronto physician, medical researcher and co-founder of the Canadian Liver Foundation. York University's Faculty of Environmental Studies created the Dr. Woody Fisher Fund for Neotropical Conservation to protect and enhance this rainforest habitat through an agreement with Costa Rica's Tropical Science Center.

Dr. Fisher's generous gift (133 hectares valued at $100,000 CAD) was announced today at a press conference hosted by York's Faculty of Environmental Studies. Conservation of Las Nubes will provide important opportunities for students of environmental studies who are specializing in ecology, conservation, community economic development and international development.

Las Nubes is a biologically diverse, mid-elevation montane ecosystem with a pristine forest. Las Nubes is threatened with illegal deforestation and poaching, and the conversion of land to cattle pastures and coffee plantations ñ practices which reduce habitat and directly threaten biodiversity. Satellite images show the incredible loss of primary forest that has occurred in the area less than a decade. The aim of York and the Tropical Science Center is to ensure a different fate for Las Nubes.

Dr. Fisher said, "I am extremely pleased that enterprising scholars at York University approached me in regards to Las Nubes. This property contains land never touched by humans. The resulting collaboration of York's Faculty of Environmental Studies and the Tropical Science Center of Costa Rica will be infinitely more productive than what I had first envisioned when I bought Las Nubes to prevent its destruction, and to preserve its immense biodiversity. For all of us who enjoy fresh air, clean water, the smell of flora and the sounds of fauna, this is my gift."

"We all have a responsibility to protect the world's biodiversity," said Dr. Howard Daugherty, associate professor in Environmental Studies. "Conservation of Las Nubes will provide Canadians with a marvellous opportunity to fulfil this obligation and will be a training ground for a new generation of Canadian ecologists, conservationists and international development specialists. Students will gain important international experience in this time of increasing globalization."

Dean Victor echoed Fisher's and Daugherty's comments, and added that the Faculty of Environmental Studies has promoted environmental sustainability and conservation throughout much of the world through partnerships with non-governmental organizations and universities in the Southern Hemisphere for more than 20 years.

The Faculty of Environmental Studies is a leading centre in Canada for research on environmental and development issues. The Tropical Science Center (TSC), established in 1962, is one of the pre-eminent ecological research and conservation institutions in the Neotropics. The TSC pioneered the "protected areas" movement in Latin America through the creation of the Monteverde Cloud Forest.

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For more information, please contact:

Jane Hargraft
Faculty of Environmental Studies
York University
(416) 736-2100, ext. 33281