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JUNGLE
SCIENCE
profiles and photos by Steve Mencher
Published January 30, 1997
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For three young scientists I visited earlier this year in Costa Rica,
"saving the rain forest" is an outdated concept. They are just starting
out in their work lives, and their careers are being formed by new ideas
and ideals. They see their job as taking the measurements and
constructing the experiments to put the best possible development
strategies into action. In other words, they value and respect all the
flora and fauna of the rain forest, as well as the peoples who have lived
there for thousands of years.
I met them all at the La Selva Biological Station, a branch of the
Organization for Tropical Studies. OTS is a center for scientific
research on tropical rain forests, an international consortium of
universities, government agencies, and non-governmental organizations
(NGOs) which provides a place for these fledgling researchers to stretch
their wings. Under the guidance of senior scientists (principal
investigators), these young graduate students and post-graduates practice
their newly learned craft and develop their scientific skills.
In the course of my stay at OTS, I encountered a young scientist from
India who wondered whether she would ever be able to return home to make
a contribution to her country's mammoth development problems; a Dutch
researcher whose experiments could profoundly affect Central American
agricultural practices; and a scientist who took time off from her World
Bank-funded project on diversity to learn how to make the jungle come
alive in water colors.
It's expensive to live at OTS. Nobody's getting paid very much. And
the work is non-stop. When flood waters raged through the property at
the beginning of the year, thousands of dollars worth of equipment were
threatened, and carefully planned experiments were in danger of being
washed away. Resiliency, improvisation, and courage are just a few of
the lessons doled out by the rain forest on the Sarapiqui River.
Some of these researchers will spend their careers in the tropics.
Others will return to teach at universities, and send their own students
to continue these projects. But none of them will ever forget life
along the Sarapiqui River in the Atlantic lowlands of Costa Rica.
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