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WHAT IS COTERC?

The Canadian Organization for Tropical Education and Rainforest Conservation (COTERC) is a registered Canadian non-profit charitable organization (#890096183 RR0001) based in Pickering, Ontario, Canada. Founded in 1991, COTERC operates in both Canada and Costa Rica. In Canada, our Board of Directors are biologists, accountants, educators, environmentalists, zoo professionals, media professionals -- all committed and working actively to protect tropical rainforests. In Costa Rica, we are based at the Caño Palma Biological Station.

CAÑO PALMA BIOLOGICAL STATION

Caño Palma Biological Station is situated approximately 8 kilometres (5 miles) north of the village of Tortuguero on Costa Rica's north-eastern coast. The Tortuguero area is an ancient flood plain covered by lowland Atlantic tropical wet forest and is biologically the richest ecosystem in Costa Rica. Average daily temperature is about 26 degrees Celsius and rainfall may exceed 6,000 mm per annum.

The Biological Station is located within the Barra Colorado Wildlife Refuge adjacent to Caño Palma, a narrow, palm-filled canal that separates the Biological Station from the Caribbean Sea by a mere 200-300 metres. The globally endangered green, leatherback, hawksbill and loggerhead sea turtles come ashore to nest on beaches accessible from the station. There are no roads in the area, and visitors to Caño Palma arrive by boat via a network of rivers and canals. The station has a large covered boat dock with a lookout designed for viewing wildlife. The compound consists of a lush lawn and gardens with many varieties of tropical plants and shrubs. There is a small pond near the dock, which is used by the local wildlife. The station is surrounded by secondary forest in transition, with primary forest just behind.

Much of the surrounding area is protected under Costa Rica's parks and reserves system, with Tortuguero National Park (18,900 square hectares) and the Barra Colorado Refuge (92,000 square hectares), forming a vast corridor, which connects with conserved forest in Nicaragua to the north. Our goal is to extend our efforts in neo tropical conservation to extend beyond the station's 40 square hectares.