Marilyn Cole (MES '94) loves monkeying around. Good thing too, because for 22 years she was an animal keeper at the Metro Toronto Zoo caring for everything from orangutans to baby gorillas.

    Now she can study them in her own backyard. Not in Toronto, but in Costa Rica where she owns 100 acres of Atlantic lowland rainforest. Cole heads up the Canadian Organization for Tropical Education and Rainforest Conservation (COTERC), a non-profit charity based in Canada with a research station in Costa Rica. They promote the protection and preservation of tropical lowland rainforest.

    In 1990, while working as a research assistant on a sea turtle project in Costa Rica, a fellow researcher sold Cole her chunk of rainforest real estate. "It seemed like a wonderful opportunity to do something to protect wildlife," she says.

    "There's nothing like being in the rainforest," she says. "You can read about it or see it on TV, but it's not like being there and hearing and smelling everything. It's absolutely wonderful to be able to wake up in the morning and hear howler monkeys roaring."

    In 1992, Cole, an anthropologist, enrolled in York's MES program because the Faculty of Environmental Studies offered students the flexibility to choose between a major research paper or a major project. Cole chose the latter and used the opportunity to get COTERC established.

    The reality of running the charity, however, has set in and Cole now spends a lot of time in Canada raising money ­ not studying her beloved monkeys in Costa Rica. COTERC volunteers provide a conservation education program for teachers in order to raise awareness of tropical rainforests.

    Cole and her staff say saving the rainforest means finding ways for Costa Ricans to live sustainably. As a result, COTERC launched a butterfly farming project ­ similar to the Niagara Butterfly Conservatory in Ontario.

    In addition to displaying butterflies, the conservatory sells butterfly pupae to conservatories across North America and the money raised is used to buy schoolbooks. Funds raised even helped with setting up a much needed garbage disposal system and fund a new health centre.

    But even with the best of intentions, sometimes conservation efforts forget about the people who need to make a living from the land. Says Cole: "You can't just come into a country and tell the people don't cut down any trees. In order for them to live, you have to give them an alternative."