The rain forest is being destroyed. Day by day and hour by hour trees fall, the soil is turned, and fields of fruit or grain are planted. For thousands of years, this has been the way man has advanced his standard of living. If these methods continue, we will soon be left with infertile land and will have destroyed one of our most vital resources in the process.

There is hope, however. Through the advancement of technology, man has discovered better ways of producing valuable goods from the rain forest ... not through conventional farming, but through utilizing its natural biodiversity. This is an ongoing process that needs the help of many hands and many minds.

The amount of work it will to take to fully understand the vast matrix of rain forest life is immense. We must rely on young men and women with the motivation, tools and experience to develop proposals and execute initiatives that safeguard what remains and advance our understanding of this interlaced web of diverse life. Fortunately, the University of Costa Rica has developed this hands-on educational structure where students can learn the exceedingly involved and complicated process of saving the tropical rain forest.