The CATIE INSTITUTE FOR TROPICAL PLANT STUDY is well worth a visit. Anyone who enjoys flowers or nature itself cannot help be impressed with the volume of activity in the grounds of this illustrious institute. All of the vast array of tropical flowers, plants and trees are represented in these grounds. It’s a photographer’s paradise.

CATIE is one of the foremost institutions of its kind in the world. Yet there seems to be very little information about it on the web. CATIE's own website offers very few good photographs to attract visitors which is a pity because there is so much to see there. We have been able to piece together information from tour company descriptioons school group travelogues and various university websites as follows.

The institution was started in 1942. It was a cooperative effort by several countries under the leadership of Henry Wallace, U.S. Secretary for Agriculture. Actually at the time of its foundation it was called the Interamerican Institute for Agricultural Sciences, or IICA with its headquarters in Turrialba. Then in 1973,  IICA, was split from the research facility and moved to another site and the Center for Tropical Agricultural Research and Higher Education, CATIE, continued its valuable research work in Turrialba.

Currently, CATIE has about a dozen country members in including Belize, Brazil, Colombia, Costa Rica, Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, Mexico, Nicaragua, Panama, Venezuela, and the Dominican Republic. Its aim is to reduce poverty in Latin America by teaching people how to produce and manage their own crops with coffee being the major emphasis.

The Turrialba campus is home to a graduate school, training program and research facility. The institute offers Masters and Doctoral programs in ecological agriculture, agroforestry, forestry and environmental economics. The work is carried out by an international faculty originating from Europe, North America, and Latin America.