This article features CATIE (Centro Agronomico Tropical de Investigacion y Ensenanza), a tropical agricultural research and higher education center. CATIE's mission is to be instrumental in poverty reduction and rural development in the American tropics, by promoting diversified and competitive agriculture and sustainable management of natural resources. Their primary strategies include scientific approach to development, enhancement by partnership, empowerment through knowledge, focus on socioenvironmental interactions, and putting people first. Headquartered in Costa Rica, CATIE teaches more than 25 strategic courses that strengthen the abilities of leaders from public and private institutions to promote updated knowledge, techniques, and methodologies for research and direct action in the field. One of the general purposes of each course is institutional capacity-building at institutions and organizations dedicated to agricultural production, forestry, and the conservation of natural resources and the environment.