When Lilly first stepped into the Costa Rican rainforest, she wasn’t just stepping into a new country—she was stepping into her calling.
Born in Thailand to a Canadian diplomat and raised across continents, Lilly's life has always been in motion. But it was her love for nature that anchored her. “I’ve been a nature lover since I was a little girl,” she recalls. And when the opportunity arose to work on sea turtle conservation in Costa Rica, her heart found home.
Now, through her organization Finca Cantaros Environmental Association, Lilly is helping local communities—especially women and children—connect deeply with the forest around them. “To me, environmental education is at the core of everything,” she explains. “Because without an emotional connection to nature, there’s no motivation to protect it.”
Magnifying Wonder
Lilly’s Journey into the Heart of the Forest
Her work brings binoculars into classrooms and forests alike, offering a window into a richer, more vibrant world. “You lift up the binoculars, and everything else disappears. You’re present. You’re immersed,” Lilly says. “You notice subtle hues—the bird isn’t just brown. It’s cream, chocolate, cinnamon. You’re having a whole sensory experience.”
Using the SWAROVSKI OPTIK NL Pure binoculars has only deepened that connection. “They feel like an extension of my body,” she says. “You’re not aware of the tool—you’re just aware of the moment. That’s the mark of perfect design.”
But it’s not just about clarity. It’s about confidence.
“Being in nature builds confidence,” Lilly says. “You stumble, you fall, you get up. You learn. You realize you’re capable.” She recalls how presenting in Spanish as part of her early conservation education work was terrifying—but she did it anyway. “That’s what the forest teaches you. Push past limits. Grow.”
And then there’s the color. Burnt orange. Vibrant, charismatic, confident. “Nature isn’t always green and brown,” she smiles. “Sometimes, it bursts with color—the bill of a sparrow, the flash of a frog. The NL Pure’s burnt orange embodies that boldness. It says, ‘Here I am. Take a look.’”
Lilly’s work in Costa Rica proves one thing again and again: when people are given tools—like binoculars—and trust, they respond with wonder.
Lilly’s story doesn’t begin in Costa Rica. It begins across oceans, in the diplomatic corridors of Asia, where she was born to a Canadian family constantly on the move. “To me, it was more natural to be transient, to be in constant motion,” she says. But there was always one constant in her life: nature.
A self-described nature lover from the very beginning, Lilly found herself irresistibly drawn to the wild, to the quiet language of birds, and to places teeming with life. So when a chance to work on sea turtle conservation brought her to Costa Rica in her early twenties, she followed her instincts. "I completely fell in love with Costa Rica, with the Spanish language, with the biodiversity here,” she recalls. “I kept finding more and more excuses to return."
Finding Confidence Through Nature
Years later, with a PhD and a deepening passion for environmental education, Lilly found herself working with the Cornell Lab of Ornithology—developing bird-centered curricula for young learners. When she brought the program to Costa Rica, she encountered a new challenge: teaching in Spanish, a language she wasn’t yet fluent in.
“I didn’t speak that much Spanish when I started,” she admits. “But I had to get up in front of audiences. I had to push myself beyond my comfort zone. And each time I stumbled, I got back up. That’s how confidence grows.”
This inner growth mirrored what she saw in nature. “Being out in nature builds confidence because it gives us space to be free from societal expectations,” she says. “You're reminded that the birds and trees have been doing their thing for thousands of years. That kind of timeless rhythm invites you to just be yourself.”
A Tool That Transforms the Senses
Lilly has loved birds since she was a child, watching them at feeders outside her home in Quebec. But something shifted when she began using binoculars. “That experience is just amplified—it’s like sensory perception on steroids,” she laughs. “You’re not just seeing the bird; you’re seeing its personality, the subtle feather patterns, how it moves through its environment.”
She describes the moment of lifting a pair of SWAROVSKI OPTIK NL Pure binoculars to her eyes as “everything else disappearing.” Suddenly, all the noise—mental or otherwise—fades. “You’re having a full sensory experience around that one particular creature. You’re present in a way that’s rare in daily life.”
And with the NL Pure’s ergonomic design, that moment becomes seamless. “It feels like an extra appendage of my body,” Lilly says.
Seeing the Forest in Full Color
Lilly is especially fond of the NL Pure burnt orange edition—a bold and unexpected hue in a world where optics are often green, black, or camouflaged. “Nature isn’t always just greens and browns,” she explains. “Sometimes you’re walking the trail and suddenly, there’s an orange-billed sparrow or the glint of a poison dart frog. That color says: ‘Here I am.’ It’s not loud, it’s confident.”
To her, the burnt orange binoculars mirror the charisma of the forest itself: vibrant, unapologetic, full of stories waiting to be discovered.
Inspiring the Next Generation
Lilly’s work now centers on environmental education through her organization, Pincantos. From reforestation to birding to gender-inclusive programming, she’s building an ecosystem of hope. “Without an emotional connection to nature, especially at a young age, there’s no motivation to protect it,” she says. “And binoculars help create that connection. They magnify not just what we see—but what we feel.”
She’s also passionate about community engagement, working alongside local leaders like Lesmus, the caretaker of the SWAROVSKI OPTIK property, who is now learning bird species and guiding visitors through the rainforest. “It’s not about shutting communities out,” she says. “It’s about empowering them to become stewards of their own natural heritage.”
Lilly’s Journey into the Heart of the Forest
Hope as a Sustainable Emotion
At the heart of everything Lilly does is a belief in hope—as a practice, not a feeling. “Fear might get people’s attention, but it doesn’t sustain action,” she says. “Hope does. When you walk through a forest that was pasture just 30 years ago and see how life has returned, that’s powerful. That’s motivating.”
She sees the Osa Peninsula, one of the most biodiverse regions on Earth, as a living example of what’s possible. “To know that SWAROVSKI OPTIK isn’t just producing world-class tools but also investing in conserving these ecosystems—it’s more than inspiring. It aligns with everything I stand for.”
A Vision Shared
For Lilly, the journey from childhood birdwatcher to environmental educator and conservation leader has been filled with challenges—but also with extraordinary rewards. And the right tools have helped along the way.
“What I love about SWAROVSKI OPTIK is that they walk the talk,” she says. “It’s not just about seeing nature—it’s about protecting it. And that’s a mission I’m proud to be part of.”
Lilly Briggs, Finca Cántaros Environmental Association
Intended Use
International adventures
Looking for international birding adventures? Then get ready to pack your suitcase and dive into this wonderful way to see the world. Be sure to take the right gear with you. Compact optical devices of the highest performance and quality will boost your travel experience. Here’s a list of all the useful helpers for your next adventure.