Junior Scientists Restoring Brazil's Rainforest

Dear friends and supporters of Junior Scientists,

First of all, we are delighted and thrilled to have made the challenge, and then to have achieved our funding goal. This happened despite several challenges such as - a heavy travel schedule - periods of extremely limited internet access (in one particular Southern African country that has severe ongoing problems with both power and internet,) and finally - a cracked rib. Ouch! But the team soldiered on and our efforts were rewarded. We even managed to leverage another small grant plus the donation of some scientific equipment. (More about that when it arrives on site.)

A quick announcement. We have decided to keep the project posted until we reach our new goal of $12,000. The extra money will enable us to work with some of the small rural one-room schools that don't have access to transport or to anything much. They heard about our project and begged to be included, and we're really pleased to be able to include them in our program.

Two exciting things happened yesterday, June 6th. First of all we had a team meeting to work out the details of the project planning. The GIS team is in residence, the forest nursery is getting a makeover, we know what we want in the way of school equipment, and we are working on a timetable for the junior scientists program to take off. It's a great time of year to start since we are in the dry season and we're all ready to roll when the second school semester starts next month. (We're South of the Equator, remember?) Stay tuned for the next report when we have the project ready to roll. By that time we'll have hosted a visit from a couple of Globalgiving staffers and they'll be able to give you the inside scoop. In the meantime we'll attach some photos to show you where in the world we are, and what our outdoor study sites look like, (forest nursery, river, permanent forest sample plots.) More soon, and so many thanks to you all! .

Links:

• http://www.iracambi.com