Education Brazil Project #17660

Young EcoLeaders of the Brazilian Rainforest

by Iracambi

Project Report | Mar 10, 2017
Iracambi's Youngest Ecoleaders getting started!

By Marina | Coordinator: Young Eco Leaders

I"m a froggie!

Good morning, dear donors, and greetings from the rainforest!

We're so excitied to introduce you to our expanded program to include the Youngest EcoLeaders! Our new teacher Marina believes it's never too early to introduce children to the wonders of nature, so this school year we are expanding our program to include the youngest children. And before bringing the children into the rainforest, she is bringing the rainforest into the classroom - proving that there are no limitations to the imagination of our youngest students!

Here's how it works. The children create a make-believe world where they are free to be whatever they want. One jumps like a frog, another crawls like a snake, another howls like a wolf. (Yes, we do have wolves in the rainforest, but they don't look like the wolves in the North!) The sun shines and then the rain starts to fall gently on the little trees and plants which grow and grow, and provide shelter and food for the animals. It's turning into a real rainforest party.

After this, the animals are called to a meeting where they hear the terrible news. There are people arriving in the area who want to find minerals in the forest, cutting the trees, digging up the earth, and filling the rivers with runoff. What are the animals going to do now? What will happen to the worms in the earth, the monkeys in the trees, the fish in the rivers? Everyone understands that what affects one animal affects all the animals. It's a long discussion, and when it's time for Marina to leave the animals can hardly wait for their next meeting!

This is just the beginning of this year's school program - because the year only really gets going after Carnaval. But we're delighted, and so are the children. And a big thank you all for your support - we can't tell you often enough that we couldn't do it without you!

lots of rainforest love and we'll tell you more soon!

Marina and the Youngest Eco Leaders .

What shall I be?

I'm a monkey!

Swimming in the river

Links:

Iracambi site

Permalink

Dec 13, 2016
End of Year Update

By Binka and Robin LeBreton | Project Leader

Young Eco Leader at work

Dear wonderful donors,

Isn´t it amazing? The year is almost over and we´re all getting ready for the holidays. And for us, down in the rainforest, it´s time for the summer break - lots of sunshine, lots of rain, and a break after all the ups and downs of this very eventful year! And f course it´s time for us to catch you up on what has been going at Iracambi during the last quarter.

Our main focus this quarter has been pollution. No, it´s not something you associate with the rainforest, with our clear skies and sparkling water, but it´s still very much part of our lives - whether through atmospheric pollution, or pollution of soils and water. When we talk atmospheric pollution, our first thoughts are probably connected with carbon emissions - from industry, vehicles and even from burning the forest. Then we might consider the increasing amounts of garbage generated by the developed and developing worlds. Yes we do have a recycling plant in the local village, and yes we do separate our garbage, but we are still generating a lot of waste. So we decided to hold a round table with the students to reflect on the subject of pollution and waste, together with their causes and consequences. At the end of this module we held a workshop where the students used their creativity to make all sorts of useful objects from recycled materials. A new take on waste.

Buoyed up by this success we then turned our attention to pollution and degradation of soils and water, and as true scientists the students started figuring out solutions. Together with staff, students and local community members they took part in our Forests 4 Water program, rolling up their sleeves and planting seedlings from our forest nursery to protect springs and stream banks. A proactive approach to protecting soils and water before they get degraded and polluted.

Next we learned about Syntropic Agriculture, as introduced into the region by well known Swiss scientist Ernest Gotsch. This form of agriculture seeks to reintroduce native vegetation without the use of agricultural chemicals. One of the secrets is to create ground cover, covering the soil with a thick blanket of organic matter such as leaves and branches of trees that have been pruned. This reproduces the forest environment, stimulates interactions between pl.ants, and prevents soil erosion during the rainy season - which is right now. It didn´t take the students long to understand the logic behind this activity, (which is contrary to traditional practices that encourage clearing ground cover to discourage snakes and other forms of wildlife.) They were happy to share the reasons behind it with their family members who work on the farms - thereby spreading the good news and impacting ever more people.

All this inspired us with an idea. In our isolated rural area with a shortge of reliable transport and our precarious dirt roads (which can easily become impassable in the rains,) how can we reach more potential ecoleadersit? We decided to use the faithful Kombi van - bought a couple of years ago thanks to a Giving Tuesday campaign. Starting in the New Year, our doughty little Kombi, now baptised the IracaKombi, will be equipped with books, tools, games and, best of all, Iracambi staff and students, and will pay monthly visits to schools and community centers in the region, bringing environmental education to places that we haven´t yet been able to reach, and helping us discover ever more young ecoleaders.All this in conjunction with our regular programs held at Iracambi.

So that is the plan, and we couldn´t wait to share it with you. And of course thank you once again for your amazing support on our recent Giving Tuesday campaign. We don´t yet have the final figures to include matching funds raised that day, but as soon as we know we´ll be sure to update you!

Have a wonderful holiday season, and we´ll look forward to talking again soon,

rainforest love,

Ari, Luiz, Ana Paula, Leandro, the Eco Leaders and the IraKombi

Art from waste

Recycled Art

Permalink

Sep 13, 2016
Rainforest update

By Arielle Canedo and Binka Le Breton | Project Assistant and Translator

Studying rainforest soils

Dear friends, donors and supporters

Yes, I'm sure it's happened to you. You just complete a nice report, stop for a cup of coffee, and return to find that the report has GONE. Did you hit the wrong button, was there a momentary power outage? Never mind what happened, you grit your teeth, sit down and start over.

But it's always a pleasure to share updates with you, dear donors. So before we go any further, we'd like to send you a big thank you for staying with us through thick and thin, because without you we wouldn't be here, and we certainly wouldn't be raising a new generation of young conservationists.

As you may have noticed, Brazil has been in the headlines a lot over the past weeks and months. What with the Olympic Games, and economic and political upheavals of heroic proportions, it's surprising that anything got done. But here in the rainforest we are far from the corridors of power, and we've been quietly getting on with the job. In fact the next important date on our calendar is at the end of the month when our Young Eco-Leaders have been invited to participate in Agro Ecology week at the Tech Institute in Muriaé (our nearest medium sized town, about forty km from here.) This will give them the chance to mingle with other budding young scientists and exchange news and views.

They will have plenty to talk about.This quarter we've been focusing on soils: why rainforest soils are generally low in fertility, what different types of soil we have, and how we can help create more fertile soils through using compost and simple home-made fertilizers. As befits curious young scientists, our students have been asking all sorts of smart questions - what makes soils fertile or infertile, how to increase permeability, why erosion occurs, how to prevent and remediate it, and how on earth microorganisms can play a role in both the decomposition and the restoration of soils. We've been looking at the process of decomposition by studying a tomato as it "rots," over the course of days, weeks and months, and we've also been making compost and seeing for ourselves how to çreate fertile soil from household food waste.

Since we are lucky enough to have a living laboratory in the Atlantic Forest, we've also been studying life cycles of birds, insects, small mammals and plants, using magnifying glasses, microscopes and camera traps. Check out the picture below - can you guess what animal walked through the Research Center this week? (Hint: one of the big cats...)

And of course we've been working on leadership skills: team building, problem solving and critical thinking. Many of our Eco-Leaders are first generation students, and by exposing them to real life science we are able to impact not only the students but also their families. The more they get to learn about the forest ecosystem, the more they come to appreciate it and care for it. And that benefits the forests, the students, and all of us.

So, dear supporters, it's been a joy to talk with you, and once again, a big thank you for being there for us.

rainforest love,

Arielle, Luiz, Leandro and the Young Eco-Leaders

getting down to it

look what we found!

baby forest vole

whose print is this? (hint - a big cat)

Links:

Iracambi website

Permalink

‹ 1 ... 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 ›

About Project Reports

Project reports on GlobalGiving are posted directly to globalgiving.org by Project Leaders as they are completed, generally every 3-4 months. To protect the integrity of these documents, GlobalGiving does not alter them; therefore you may find some language or formatting issues.

If you donate to this project or have donated to this project, you can recieve an email when this project posts a report. You can also subscribe for reports without donating.