Amigos de Iracambi

hummingbird

The Legend of the Humming Bird

A humming bird was terrified by the forest fire, with all the rest of the animals. But instead of running away from it, the humming bird was diving into the river and dropping drops of water into the flames. "Hey, you silly liitle bird" cried the eagle "Get out of there! Do you think you can put the fire out all by yourself like that?" "By myself, no," replied the humming bird "but I'll do my part".

Amigos de Iracambi

Our Aims

Amigos de Iracambi is a Brazilian registered non-profit civil association that works to promote the conservation of the Atlantic Rainforest. Our aim is to protect the rainforest by working to find ways of making its conservation more attractive than its destruction.

Our specific objectives are

to promote the conservation of the Atlantic Rainforest of Brazil, particularly in the region of Rosário da Limeira in the state of Minas Gerais;
to support research at the Iracambi Research and Conservation Center into techniques that permit the sustainable management of forested lands in the area and that will generate income from the forest, thus improving the living standards of the local people and motivating them to preserve it;
to support activities of the Iracambi Research and Conservation Center that raise awareness of the forest conservation issues among local people (especially young people) ;
to support activities that transfer improved management technology to local farmers; and that disseminate the Centre's research findings to the scientific community and the general public.

The directors of Amigos de Iracambi are:

President	Binka Le Breton, Director, Iracambi Recursos Naturais Ltda
Vice President	Fernanda Areal Carizzo from Muriáe: local activist and President of Grupo AMA
Secretary	Aline Araújo Lópes, Veterinarian, Muriaé,.
Treasurer	Vicente Chavez Júnior, of Rosário da Limeira
Advisory panel	Aurelina de Oliveira Campos, Editor, Jornal de Belisário, and fomer treasurer of the Society
	Dárcio Calais, Associação Mineira de Silvicultura, Belo Horizonte, native of our area;
	Joaquim Ferreira de Laia, community leader, Graminha Community, Ros'ario da Limeira;
	Profa. Maria Irene Cardoso, Professor of Soils, Febderal University of Viçosa
	Dra. Maria Teresa Leite Young, biologist, advisor to the Vice-Chancelor's Office of PUC Minas;
	Paulo Sérgio Ferreira Neto, formely of CTA, Viçosa and consultant on Community Development
	Dr.Robert Young, professor of zoology at PUC Minas;
	Dra. Rosana Beinner, professor at the Federal University of Diamantina, and also a native of the area.

Our Friends around the World

Our supporters in the United Kingdom have formed a Society, Amigos de Iracambi (UK) to help us with fund-rasing and publicity in the UK.The Society is registered with the Charities Commission.

In the USA, we are supported by Amigos de Iracambi (US) Inc., which has been granted tax exemption status under Section 501 (c) (iii) of the IRS Code.

We also have working partnerships with other institutions - click on this link to meet them.