2010 - International Year of Biodiversity
The United Nations declared 2010 to be the International Year of Biodiversity. It is a celebration of life on earth and of the value of biodiversity for our lives. The world is invited to take action in 2010 to safeguard the variety of life on earth: biodiversity.
Join us in this celebration!
Scottish Band gives benefit concerts for Iracambi!
The Orkestra del Sol and Where's the One raised £400 from benefit concerts (we invited you, remember?) and drumming workshops - thank you very much, guys!
Iracambi Director to lecture at MIT
Iracambi Director, Binka Le Breton, was a guest speaker at the Brazil- Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) on 16 February when she talked on the the topic "Rainforest: Use it or Lose it". She also gave a class to students there on sustainability of agriculture in Brazil.
New Forest Monitoring Project for 2010
With help from Ted Karfakis and Kristy Rasmus, we have been setting out our Permanent Sample Plots to begin our long-term forest monitoring project that we have been dreaming of for a long time. From the three plots that we will monitor periodically, we willl collect data on forest growth that we will be able to compare with other such data colllectiosn to see how our forests are doing in realtion sto tothers elsewher, Such studies have been under way for sevral years in the Amazon forests and elsewhere but, as far as we know, very litttle study is being done of long-term studies in the Atlantic forest and we will help to plug that gap.
Iracambi Guide to Butterflies goes on line
The Field Museum in Chicago has put the Guide to the Iracambi Butterflies on line as one of their on-line Tropical Plants Plants and Animals guides. The study was done by Gareth Ventress, with guidance from André Freitas of the National History Musem at the University of Campinas. It is based on earlier studies by Lizzy Coleman and Nina Baliga.
Iracambi was there:
Our Partners, Partners of the Americas, organized an international conference on Higher Education and International Volunteer Service - a subject that is close to Iracambi's heart - in Washington DC, on November 12 - 13 2009. Iracambi's director Binka Le Breton was the modrator of the closing panel discussion on Volunteer Programs and Positive Impact on the Ground.
Environmental Protection Areas
As part of our Community Skills Project, Amigos de Iracambi organized meetings in the communities in the two Environmental Protection Areas of Rosário da Limeira in which the participants analysed the resource uses by the community. This is part of the process that will lead them, in due course, to drawing up a management plan. At the same time, Iracambi staff are working with the County Government to help it to take the steps it needs in order to give the provisions it needs to make the protection areas properly protected and managed.
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Evaluation of natural resources |
São Bartolmeu Community |
Launch Date for Binka Le Breton's new book
At last, what so many have been asking for - the Inside Story of Binka Le Breton's work in creating Iracambi. "Where the Road Ends - a Home in the Brazilian Rainforest" is being published by St Martin's Press and will be launched on 11 May 2010.
Latest News on the Mining Saga
in February 2007 the judge in Muriaé issued a court order suspending all bauxite mining activities in the buffer zone of the Serra do Brigadeiro Park on pain of a penalty of R$10,000 per day on the grounds that the correct licensing procedures were not followed. This order continues in force until such time as the case is judged.
Previous News on the Mining Saga
Bauxite Mining Proposal: In November 2006, in response to our requests, the Government arranged public meetings - not the legally the same as hearings, but nevertheless significant - in the towns of Divino, Miradouro and Muriaé. These were attended by State and Federal Government agencies and by a representative of the Minas Gerais State Legislative Assembly. It was an historic occasion, the first in which a mining company has taken the trouble to explain publicly its plan and discuss the consequences.
In the meeting, two important declarations were made by Government: firstly, that they will require the mining company to seek the approval of the State Park authorities for all mining undertakings within the Park buffer zone and, secondly, the Park Authority stated that it would not give such approval without the agreement of the State Park council, on which representatives of the local communities and other concerned bodies (including Iracambi). This is a major step forward in recognising the necessity of more serious discussion of the protection of the areas biodiversity.
For more information on the mining
issue, click
here to download a report. |
