Amazonica
The name Amazonica unites activities in the Amazon rainforest. Amazonica has taken on the task of preserving the Amazonian forest system for mankind, together with the indigenous Indio peoples. An underpinning of these activities is the Rainforest Academy in Ecuador. The research and training institute, open to scientists and students from all over the world, was brought into being to increase understanding of the tropical rainforest. Another focus is the deepening of knowledge concerning community development that has resulted from model projects in the forest. The effort is taking place under the auspices of UNESCO. Amazonica is supported, among others, by the government of Ecuador and the European Climate Alliance. Founder and Chairman of the Amazonica Foundation is the publisher Mascha Kauka, who has been involved with the Indios of the Amazon region for 25 years as a development aid worker, environmental expert and advisor.
The starting point[edit]
The Amazon basin contains the world’s largest forest-based ecological system. It sustains and renews one-third of the earth’s supply of fresh water. The reserve is becoming increasingly important since today two-thirds of humankind have either insufficient or no clean drinking water. The world’s climate is also influenced by the tropical rainforest. It cleans the atmosphere of gaseous emissions such as CO2 that damage the climate. It is necessary to protect the tropical rainforest to ensure that the natural basis for life across the planet can be sustained. Exhaustive cultivation, however, is still the order of the day: year after year millions of hectares of forest are destroyed in the Amazon basin, mostly by timber logging and road-building.
The Amazonica policy[edit]
The around 400 Indio peoples (almost 2 million Indigenous) in the Amazon rainforest are in a position to protect it against damaging influences and preserve it. The Amazonica initiative was founded in 2002 with the aim of allowing the Indios to have a future in the forest itself and thus protect it. The founder of Amazonica is the German publisher Mascha Kauka, who possesses more than 25 years of experience in organizing development projects in Latin America. Its most important activities are the Amazonica Academy and the international Amazonica Foundation.
Amazonica pilot project[edit]
In the course of a pilot project carried out between 2002 and 2007, around 12,000 forest Indians in the Amazon region of Ecuador were given experience in development of the community. Selected communities in the territories of the Indio peoples assisted in this learning process. It focused on education and training (alphabetization, maintenance of the native culture, ecologically friendly farming and production, and the buildup of a domestic market in the forest, etc.), as well as the setting up of a medical infrastructure. This was accompanied by the introduction of renewable energy sources, as well as the protection of the primary forest through the creation of nature reserves and re-forestry. The pilot project was concluded in 2007. Results have been documented and will be available to the native inhabitants of the Amazon basin.
Amazonica Academy[edit]
The Amazonica Academy is being set up in the Ecuadorian jungle to fulfill this purpose. It is intended that co-operation between the Indios and German and international business and science communities in industrial nations should bring about a greater degree of understanding on how to deal responsibly with the rainforest. It is an academic establishment, offering faculties in global climate and hydrology. These include the use of renewable energy sources for decentralized supply, climatology, hydrology, geo-information, and the cultivation and use of renewable raw material resources suitable to the locality. Studies in bio-diversity and earth biology are offered.
The academy will be open to local and international students, lecturers and scientists. International research projects will also be carried out. The Director of the academy will be the educationalist Uyunkar Domingo Peas, one of the leaders of the Achuar tribe in Ecuador.
Amazonica Foundation[edit]
Financing is secured through the Amazonica Foundation, founded in April 2007 in Munich. The foundation brings together and administers donations and endowments and is responsible for financing the ongoing academic operation. It will provide the necessary means from revenues that include those arising from the Foundation’s own assets, endowments, public grants, donations and sponsoring. Setting up the Academy on two different locations (with the Achuar und the Shuar tribes) will cost around 1.3 million Euros.
Cooperation with academic teaching institutes[edit]
The supporters of Amazonica include the State University of Cuenca in Ecuador, various faculties of the Munich University of Applied Sciences, and also in Germany the Straubing Science Center, the Technical University of Weihenstephan and the Munich Technical University. The German KLIMA-BÜNDNIS (Climate Alliance) and the German Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development sponsor the forward-looking projects. The worldwide Amazonica initiative operates under the auspices of UNESCO.
External links[edit]
This article "Amazonica" is from Wikipedia. The list of its authors can be seen in its historical. Articles copied from Draft Namespace on Wikipedia could be seen on the Draft Namespace of Wikipedia and not main one.
