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Program Links - 1 3819

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Brazil: Amazon Resource Management and Human Ecology

Program Highlights

Please note: Final arrangements are subject to change

The program office is based in the city of Belém, in the Amazon River Estuary. Belém is one of the two large urban centers of Amazonia, hosting a large number of research institutes, universities, NGOs, government agencies, and other entities involved in and with Amazonian issues.

Close to one third of the program involves excursions to many different areas of the region. Those excursions include travels to Zona Bragantina, Manaus, Santarém, Trombetas, Ilha do Marajó, Southern Pará, and other locations to understand how environmental, socioeconomic, and cultural issues come together in different ways throughout Amazonia.

Students often see the ten-day boat trip down the Amazon and tributaries as one of the highlights of the program. Other activities and visits of note include:

• The Health and Happiness project that pioneers alternative methods of rural development with over one hundred riverine communities in the Santarém region of Amazonia. The project's participatory development methods have become a model for other areas of Brazil.
• Mineração Rio do Norte, which runs one of the largest bauxite mining operations in the world inside the Saracá-Taquera National Forest. Operating inside a conservation unit forces them to carry out intensive efforts in the recuperation of heavily degraded forest.
• Monte Alegre, where archaeological sites have caused researchers to question the traditional theories of early human colonization of the Americas. A state park has been created to preserve this history, and local communities are implementing a management plan to sustainably utilize the natural resources around the park.
• Direct experience with different ecosystems, communities, and landuse systems, as seen on excursions.
• Intensive language (Portuguese) training classes are held in the classroom and in the field coupled with the many different activities performed during the semester.
• A range of professionals including professors, researchers, community leaders, NGO managers, movement activists, and journalists between others give the lectures for the thematic seminar. The issues and problems are discussed by who is directly involved with them.
• Ecological fieldwork with scientists from the Museu Paraense Emilio Goeldi, the oldest research institute in Amazonia. These scientists are involved with various ecological research projects at the Ferreira Pena Scientific Station in the Caixuana National Forest.