We are proud to introduce one of our supporters, the Focus Conservation Fund

[Donald Reid]

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http://andetur.org/Focus_Conservation.htm
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Douglas Trent, President of the Focus Conservation Fund, has lived and or worked in Brazil for nearly 30 years, and has been operating and guiding natural history tours in South America for over 27 years. His friendship with local people throughout Brazil goes back to the early 1980's. They are based on trust and respect. By using tourism to raise money for conservation work, he has earned the respect of the international scientific and conservation community, including political entities in Brazil and other South American countries. He speaks fluent Portuguese, and thoroughly understands what it takes to get things done in Brazil. Focus Tours www.focustours.com
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This first hand knowledge combined with support from cardholders in Brazil creates an opportunity to operate conservation projects that will work.
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PROJECTS
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We are proud to support a number of projects that fit within their mission. Some of these are listed below.
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Roteiros de Vida Silvestre (Minas Gerais Wildlife Trail) is a project in the state of Minas Gerais designed by FCF President Douglas Trent. Roteiros will train local people to be natural history tour guides in five different locations, each with different wildlife. It includes an environmental education program where guides will take school children into there natural areas and teach them the species present as well as about how they interact, reconnecting them with nature. Other partners in this project are the State Secretary of Tourism, the State Forestry institute (IEF-MG) responsible for the state parks and other protected areas, SEBRAE- MG which is a semi-governmental training institute, Vida Silvestre i.Ltda (Wildlife Unlimited) and Focus Tours.
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Roteiros de Ouro Preto (Ouro Preto Wildlife Trail) Ouro Preto is a historical city in Minas Gerais, and once the capital of Brazil. It is a Unesco World Heritage Site and a National Monument. With Brazilian Baroque architecture, cobblestone streets, gold-laden churches and chapels, museums and great restaurants, this college town is already a popular tourism destination. This is a similar project to Roteiros, for the city of Ouro Preto, the Itacolomi State Park and several other surround reserves, teaching poor local people to be nature tour guides, work with schools, hotels, restaurants etc. so that local people will benefit from nature, and become allies in it preservation. Other partners in this project at the City of Ouro Preto including the Mayor, secretary of Tourism and Secretary, IEF-MG, SEBRAE- MG, Vida Silvestre i.Ltda and Focus Tours.
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Projeto Mangabeiras de Educacao Ambiental e Turismo Sustentivel – Conexcao com a Natureza
(Mangaberias Park Project – Environmental Education and Sustainable Tourism). This project with the Belo Horizonte Foundation of Parks, will train poor local residents to be naturalst guides, to work wtih city schools to bring kids into 6 of the cities rainforest parks. This will reconnect the people in this city of 3 million to their incredible nature. Belo Horizonte has over 300 bird species, and city parks still host ocelot, lesser anteater and two endemic primate species. Other partners are the Belo Horizonte Parks Foundation, the City of Belo Horizonte and Focus Tours.
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1st International Forum for Socio-environmental Responsibility and Sustainable Tourism, July 3-4, 2008, Belo Horizonte, MG, Brazil. This important forum will bring together industry, non-profits, government, universities and international development institutions to discuss a sustainable future, and promote sustainable community owned tourism. Included will be the course “How to Develop Community-based Ecotourism”. Other partners include State Secretary of Development, Secretary of Tourism and Secretary of the Environment, IEF-MG, SEBRAE – MG, SOS Falconiformes, UNESCO, Brazil’s Ministry of the Environment, CEMIG, Vida Silvestre i.Ltda and Focus Tours.
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Katwe Tourism Information Centre, Queen Elizabeth National Park, Udganda (KATIC) The Focus
Conservation Fund is proud to partner with this iexcellent example of community based ecotourism working to preserve nature, in line with the mission of FCF. Our partnership with KATIC is designed to help this fine organization, and those of you that wish to make a donation that will also be tax-deductible in the United States of America.
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Associaçao ABTC-Brasil a Brazilian non-profit based in Rio Grande Do Norte, Brazil. This is an excellent example of community based ecotourism working to preserve nature in the threatened Caatinga biome, in line with the mission of FCF. Our partnership with ASSOCIAÇAO ABTC-BRASIL is designed to help this fine organization, and those of you that wish to make a donation that will also be tax-deductible in the United States of America. Visit their site, in English to learn more about this fascinating project. Associacao ABTC-Brasil http://www.andetur.org
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The Neotropical Companion, Portuguese Translation. This excellent book by author John Kricher, published by Princeton University Press, does more than any other we know to explain neotropical ecology in an interested and accessible manner. The author and Princeton University Press have granted the Focus Conservation Fund the rights for 7 years to publish this book in Portuguese. We are looking for publishers in Brazil at this time.
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Other partners are Birder’s Exchange / American Birding Association and Focus Tours. A Neotropical Companion http://press.princeton.edu/titles/6179.html Birders' Exchange http://www.americanbirding.org/bex/supporters.html Focus Tours www.focustours.com
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Jaguar River Lodge, Pantanal, Brazil This luxury lodge on the Paraguay River has asked Focus Tours and the Focus Conservation Fund to help them preserve jaguars and other creatures
visited from the lodge. Jaguar River Lodge http://www.jaguarriverlodge.com
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Policy Statement - Focus
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Brazil's Atlantic forests are 60 million years old. They thrived for 20 million years before the Andes rose up, reversed the flow of the great river, and the Amazon Basin was formed. Consequently, the highest biodiversity on the South American continent is found here. It is often compared to Madagascar, both for its unique biodiversity, and its threatened existence. With around 97% of the original forest gone, that which remains is in "islands" of forest, surrounded by grazed hillsides, sugar cane and coffee plantations.
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The private reserve RPPN Feliciano Miguel Abdala (with the Caratinga Biological Station) is a private reserve covering over 2,000 acres in the eastern part of Minas Gerais. For over 20 years an ongoing research project has studied a group of Northern Muriqui, Brachyteles hypoxanthus. Formerly known of as the Woolly Spider Monkey, this is the largest primate in the Americas, and the largest mammal endemic to Brazil. The problem is that these, and the other three rare primate species that occur here, are experiencing a growth in their population. Within ten years, they are likely to outgrow their forests.
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Forests cover the tops of hills throughout the region. Farmers, ranchers, and villages left these to protect the watersheds. The Focus Conservation Fund is working with the Brazilian non-profit A Sociedade para a Preservaçao do Muriqui, "Preserve-Muriqui", www.preservemuriqui.org.br, to build rainforest corridors between these forested hilltops and the Station, as well as to work with the local community of Santo Antonio do Manhuaáu.
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We can negotiate corridor lands with landowners. With fences to keep cattle out of some of the areas, we can also fence crossings through the corridor that the cattle can use for shade. This will provide a benefit for ranchers. Work done in the area by Preserve Muriqui and its’ Director President, Ramiro Abdala Lima Passos, together with the assistance of FCF, Focus Tours and other partners, has made protecting the Muriqui popular, and we expect to be able to negotiate land easily. For a relatively small amount of money, we will actually increase the amount of this rich forest and the amount of habitat the endangered primates and other endemic creatures can use.
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We have all heard about the burning of the Amazon rainforest. We know that the last couple of years heave seen the most burning. What seems like a hopeless disaster is in fact not that difficult to change.

One must first understand what causes the fires and accept that fires in the Amazon Basin are now a permanent part of the ecology of the region. Fires in the rain forest, however, can be avoided.
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Studies in Brazilian rainforest communities have shown that the people who suffer the most from out of control fires are those that live in those communities. An out of control burn destroys fences, buildings, and often kills farm animals. It is a mistake to think that poor farmers in the Amazon want the forest to burn. Fires destroy their clean water supply, medicinal herbs, and food-both gathered and hunted.
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Setting fire to a previously cleared area is the poorest way to rejuvenate pasture. It is wasteful of forests, nutrients, and threatens investment. At the same time, it is a fast and cheap way to reduce weeds and pests, while providing nutrient-rich ash to the soil. The use of fire makes economic sense when forest is abundant and inexpensive. A long-term solution to out of control fires must come from an alternative model for regional development that favors greater investments on smaller areas of land.
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The answer, then, is to improve the lives of people in those communities. First, they need help getting title to their land. If they own their land, they are more likely to want to invest and protect their investments. Second, they need help organizing into cooperatives. They can work together to create firebreaks and can notify each other when a fire is planned. This already occurs in some communities, and fines are levied on those that do not give advanced warning. Communities can work together when a member of the coop is burning to be sure the firebreaks are not broken.
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Third, they need a vehicle to get their products to market. Rubber tappers in western Brazil have used a donated truck to get their products to market and have preserved a substantial area of forest. Local markets and investments in land lead to higher land prices. It becomes uneconomical to have out of control fires.
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Ecotourism
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Ecotourism can be used to both employ Pantaneiros and raise money to convert more land to
reserve status. A considerable effort is being undertaken to make tourism an ally in biodiversity conservation, but current economics are stopping ecotourism from fulfilling its potential. Most tour profits stay with the company that sells the tours. They have to, if the company is going to stay in business.
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A much smaller portion of the profit goes to companies in the cities where the tourists arrive by air. Vehicles, food, local guides, and other products come from here. Almost none of the profit ends up in the hands of the people that live in or near, and ultimately control, the biodiversity that tourists go to see. This equation needs to be reversed if ecotourism is going to play a significant role in biodiversity protection.
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To do this, the local people need to own the tourism. They need to own comfortable lodges that will attract customers. They need to speak fluent English, and be trained as guides capable of guiding the most demanding naturalists and bird watchers. They must own their own vehicles so that they provide the service of picking people up from the airport. They must have web sites that will attract clients, and have prices that provide a commission for travel agents. With this, all of the profits, except the commissions, will stay in the community where the biodiversity is. A clear reason to preserve this biodiversity will be obvious.
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The Focus Conservation Fund, together with Focus Tours, Inc., has helped Pantanal landowners
build a simple lodge at the Jaguar Ecological Reserve. This has brought Pantaneiro youth back to the Pantanal. The lodge is owned entirely by a Pantaneiro family. The result has been to keep Pantanerios in the Pantanal, earning a fair living and protecting their habitat. It will be difficult for land squatters to invade, a problem facing many forested areas. The alternative is large-scale cattle ranches where rainforests now stand.
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The result will be Pantaneiros continuing to live in the Pantanal, earning a fair living and protecting their habitat. It will be difficult for land squatters to invade, a problem facing many forested areas. The alternative is large-scale cattle ranches where rainforests now stand.
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OBS: Note the similarity to our own NGO/ONG and our objectives.
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Donald
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Capt. Donald Reid - Ande Turismo Ltda. (Andetur), and ONG ASSOCIAÇÂO ABTC-BRASIL,
Projetista registered IBAMA – Ministério do Meio Ambiente – as Técnico Federal N° 235492 “Uso de Recursos Naturais / utilização do patrimônio natural; Turismo / complexos turísticos e de lazer, inclusive parques temáticos”