Brazil to inventory Amazon rainforest trees

Brazil will undertake the massive task of cataloging the trees of the Amazon, in an effort to better monitor and protect the world's largest tropical forest, the environment ministry announced Friday.

The planned tree census, set to take four years, "will allow us to have a broad panorama of the quality and the conditions in the forest cover," the ministry said in a statement.

The head of the national forest service said that the survey will provide a detailed knowledge of the rainforest, which has been under environmental threat from logging and climate change.

"We are going to come to know the rainforest from within," said Forestry Minister Antonio Carlos Hummel.

The last such exhaustive survey of the rainforest was undertaken in 1970.

Scientists say that the Amazon rainforest -- sometimes referred to as the lungs of the planet because of all the oxygen created by the plant life there -- has been shrinking at an alarming rate.

The government made a commitment in 2009 to reduce deforestation in the Amazon by 80 percent by 2020.

Original:

Wonder fruit açaí transforming Amazon rainforest

The increased cultivation of açaí - the purple fruit that dangles from palms in the Brazilian rainforest and is touted by many celebrities as the number one superfood for ‘age-defying beauty’ - may be one of the reasons for the country’s staggering increase in forest cover over the past two decades, scientists said at the World Conservation Congress last week.

“It is actually replacing cattle pastures in certain areas of the Amazonian floodplain,” said Christine Padoch, director of forests and livelihoods research at the Center for International Forestry Research (CIFOR). She was speaking at a workshop organised by CIFOR and Bioversity on managing wild systems and species for global food security.

The Brazilian Amazon, covering 4.1 million square km, accounts for one third of the world’s remaining tropical forests. While deforestation fell by 76 percent between 2004 and 2010, the expansion of agribusiness into the country’s forest and grassland in recent years has seen swathes of forests transformed for agricultural and cattle ranching activities.

But in the estuary of the Amazon where açaí (pronounced ah-sigh-ee) is native, local farmers are transforming natural forests of the fruit so that they can meet global demand. In other cases they follow a shifting cultivation trajectory – that is selective clearing of natural forests (often leaving some trees) and planting of açaí trees while also managing natural regeneration.

It is actually replacing cattle pastures in certain areas of the Amazonian floodplain.
While all types of plantations may improve forest cover, smallholder management is better for biodiversity, says Padoch.

Monocultures are often pushed by external developers who believe mixed cultivation models cannot produce a high-enough yield to meet market demand.

“If açaí agroforests are managed by smallholders they tend to have many other species in there, because people use these areas to support their own livelihoods,” Padoch said.

“For example, farmers often also plant fast-growing timber species for construction and even small amounts of rice next to the açaí trees, because the estuarine area floods twice a day and the rice attracts fish for them to eat.

“This way of managing forests is a method that we really need to know more about,” she added, noting that may be especially true as the world tries to find ways to increase food production and income while preserving forests and biodiversity.

“This may be one piece of the puzzle that we have been ignoring up until now.”

INVISIBLE FOREST MANAGEMENT

The explosion of açaí on the international market as the chic miracle food (global sales are in the hundreds of millions) poses some important problems for local farmers who have managed these fruit trees for many millennia, said Padoch.

“People seem to think that although smallholders may know the area and resources, they don’t know how to manage and produce for a market.”

“There are lot of projects saying that ‘we’ve got to come in here and design management techniques,’ but it is hard to argue that we will know how to manage it better than the local people,” she said.

“In fact, these are areas that probably tend to be labelled in land-use plans as places where you can’t possibly do agriculture because it floods twice a day, but this is exactly where the local people can and are doing agriculture.”

“Even though this is somewhat of a new situation where the market has changed extremely, people still managed to respond to it largely using their own knowledge of this species and their own management techniques.”

In general, forest land is perceived as unproductive, says Eduardo Brondizio in his book The Amazonian Caboclo and the Açaí Palm: Forest Farmers in the Global Market. When tangible changes are made to land, the farmers who plant and tend the crops are recognised for their economic role and their asserted ownership of the land.

But açaí farmers who produce in forested areas are perceived as not transforming the land, so they are not recognised for their contribution and in many cases don’t have legal claim to the land.

“In fact, contrary to large portions of the Amazon, the forest farmer’s land has been transformed – without deforestation – in a productive way,” Brondizio said.

“It’s important to reframe the issue in a way that recognises their economic contributions and intensive forest management and planting techniques by referring to them as producers and not extravists.”

Padoch agrees, saying in this way, we can better recognise the economic potential of standing forests and ensure smallholder management of forests becomes visible.

“This is what we really want to focus on now - whether it is possible to work with smallholder forest management, not making this just something that follows conventional forestry ideas but follows these ideas of managing for ecosystem services and for food that have been around for a long time.”

This work is part of CIFOR’s research program on Forests, Trees and Agroforestry in smallholder production systems and markets.

This blog first appeared on the CIFOR website.

Today in Astonishment: The Amazon Rainforest Gets Half Its Nutrients From a Single, Tiny Spot in the Sahara

The Amazon basin is one of the world's wondrous ecosystems, supporting massive amounts of life, both in kind and quantity.

You might have thought about poison frogs or monkeys, but you've probably never stopped to wonder, "Where are all the nutrients that power this biotic explosion coming from?"

The answer is actually astonishing and delightful in that one-planet-one-love kind of way. As laid out in a 2006 paper that science writer Colin Schultz dug up, nearly half of the nutrients that power the Amazon come from a valley in the Sahara called the Bodélé depression.

At 17,100 square miles, the area is about a third of the size of Florida or 0.5 percent the size of the Amazon basin it supplies.

"This depression is a unique dust source due to its location at a bottle neck of two large magmatic formations that serves as a `wind lens', guiding and focusing the surface winds to the Bodélé," the authors, an international team of geologists, wrote.

Read more: 

Extinction Rates Hike In The Brazilian Forests

Brazil’s Amazon rainforest has many accolades to its name: It is the largest tropical rainforest in the world covering over five and a half a million square kilometers, it is the home to 10 percent of the world’s known species and 20 percents of the world’s known bird species, and it is that 2.5 million different insect species and over 40,000 plant species live in the Amazon rain forest. Tragically enough, the diversity seen in the Amazon rainforest has been threatened for years due to human activity. It has been estimated that almost 90 percent of the rain forest is now gone, having been replaced with roads and cities, and as a result, the biodiversity has also taken a hit.
In 2007, the National Geographic shared the concerns the Amazon was facing:

During the past 40 years, close to 20 percent of the Amazon rain forest has been cut down—more than in all the previous 450 years since European colonization began. The percentage could well be far higher; the figure fails to account for selective logging, which causes significant damage but is less easily observable than clear-cuts. Scientists fear that an additional 20 percent of the trees will be lost over the next two decades. If that happens, the forest’s ecology will begin to unravel. Intact, the Amazon produces half its own rainfall through the moisture it releases into the atmosphere. Eliminate enough of that rain through clearing, and the remaining trees dry out and die. When desiccation is worsened by global warming, severe droughts raise the specter of wildfires that could ravage the forest. Such a drought afflicted the Amazon in 2005, reducing river levels as much as 40 feet and stranding hundreds of communities.

Unfortunately, the news only gets worst. A recent study, which appeared in the journal Plos ONE, found that the rainforest which once was known for its biodiversity is currently the poster child of extinction. The biologists found that numbers to be shocking — for instance, only 767 populations of mammals of 3,528 still existed. Other species facing extinction include jaguars, lowland tapirs, woolly spider monkeys and giant anteaters.
The study states:

On average, forest patches retained 3.9 out of 18 potential species occupancies, and geographic ranges had contracted to 0–14.4% of their former distributions, including five large-bodied species that had been extirpated at a regional scale. Forest fragments were highly accessible to hunters and exposed to edge effects and fires, thereby severely diminishing the predictive power of species-area relationships[.]

While the study brought bad news, it also shared some good news that shed light on how the biodiversity in the Amazon can be protected. The study found that the areas of the rainforest that have ecological protection also showed the highest rates of biodiversity. This means that all hope is not gone and that if we work towards protecting what is left, via hunting and constructions bans, of the rainforest then we still stand a chance to save the species that face extinction.

Original article:  http://www.greenerideal.com/science/0817-extinction-in-the-brazilian-forests/

Amazon: a tale of two economies

Supporting communities who live in the Amazon rainforest to use the forest sustainably will help to protect it for future generations

The river runs thick and wide, lined on both sides by deep green rainforests. In the distance, vast, grey graceful curtains of rain float over the horizon. Rain fills the river with freshwater, carried over vast distances. At places it is eight kilometres wide, a veritable sea of fresh water. When clouds stop pouring, the sun soaks up the monsoon bounty – from the river and from the rainforests – and sends more rain. The circle of life plays over and over again. This is the mighty Amazon – the greatest of all river systems on Earth, and by far the most majestic.

This single system empties one-fifth of all the freshwater that flows into the world's oceans. If the Earth had lungs, they would be the Amazon rainforest. And if it had pulmonary arteries, they would be the Amazon and its many tributaries and branches.

Manaus, the capital of Amazonas state in Brazil, is located at the confluence of the Rio Negro and the Amazon. It is 1,450km up the Amazon from the Atlantic Ocean.

From Manaus, it takes six hours by boat to Tumbira, a small village with a school, a church, and a football field (the three institutions of rural Brazil). Tumbira is also home to the field centre of the Amazon Sustainability Foundation (FAS).

The Amazon is over 1km wide here, but above and beyond the visible river system is another, gigantic, invisible, "river" system. An estimated 20bn tonnes of water vapour is released every day by the Amazon rainforests. Animated satellite pictures show a constant global flow of airborne water vapour from the Amazon along the tropics, which scientists say is a source of rainfall not just for South America, but the world.

Both these river systems are at risk. A parliamentary amendment to the forest code is thought to have led to a rise in deforestation, and a spate of recent murders of environmental activists and small farmers has shocked the world.

Deforestation is often blamed on three vital groups of stakeholders: big local business, local people and consumers. These are the people who benefit from the fields and farms the Amazon rivers irrigate. Big local business can look after its own interests. Global governments representing foreign consumers of the Amazon's services are beginning to put money on the table – Norway has set an example by committing a $1bn to Brazil for REDD+. That leaves the weakest stakeholders – local people – who clearly do need support, and this is beginning to be organised.

A sustainable future for the Amazonas state and conservation of its remarkable rainforest river systems is no small challenge. It needs multiple efforts on multiple fronts.

Read More:

Rich Man Brazil

Richest Men of the World

Eike Batista (No. 8)

Source: Mining, oil
Citizenship: Brazil

Brazil's richest man is gearing up to take over the world. Making a play for foreign investors, Batista announced this year the opening of an office in New York and his intention to list some of his companies on the London Stock Exchange.

Through his holding company, EBX, Batista controls businesses spanning mining, shipbuilding, energy, logistics, tourism and entertainment. After months of discussions, he was triumphant in February in taking control of Canadian gold outfit Ventana. Two-thirds of his fortune comes from OGX, the oil and gas exploration company he founded in 2007 and took public a year later. He says the company will start producing oil this year. In rare recent setback, his planned IPO for his shipbuilding business (OSX), meant to be the world's largest IPO in 2010, was a disappointment and has had a lukewarm reception in the Brazilian market.

The son of Brazil's revered former mining minister, who presided over mining giant Companhia Vale do Rio Doce, got his start in gold trading and mining. Onetime champion offshore powerboat racer; formerly married to Playboy cover girl. In media interviews he's been warning Carlos Slim Helú that he'll soon take his spot as the world's richest man, but he still has a ways to go.

Richest Man Brazil

Anti aging rainforest fruits

You may think that the wondrous plants of the Amazon rainforest remain hidden from modern science, but their medicinal and energizing properties have not gone completely unnoticed.

The rainforest’s original inhabitants, the indigenous Indians, have been using the raw ingredients found in nature to heal, energize and improve their health and well-being. It may even have prolonged life.

The Western world is largely unaware of these rainforest treasures and their scientific benefits. But you are on the threshold of finding out what such discoveries can mean to you.

It will give you an advantage over others that are eating high-fat, high-carb diets that lead to obesity and a shortened lifespan. The life-giving juices and teas of the Amazon rainforest will make clear what the indigenous people of the Amazon have always known.

Anti aging rainforest fruits - Scientific background

The common factor in all the fruits, juices and teas of the Amazon is their content of antioxidants. Antioxidants are nature’s way of defending against chemicals and pollutants that threaten healthy cells every minute of the day. It is true of all living things, plants, animals and human beings.

Your body produces some antioxidants/enzymes quite naturally, but some can only be obtained from healthy foods.

Anti aging rainforest fruits - Antioxidant Enzymes

Naturally occurring enzymes perform billions of cell-saving operations in your body without exhausting themselves. Although your body will produce incredible amounts of antioxidant enzymes over your lifetime, it can be very slow to create new ones if your body is under siege. If your body is exposed to more pollutants than your antioxidant enzymes can destroy, your cells may be in trouble.

Certain fruits and plant-based foods contain antioxidants that your body can use over and above the body’s own antioxidant enzymes. For that reason it makes sense to consume a variety of the antioxidant rich botanicals every day. It is your body’s best defense against premature aging.

In addition to the antioxidant plants that you already know, grapes, blueberries, and green tea, here you will learn about some amazing rainforest plants poised to take the antioxidant world by storm.

There are fruits and teas that will give you energy and longer life - the ones from the rainforest. It is strange that they are not already well known in the Western world - why isn’t this already common knowledge? People in South America have used these plants for centuries, but the knowledge has been passed down from generation to generation orally - rather than in writing. This is particularly true among the people of the Amazon basin. Westerners simply have not had the opportunity to hear the stories.

Read More:

Anti aging rainforest botanicals

You may think that the wondrous plants of the Amazon rainforest remain hidden from modern science, but their medicinal and energizing properties have not gone completely unnoticed.

The rainforest’s original inhabitants, the indigenous Indians, have been using the raw ingredients found in nature to heal, energize and improve their health and well-being. It may even have prolonged life.

The Western world is largely unaware of these rainforest treasures and their scientific benefits. But you are on the threshold of finding out what such discoveries can mean to you.

It will give you an advantage over others that are eating high-fat, high-carb diets that lead to obesity and a shortened lifespan. The life-giving juices and teas of the Amazon rainforest will make clear what the indigenous people of the Amazon have always known.

Scientific background

The common factor in all the fruits, juices and teas of the Amazon is their content of antioxidant's. Antioxidants are nature’s way of defending against chemicals and pollutants that threaten healthy cells every minute of the day. It is true of all living things, plants, animals and human beings.

Your body produces some antioxidants/enzymes quite naturally, but some can only be obtained from healthy foods.

Enzymes

Naturally occurring enzymes perform billions of cell-saving operations in your body without exhausting themselves. Although your body will produce incredible amounts of antioxidant enzymes over your lifetime, it can be very slow to create new ones if your body is under siege. If your body is exposed to more pollutants than your antioxidant enzymes can destroy, your cells may be in trouble.

Certain fruits and plant-based foods contain antioxidants that your body can use over and above the body’s own antioxidant enzymes. For that reason it makes sense to consume a variety of the antioxidant rich botanicals every day. It is your body’s best defense against premature aging.

In addition to the antioxidant plants that you already know, grapes, blueberries, and green tea, here you will learn about some amazing rainforest plants poised to take the antioxidant world by storm.

There are fruits and teas that will give you energy and longer life - the ones from the rainforest. It is strange that they are not already well known in the Western world - why isn’t this already common knowledge? People in South America have used these plants for centuries, but the knowledge has been passed down from generation to generation orally - rather than in writing. This is particularly true among the people of the Amazon basin. Westerners simply have not had the opportunity to hear the stories.

Researchers who have made it a point to learn about and listen to the traditional healers have had their research priorities laid out for them.

As more and more about the wondrous fruits and plants have become known, they have set about the task of analyzing their active components and examining them in ways that is credible to modern science.

In case after case it has been established that the oral stories of indigenous Indians are correct and that the fruits and teas indeed have properties that energize and help them lead a longer and healthier life.

Let’s focus on three: açai, cupuaçu, and yearba mate. They are not yet household names in the West, the Indians of South America have been using them for centuries. Once you learn about their real qualities you’ll want a chance to take advantage of their amazing properties too.

Acai, the Amazon Super Fruit

The first time I ever tried acai (pronounced: ah-sah-yee) in 1997, the fruit was served to me as a thick drink by an Ipixuna Indian woman, when I was living on the Amazon River for a month.

Acai, Euterpe oleracea, was as deep purple as any food I had ever seen. In fact, a spill stained a favorite t-shirt of mine, forever. I loved the rich flavor of acai, and the energy it imparted, and consumed as much as I could during the course of my time on the river.

When I left Brazil that time, I lamented that I’d probably never be able to obtain acai back home.

Times have changed, and this delicious fruit is now widely available, from Whole Foods to up-market grocery stores.

A so-called “super-berry” that grows on palms trees in the Amazon, acai is a staple food throughout Amazonia, and that status owes directly to its marvelous flavor.

Acai explodes with flavor, and gets better with every mouthful. Rich in the potent purple pigments called anthocyanins, acai has a higher antioxidant activity rating than bilberries or blueberries, and is rich in beneficial dietary fibers.

A glass of blended acai fruit, with just a slight touch of energizing guarana and certified organic sugar, imparts so much energy, you’ll want to dance and yodel while climbing a mountain at the same time.

No wonder endurance cyclists and ball players have taken to this fruit. Surfers, skateboarders, X-gamers and outdoor enthusiasts speak of acai with reverence.

The berry craze is on full throttle now, and purveyors of each berry – from blueberries to blackberries, black currants and elderberries – have positioned their berry as the ultimate. All of these berries are rich in the purple antioxidant pigments called anthocyanins, and all impart both antioxidant protection to cells, and anti-inflammatory activity as well. As far as I am concerned, they are all extraordinary foods, and are valuable in any person’s diet. I just happen to favor acai most of all, because I love the flavor and the fact that the acai trade is helping to reduce deforestation in some parts of the Amazon.

Forest Preservation - Fast-forward years later, once more in the Brazilian rainforest, this time in the company of Ryan Black, founder of Sambazon Acai. We are watching several hard-working Brazilians climb tall acai palms rapidly, cut branches laden with ripe purple acai berries, and strip the berries into baskets, readying them for processing.

“Our wildharvesting system was developed in conjunction with the Forest Sustainability Council,” Ryan explains. “We’ve taught people how to wildharvest acai, and protect the forest at the same time.” Through ecologically sound agro-forestry management practices, Sambazon has established a top-notch conservation program that protects the Amazon rainforest and minimizes habitat loss. On top of that, they’ve implemented a fair wage system that provides higher than average wages to over 10,000 families in Brazil’s Amapa state. Sambazon has won praise and support from World Wildlife Federation, The Nature Conservancy and Greenpeace. As far as Ryan Black is concerned, it’s all just a reasonable and fair way to operate a business. “Might as well do it right if you’re going to do it,” he says.

Read More:

Highlights of Rivers in Amazon Rainforest

Rivers flowing through Brazil’s Amazon Rainforest appear tan from sediments and silvery from sun glint, giving them the appearance of lightning bolts slicing across the green landscape.

The Amazon rainforest is a moist broadleaf forest that covers most of the Amazon Basin of South America. This basin encompasses seven million square kilometers (1.7 billion acres), of which five and a half million square kilometers (1.4 billion acres) are covered by the rainforest.

See original complete with maps here

Rainforest Sustainability is embedded in Sambazon

From acai berries to the Sustainable Amazon Partnership (SAP)

When brothers Jeremy and Ryan Black created the company Sambazon in 2000 they hit the proverbial mother lode. Sambazon makes juices, sorbet and smoothie packs from acai, berries that grow in Brazil's Amazon forests.

Although the company does not disclose sales, in 2008 they were estimated at $25 million. Sambazon's products are "sold in virtually every health food store, juice bar and convention grocery store in the U.S.," according to its website. Its products are sold at Whole Foods and supermarket chains such as Safeway and Giant.

Sambazon says its company was founded on sustainability, a claim it can back up. It was the first company to sponsor U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) organic certification for acai, and its supply chain is certified as Fair Trade. It works with Wild Wildlife Foundation (WWF) Brazil and other non-governmental organizations (NGOs) to ensure acai is harvested sustainably. Sambazon also built a factory in Amapa, Brazil that buys acai berries from over 10,000 independent family growers, and employs about 150 people, half in Brazil.

Sambazon was named a winner of the "Secretary of State's Award for Corporate Excellence" (A.C.E. Award) for a small-medium business in 2006. It was nominated by the U.S. Ambassador to Brazil. Then U.S. Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice said Sambazon "is an outstanding example of the positive impact that a small company can make to the economy, the environment and the society of its host country."

Rice added, "Sambazon was selected for efforts to promote sustainable development in the Brasilian Rainforest, while improving the conditions of indigenous people through creative marketing of the açaí fruit."

Sambazon launched the Sustainable Amazon Partnership (SAP) as a "public and private collaboration to promote lasting sustainable management of the Brazilian Amazon Rainforest." Since launched, SAP has:

* Provided an alternative sustainable income source to logging, cattle and monoculture plantations
* Promoted sustainable development through environmental stewardship on over 1.9 million acres
* Supported women in local cooperative who make acai seed jewellery
* Established and monitored biosocial indicators to determine the impact of the acai trade
* Developed and implemented sustainability programs with local family farmers

Over one million acai seeds a day come out of processed fruit during harvest season. Sambazon uses the seeds as fuel for its Amapa factory and donates seeds to a nearby brick factory. Before Sambazon donated the seeds, the factory "would use virgin wood from the surrounding area to burn as fuel for the kilns," said factory owner Wagner Alonso Rodrigues.

Since using the donated seeds, the amount of rainforest wood burned by the factory has been reduced by almost 90 percent. "We have reduced our wood purchasing so drastically that now we save $US 250 a day burning seed instead of wood," said Rodrigues.

Read it here

The New Wellness Revolution

Ancient Acai – The Brazilian Amazon’s Super-Berry

Acai (ah-sigh-ee) is a small purple berry from the Brazilian Amazon that has been found to be one of the most nutritious and powerful foods on the planet – jam packed with antioxidants, healthy omega fats, amino acids and dietary fiber.

Ancient Acai - the purple berry with an energy punch has been enjoyed and used as a subsistence food by the natives of the Amazon region for millennia. But it is only now beginning to become known to the American consumer, looking for ways to slow the aging process and maintain vibrant health.

Amazonian acai is establishing itself as an important superfood - gaining popularity with the healthconscious crowd.

Antioxidants help the body get rid of free radicals. The body produces free radicals when it digests food, metabolizes medicine and fights disease, so they are necessary parts of the human condition, but a buildup can damage the body. Antioxidants are credited with preventing coronary artery disease, some cancers, macular degeneration, Alzheimer's disease, and some arthritis-related conditions. according to WebMD.com.

Pomegranates, blueberries -- even wine, chocolate and coffee -- contain high levels of antioxidants. The U.S. Department of Agriculture measures those levels with something called an ORAC score -- Oxygen Radical Absorbance Capacity.

Acai berries have nearly eight times higher ORAC scores than pomegranate, which is near the top of published charts.

Read more:

Brazil Plans a Price on Oil to Accelerate Climate Efforts

Brazil expects to see its lowest rates of illegal deforestation since 1988 by the end of this year.

Minister of Environment Izabella Teixeira said the government will reduce the annual chopping and burning of the Amazon rainforest to between 4,000 and 5,000 square kilometers. The figures will be announced in the run-up to this year's U.N. climate change conference in Cancun, Mexico, this December.

The Amazon clearing is a far cry from the 24,000 square kilometers the so-called "lungs of the Earth" lost in the beginning of this decade. But, Teixeira said, it's also not enough.

"OK, you did this, yes, we are so great," the minister said in a self-mocking flourish at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars' Brazil Institute. But, she added with seriousness, "this challenge is not the only one."

Last year, at climate talks in Copenhagen, Denmark, Brazil promised to reduce its carbon dioxide output 36 percent over the coming decade. Meeting that goal would bring Brazil -- now the world's seventh-largest emitter -- back to its 1994 levels. This week, Teixeira said, President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva will sign Brazil's sectoral strategy and investment plan to show how the country will meet that target. Also this week, Brazil will launch a long-planned climate change fund, bankrolled by a levy on oil production and exploration.

Together, these moves and others are part of a larger Brazilian strategy of assuming a new role in the U.N. climate talks: that of an emerging economic superpower intent on protecting smaller, developing countries while also proving to the United States and others that it will do its part to fight rising global emissions.

But what impact that will have at the 16th U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change, or COP16, talks, where nearly all attention will be focused on getting the United States and China to come to terms over mitigating emissions, is unclear.

An emerging player throws chips on the table

In an interview with ClimateWire after speaking to the Brazil Institute about the current Convention on Biological Diversity conference in Nagoya, Japan, Teixeira was at once dismissive and upbeat about the Cancun meeting.

"COP 16? Forget it," said Teixeira when told the interview topic. Then she recovered. Cancun, she said, is key to bringing leaders together. "It's important that you have a pragmatic approach, and that you can show the global society that we are doing something. It's important to show the world that we can establish a pragmatic basis for actions."

Teixeira maintained the need for an international treaty -- though she didn't specify when that might become a reality -- and stressed the importance of developed countries like the United States making good on commitments to give poor countries $30 billion by 2020 to cope with climate change consequences.

"Let's be current with our declaration," she said. "If we're not able to do this, why are we able to spend lots of money with wars?"

The gregarious minister, who in the course of her public talk teased a questioner about her marital status ("I hope that you can have a lot of marriages. High biodiversity.") and handed her personal e-mail to a graduate student who had written recently on Brazil, offered few other specifics on COP16. Instead, she peppered much of her talk with platitudes.

On whether the Cancun meeting is a referendum on the troubled U.N. climate process: "It's important to understand that climate change is an issue with high complexity."

On whether countries, including Brazil, trust the United States when it says it will keep its Copenhagen promise to cut carbon about 17 percent below 2005 levels, despite the absence of legislation: "It's very important that you have political leadership from President Obama."

As to whether Lula will attend COP16, the minister said she wasn't sure. But, she added, "to have political leadership, you don't necessarily need to go to the COP."

Brazil's plan to grow jobs in a 'low-carbon economy'

Read More

Spectacular species found in Amazon Rainforest

Spectacular species previously unknown to the outside world are being discovered in the Amazon rainforest at a rate of one every three days, environment group WWF said in a report published on Tuesday.

An anaconda as long as a limousine, a giant catfish that eats monkeys, a blue fanged spider and poisoned dart frogs are among the 1,220 animals and plants to have been newly found from 1999 to 2009, according to the report.

The report was released on the sidelines of a United Nations summit in Japan that is being held to try to save the world's fast diminishing biodiversity, and the WWF said it highlighted why protecting the Amazon was so vital.
Advertisement: Story continues below

"This report clearly shows the incredible, amazing diversity of life in the Amazon," Francisco Ruiz, head of WWF's Living Amazon Initiative, told reporters at the launch.

"(But) this incredible region is under pressure because of the human presence. The landscape is being very quickly transformed."

Logging and clearing for agriculture such as cattle farming and palm oil plantations have led to 17 per cent of the Amazon -- an area twice the size of Spain -- being destroyed over the past 50 years, according to the WWF.

The WWF compiled the findings reported by scientists over the 10-year period to highlight how much valuable biodiversity humans may be losing without even knowing as the Amazon is being cleared.

"It serves as a reminder of how much we still have to learn about this unique region, and what we could lose if we don't change the way we think about development," Ruiz said.

One of the most amazing discoveries was a four-metre anaconda in the flood plains of Bolivia's Pando province in 2002.

It was the first new anaconda species identified since 1936, and becomes only the fourth known type of that reptile, according to the WWF.

There were a total of 55 reptile species discovered, with others including two members of Elapidae -- the most venomous snake family in the world that includes cobras and taipans.

A kaleidoscope of different coloured frogs were also found, including 24 of the famed poison dart variety and one that was translucent.

Among the 257 types of fish discovered in the rivers and lakes of the Amazon over was a "goliath" catfish.

One of them found in Venezuela measured nearly 1.5 metres long and weighed 32kg.

At least 500 spiders were also discovered, including one that was completely brown except for a pair of almost fluorescent blue fangs.

Thirty-nine new mammals were also found, including a pink river dolphin, seven types of monkeys and two porcupines.

Among the 637 new plant species discovered were sunflowers, ivy, lilies, a variety of pineapple and a custard apple.

The Amazon is home to at least 40,000 plant species, and the WWF described the scale of diversity in some areas as "mind boggling".

It said 1,000 plant species were documented in one hectare of lowland rainforest in Ecuador, while 3,000 were found in a 24-hectare region of the Colombian section of the Amazon.

Orignal here:

Acai benefits

The global superfruit is dinner in the Amazon.

Clustered high up in the slender, tilting palms of the eastern Amazon, the little purple orbs known as acai look mighty, like blueberries that took a very wrong turn out of Maine.

These are no mere muffin makers, though.

Acai benefits

Virtually unknown outside the Amazon two decades ago, and until 2000 not exported from Brazil, its major producer, acai (pronounced ah-sigh-EE) is now an international celebrity, riding the wave of the antioxidant craze and rainforest chic.

Acai benefits

On the beaches of Rio de Janeiro, surfers seeking an energy boost spoon acai smoothies from bowls. In the United States, companies touting its antioxidant powers blend the fruit into Snapple red tea; Red Brick Pizza’s frantically trendy multigrain, whole-wheat artisan crust; and acai benefits into everything from dietary supplements to beauty products.

But for families who live here along the winding, interlaced rivers at the hub of acai production, the fruit has long been a vital part of their diet, a cheap way to fill up and a taste of home. And now, for some, acai benefits are also a source of newfound prosperity.

In places like Cameta, a town of about 117,000, and Belem, the capital of Para State, a bowl of acai pulp is a filling side dish especially valued by poorer families.

Unlike the pulp used in Rio’s smoothies, the kind here is not pre-sweetened or frozen, but fresh from cylindrical machines known as batedores de acai, "acai beaters," that remove the thin layer of fruit from the pit.

Most every neighborhood has stands or small stores where customers get a daily or weekly supply.

Acai’s international reputation as an energy booster and diet aid tickles those who grew up with it as a caloric side dish.

"I find it funny," said LetÝcia Galvao, a psychologist who was having a lunch of seafood and acai with her husband and 1-year-old daughter at a restaurant called Point do Acai. "Generally, when you have acai here, you take a nap. There, it’s an energy drink."

Galvao said that her brother, a doctor living in the southern state of Parana, wasn’t a big acai fan growing up. But these days he asks anyone visiting him from Belem for a liter of the fresh stuff.

Read more:

Acai: Interview with Ryan & Jeremy Black

How two brothers brought a purple berry to the world and made a difference in the process.

Acai ... sure, we all know that it's a purple berry loaded with antioxidants, it tastes good and it's good for ya. But I bet you didn't even know how to pronounce the word (ah-sigh-ee) 10 years ago, let alone know that it was even good for you. Well, meet the men that introduced you and the world to this lovely little fruit with a vitamin-packed punch.

Brothers Jeremy and Ryan Black were introduced to the acai berry after Ryan and friend Ed Nichols' millennium surf trip to Brazil. They were so impressed with the powers of the fruit that they decided to form Sambazon (along Nichols) that would bring the fruit's benefits global. The Black brothers have business degrees and share a love for sports — founding a business together seemed only natural.

Ryan acts as the CEO and is passionate about creating positive social and environmental change. He is responsible for partnerships with various NGOs (World Wildlife Fund, The Nature Conservancy) that have led to the first of its kind Fair Trade, sustainable and certified organic supply chain of açaí.

Jeremy is the VP of Marketing and branding power behind Sambazon. The health benefits of the purple berry are a perfect marketing fit in the sports and active world that both brothers are at home in. Jeremy is an avid surfer, skateboarder and snowboarder, and often mixes work with pleasure forging new alliances while on a surfing vacation in Indonesia or catching some early morning waves before a trade show.

Both men feel strongly that the multi-million dollar success of their company lies in their triple bottom line approach to the business from the beginning. Jeremy and Ryan take a break from surfing great waves and getting juiced to answer a few questions:

1. What did you want to be when you were growing up?

JB: A professional skateboarder.

RB: A pro football player and the president of the United States.

2. How are you improving your triple bottom line in CSR? Economic performance, environmental responsibility and positive social impact.

JB: We are working on reducing our carbon footprint in all areas of our business, from the packaging to transportation and energy use. In Brazil we are working with local NGOs to monitor the impact of our business (social and environmental) and looking for ways to improve the positives and reduce negatives.

RB: Sustainability is a continuous goal. We still face challenges in our business where we want to reduce our footprint (packaging, energy and fuel use in logistics and manufacturing, etc). We also want a healthier employee and stakeholder base, which means a healthy work environment, family and benefit support, day care, training and technical assistance, health care, diets, exercise and carpools. In other words, we want efficiencies and healthy living for the Sambazon community. We are committed to achieving more and frequent milestones in this area.

3. How do you stay constantly ready for change?

JB: Staying current, being open and knowing God's plan is better than mine. If I do the best I can and fight for what I believe in, I can feel good about the way things are going.

RB: I would say it's all about attitude and mental preparedness. When you know you have done the work, refined your model (business, human, etc.,), you are ready for whatever new challenge or change is in front of you. The way you respond to adversity is the key difference between good and great. Anyone can be positive when things are going well, but performing when things are tough is the real challenge, and you need your mind, body and soul to be ready for it.

4. What's the best advice you ever got?

JB: Vote with your dollars; find out what's behind the goods and services you support with your purchases.

RB: 1) The best way to predict the future is to create it. 2) Do one thing and do it well. Becoming an expert is a requirement for success and focus is key to developing your expertise. 3) The human will is a lot more powerful than we realize.

5. What or who is your inspiration?

JB: Positive Change Makers all over the world, people who, no matter how big or little their role or impact, are doing what they can to make this world a better place.

RB: I get inspired from characters in history who have stood up for social justice, love and tolerance, Jesus Christ, Martin Luther King, Jr. and Gandhi are just a handful of the role models who are dear to me.

Read original here:

Yerba Mate Tea

Rainforest plants include some remarkably beneficial ones. Take the tea of the gauchos of Brazil and Argentina...Yerba Maté.

Unlike acai and cupuacu, which are fruits, this plant is in the evergreen family. The leaves and stems are used to produce tea. It is called by some the "green tea of South America". There is good reason for this, it is the national drink of Paraguay, Brazil, Argentina and Uruguay.

In the Amazon basin the indigenous Indians have been consuming it for centuries. Spanish explorers who came to South America in the 16th century described drinking a tea made by the natives that produced exhilaration and relief from fatigue.

Millions of South Americans drink the tea as a matter of fact, and mate bars have sprung up all over the continent just as coffee bars are popular in North America and Europe.

Benefits of drinking yerba mate tea include more energy and vitality, increased fat burning and weight loss, increased mental awareness and elevated mood, less undesirable cravings, increased vigor of the immune system.

There are always disputes among herbalists and nutrition scientists about what the exact energizing component of mate may be. Some say it is because the tea contains mateine, a chemical cousin of caffeine that has slightly different properties.

Read more:

The Acai Berry - Rainforest Mystique

The nutritional breakdown of açaí is prodigious. It has high levels of iron, calcium, carbohydrates, fibre and antioxidants.

And energy.

A small 100g cup has almost 300 calories. Combined with the mystique of its Amazonian origins, açaí's contents have made it the beverage of choice for Rio's sporty elite.

The way it looks is integral to its appeal. It is made from dark violet berries about the size of a raspberry; a deep, dense colour that seems weighted down by its nutritional secrets. It reflects no light and has the texture of mud. It is fruity with a chocolatey kick.

Açaí is indigenous to the flood plains of the Amazon River estuary. The açaí palm regenerates with ease. In areas where human development has destroyed natural vegetation the first tree that grows in its place is açaí. (Açaí palms cover an area equivalent to half the size of Switzerland.)

In this region, its abundance and role as primary nutritional resource cannot be over-estimated: it is literally the fruit that has saved many poor families from starvation.

Açaí is the main food staple of river communities in the Amazon estuary,' says the agronomist Oscar Nogueira. It is drunk for every meal - in much the same way as bread or rice is eaten in other cultures.

Read more here:

Indigenous Resistance

Indigenous societies today face difficult choices: can they develop, modernize, and advance without endangering their sacred traditions and communal identity? Specifically, can their communities benefit from national education while resisting the tendency of state-imposed programs to undermine their cultural sovereignty, language, and traditions? According to Lois Meyer and Benjamín Maldonado, these are among the core questions being raised by indigenous societies whose comunalidad—or communal way of life—is at odds with the dictates of big business and the social programs of the state.

To explore these issues in depth, Meyer and Maldonado conducted a series of dialogues with Noam Chomsky, and invited numerous organizers and intellectuals from indigenous communities of resistance to comment. In three in-depth conversations, Chomsky offers poignant lessons from his vast knowledge of world history, linguistics, economics, anti-authoritarian philosophy, and personal experience, and traces numerous parallels with other peoples who have resisted state power while attempting to modernize, develop, survive, and sustain their unique community identity and tradition.

Following the interviews are commentaries from more than a dozen activists and intellectuals from the Americas, who speak from their own on-the-ground experiences and work with indigenous communities in Mexico, Bolivia, Argentina, Peru, Panama, and Canada.

This is a powerful reflection on the interconnected issues of education, cultural preservation, globalization, forms of resistance, and possibilities for hope on local, regional, and national levels. It is Noam Chomsky at his best—lucid, accessible, and deeply informative.

Book available from Amazon.com

A home in the Amazon Rainforest

The colorful story of one couple’s journey across the world to build their dream home in the heart of the Amazon

In 1989, as their mid-life crises approached, concert pianist Binka Le Breton and her husband Robin, an agricultural economist, decided to uproot themselves from their home in Washington, D.C. and start a new life in Brazil.

Where the Road Ends is their story of building a house, a rainforest research center, and a new dream.

Since then, they’ve learned how to work with the trees, the animals, the weather, the local community, and each other.

Their technology now ranges from the oxcart to the Internet, and in 2000 they opened a rainforest conservation and research center that is visited by foreign researchers and Brazilian school children.

From meeting their resident cowboy, Albertinho, to beheading snakes, to chauffeuring a local wedding—the adventures described here are unparalleled.

This delightful memoir takes the armchair traveler deep into another world where matters of providing food and shelter can never be taken for granted.

Binka and Robin have embarked on an adventure that many readers only dream about—transplanting themselves in a different country and learning (often the hard way) what it takes to survive and flourish.

Find the book at Amazon