School visits
Photo by Piet Vroeg

Young Rangers
Photo by Piet Vroeg

Young conservationists at the Guapi Assu Conservation Centre
Photo by Eleonora Pacheco

Young Rangers
Photo by Eleonora Pacheco

Young Rangers
Photo by Eleonora Pacheco

Young Rangers
Photo by Eleonora Pacheco

Young Rangers
Photo by Eleonora Pacheco

School visits
Photo by Eleonora Pacheco

School visits
Photo by Eleonora Pacheco

Young Rangers
Photo by Eleonora Pacheco

Education

The objective of both the young rangers and school visitation programmes is to increase awareness on the importance of biodiversity amongst young people and to strengthen their capacity and willingness for its conservation.

To order to achieve this, the programme will:

Organize 50 visits a year on biodiversity and the importance of conservation for approximately 1500 primary school pupils (6 to 14 years) and their teachers (50);
Capacitate 20 youngsters (Young Rangers) between the age of 14 and 18 to become biodiversity conservationists in their communities.

REGUA employs Eleonora Pacheco, as Biologist and Coordinator of Education. A teacher, Andre Luiz who lives in Guapiaçu has been contracted to help Eleanora to coach the Young Rangers Programme and design the programme.

Young Rangers Programme

The Young Rangers Programme focuses on formal education with the aim that the youngsters will continue to a higher level of education and/or pursue a career in conservation.

The Young Rangers Program started in 2004 with support of The Brazilian Atlantic Rain Forest Trust (BART) and the Golden Lion Tamarin Association.

The Young Rangers group for 2006 is made up of a group of twenty youngsters, that is five veterans and fifteen new pupils. The group are proportionally distributed as per the adjacent communities of Matumbo, Estreito and Guapi Assu. The fifteen youngsters are divided equally between sexes and are aged between 12 to 14 years. The original group were all residents of the Guapi Assu community and consisted of eight youngsters, aged between 15 to 19 years. Two of the original members are still involved in today’s activities and together with three others form the veterans side of the current Young Rangers Program.

The implementation of the Young Rangers Program is based on a year round curricula and was developed with several members of REGUA staff. During 2006, twenty-eight workshops will be held every Friday from 2.00pm to 5.00pm in the Guapi Assu Conservation Centre at REGUA.

This curricula is based around a variety of topics:

Ornithology
Mata Atlantica fauna and flora
Conservation areas
Seed collection, germination and plantation
Environmental law
Aspects of the municipality of Cachoeiras de Macacu
Introduction to the internet
Introduction to English language
Good manners
Sex education
Cooking skills
Introduction to music and theatre

Field trips have also been organized and have included a visit to the Primatology Centre and the Red-billed Curassow cage prior to the birds being released.

School Visitation

The School Visit Programme is based on the same objectives of The Young Rangers Programme. The target group is made of students of 1? 2? and 3? levels (kids from 7 years old to university level) from local and regional institutions that will visit the Guapiaçu Conservation Centre and forests of REGUA.

The new school visitation started in May 2006 with a school bus coming weekly on Saturdays. To date, nine schools, two hundred and seventy students and eighteen teachers had booked and visited REGUA. Furthermore, several institutions and schools have asked to visit the Guapi Assu Conservation Centre in the future. In response to such high interest, leaflets have been produced to further promote the REGUA school visitation programme.

Trails have been marked and implemented in 2006 to support school visits. Along these trail, students are able to experience such aspects as the recuperation of wetlands, reforestation and its associated fauna and flora and Mata Atlantic biodiversity and landscapes. To complement this field experience a presentation is held about Mata Atlantica Conservation and REGUA.

At the Guapi Assu Conservation Centre, the classroom and kitchen were refurbished following a kind donation of Robert Locke; one of REGUAs settlers and a trustee of the Brazilian Atlantic Rain Forest Trust (BART). This infra-structure was fundamental to enable REGUA to host school visits together with the Young Ranger Programme.

These refurbishments are also very important to REGUA for all its proposed project work and additionally it would enable us to explore a largely unexplored market in the near future, which is private school visitation. There are hundreds of private schools based in the areas of Rio de Janeiro, Niteroi, São Gonsalo and Itaborai who are willing to travel on a day visit to see REGUA.