School Visits
The School Visit Programme is based on the same objectives of The Young Rangers Programme. The target group is made of students from 7 years 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 Atlântic biodiversity and landscapes. To complement this field experience a presentation is held about Mata Atlântica 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.