Brazil: Amazon Resource Management and Human Ecology

Program Overview


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Explore the conflict between finite ecological resources and seemingly infinite human development demands on the Amazon River Basin. Covering an area roughly the size of Australia, this complex and delicately balanced ecosystem contains the world’s largest tropical forest, its second-longest river, and an extraordinary diversity of plant and animal life.

Belém, the program base at the mouth of the Amazon, is a principal center for Amazonian research. Participants gain firsthand insights into resource management and human ecology through excursions to rainforest villages, research laboratories, extractive industry sites, and archaeological sites.

Excursions to southern Pará, an area of extensive logging and land degradation, provide opportunities to focus on current land use strategies and struggles, including a chance to interact with members of the Landless People’s Movement.

 In-country resources and program partners generally include:

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