For Information, updates, and registration information please see the Parrots International web site at: http://www.parrotsinternational.org/Symposium_2007/Symposium_2007_Main_Page.htm For Poster Session information and to request participation in the Poster Session, please see: http://www.parrotsinternational.org/Symposium_2007/Symposium_2007_Poster_Session.htm For Speaker information please see: http://www.parrotsinternational.org/Symposium_2007/Symposium_2007_Speakers.htm

The list of 2007 speakers include: Dr. Mark Stafford, President, Parrots International (Parrots International projects) Dr. Yara Barros PhD., Brazil (Spix's and Lear's Macaw conservation and Co-author of the Spix's Recovery Action Plan) Carlos Bonillo-Ruz, Mexico (The Military Macaw Project) Dr. Don Brightsmith, Peru (The Tambopata Research Project) Dr. Nigel Collar PhD., UK, Birdlife International (The Glaucous Macaw) Olivier Chassot, Costa Rica (The Great-Green Macaw Project) Dr. Susan Friedman PhD., Utah State University (Parrot behaviorist) Neiva Guedes, leader of Projeto Arara Azul, Brazil (The Hyacinth Macaw Project) Bennett Hennessey of Armonia, Boliva (Blue-throated Macaw Project) Dr. Frank Lavac, DVM, Santa Monica, CA (board certified avian veterinarian) Rosemary Low, UK (Parrot expert and author) Dr. Donald Merton, PhD., New Zealand (Kakapo Recovery Program) Dr. Paul Salaman PhD., American Bird Conservancy (Threatened Parrots of Colombia) Yves de Soye, UK (Birdlife International and Co-author of the Spix's Recovery Action Plan) Dr. Darrel Styles, DVM, PhD., (US Department of Agriculture) Dr. David Waugh, Ph.D. , Tenerife, Spain (Director, Loro Parque Foundation) Hope to see you there. If you have any questions, please contact me at info@parrotsinternational.org. All the best, Mark L. Stafford President, Parrots International www.parrotsinternational.org

My name is Felipe Murray and I am the founder and director of a Brazilian International Volunteer Organization.

We have our operations linked with 32 Non-Governmental Organizations in Rio de Janeiro; 12 in Salvador and 2 in the Amazon (Santarem, Para State) and we allocate our volunteers according to their abilities and interests and the partner organizations necessities. We format programs like English classes, business development, Arts, music,sports, health promotion, gender issues, and others.

We do not have operations in Florianopolis or Curitiba yet, but if you can come to Rio or Salvador, we can format a program especially for you and according to your abilities and interests and the partner organization necessities. The programs in the Amazon last three weeks and can only take place when we have a group of at least six volunters. For us to insure that you will have a gratifying and productive experience please fill out the whole on-line application form available at:http://www.ikoporan.org/forms/0_0_form_voluntario_eng. If the link is broken, please go to the section `Sign Up` in our website.

Please see also the volunteer video at our home page and testimonies of some past volunteers at the Go Abroad website. Find the link below. http://www.volunteerabroad.com/testimonial/testimonial_popview.cfm?clientID=7592&ListingID=19664&prg=2

We appreciate your interest in helping us building a fair and equal society for all and look forward to receiving you application form soon.

Best regards,

Luis Felipe Murray Associação Iko Poran Rio de Janeiro - Brasil Tel: (55.21) 2205.1365 Fax: (55.21) 2205.2765 lfmurray@ikoporan.org http://www.ikoporan.org

President George W. Bush lands in São Paulo on Thursday - the first stop in a week-long trip that also includes Uruguay, Colombia, Guatemala and Mexico - with a plan for Brazil and the US to jointly promote ethanol and other green fuels.

The idea is a good one. Together Brazil and the US produce 70 per cent of the world's ethanol. Promoting the fuel's use would reduce dependency on expensive imported oil. A viable green fuel industry would create jobs and alleviate poverty. And because ethanol is a cleaner fuel (produced from corn in the US, sugar in Brazil), it would bring environmental benefits.

And the plan may bring political benefits too. By providing a new and dynamic economic dimension to US relations with Brazil, it could help underpin relations between the two countries and inject an element of stability in a polarised and increasingly fragmented region.

The disappointing thing, though, is that the plan looks relatively modest, with the US directing only a few million dollars of spending to the initiative. All told, initial funding - including contributions from the US and Brazil, as well as the multilateral banks - is likely to be less than $25m, and the beneficiary countries will consist of a narrow group of oil-dependent US allies in the Caribbean Basin, such as El Salvador, Honduras, Guatemala and the Dominican Republic.

As Richard Lugar, the chairman of the US Senate's Foreign Relations committee, and José Miguel Insulza, secretary general of the Organisation of American States, suggested in an interesting piece in the Miami Herald, the two countries could usefully promote a worldwide programme of investment, training and research to build biofuels production capabilities.

Such a programme might be linked to the International Biofuels Forum - a broader international initiative designed to promote green fuel, involving China, the EU, South Africa and India, as well as the the US and Brazil. In addition, though, if a global market in ethanol is to become a reality, it must make sense for the US to start reducing the tariff barriers that limit Brazilian exports to the US.

Market fall-out

Latin America was certainly hit by last week's blow-up in international financial markets, with Brazilian and Mexican shares among the assets that suffered the sharpest falls last Tuesday.

Even so, to date at least, the losses are still relatively small, bearing in mind the scale of the gains in Latin American stock and bond markets in the last three to four years.

By the end of the week, for example, average bond spreads were 20 or 30 basis points wider than they had been at the beginning of the week, while stock prices - measured by the MSCI index - were 8.5 per cent lower. What's more, even if risk aversion were to become more pronounced, the region's generally healthy fiscal and current account positions means it is less vulnerable than other emerging markets (notably those eastern European countries with big current account deficits).

That said, however, if fears about growth in China really do materialise and commodity prices start to weaken, South American markets in particular will be exposed.