Ecology and Outdoors - Brazilmax.com


	Home \| Contact \| About \| Forums \| Travel Planning \| Newsletter

Pantanal: Volunteer Travel Program Helps Save Jaguars

Earthwatch runs more trips to the Fazenda Rio Negro in the Pantanal each year than any of its many global destinations. Little wonder, given that the 210,000-square-kilometer haven of lakes, rivers and waterways teems with one of the greatest concentrations of tropical wildlife in the whole of Latin America.

Bird Watching in Brazil: Interview with Guide Bret Whitney

Bret Whitney ranks among the world’s leading experts on Brazilian birds. He claims personal field experience with more species of Brazilian birds than any other ornithologist and has published numerous scientific papers, including once that identify three species of Brazilian birds previously unknown to science. We caught up with Whitney in São Paulo at Brazil’s First Annual Brazilian Bird Watching Conference (Avistar).

Combating Brazilian Wildlife Traffic: Activist Dener Giovani

Illegal trafficking in wildlife ranks as the world’s third largest illicit activity, trailing only drug and weapon dealing, according to the United Nations. To learn more about the problem, BrazilMax interviewed Dener Giovani, founder and director of the National Network to Combat the Traffic of Wild Animals (Renctas).

Domingos Martins, Espírito Santo

Domingos Martins was settled in the mid-19th century by Italian and German immigrants who brought with them their distinct architecture and food. The centerpiece of this region is Pedra Azul, the mile-high granite behemoth that resembles a cross between Yosemite’s Half Dome and Rio’s Sugar Loaf. Enhancing the effect of these beautiful mountains are cooler temperatures - many of the lodges offer suites with fireplaces! Read an excerpt about Domingos Martins from Rum and Reggae’s Brazil guidebook.

Getting to the Palm Heart of Development

Home to 150 families at the end of a long stretch of dirt road, Guapiruvú sits astride Intervales State Park in São Paulo state. Two other state parks lie adjacent. The three reserves protect a bit of what’s left of the Atlantic Rainforest. By promoting community-based, environmentally-conscious economic development, including ecotourism, a local organization is helping to offer alternatives to predatory hunting and gathering.

Pantanal Life: Sparkplug Ignites Cross Border Activism

To the uninitiated, Porto Murtinho may seem like the middle of nowhere – or simply the end of the road. A well-paved Brazilian interstate ends here. No bridge connects it across the river to Paraguay. A few bait shops and the squalid shacks of a displaced Indian tribe dot the opposite bank. Beyond the reservation lies the vast expanse of the Gran Chaco, a bioregion as remarkable for its diversity as for its hostility to humans... Yet many consider this paradise – or at least the gateway to it. Clemencia Bitancourt Donatti found another reality and went about changing it.