Project
Brazil
Brazil hosts significant shares of the world's biodiversity, much of it in the Cerrado. Its inhabitants are specialised and there are at least 240 species endemic to the Cerrado ecosystem. Yet this ecosystem has faced significant habitat loss. In the last two decades, a massive 60 per cent of the original vegetation has been lost. The threats to this area are manifold: Soya, maize, cattle and eucalyptus plantations are displacing the indigenous nature. The Cerrado's low status and level of popularity mean that only 3 percent of the area is protected to this day.
Emas National Park
The Emas National Park is in the center of the Cerrado. It is the only national park of this specific landscape and one of only two national parks, which primarily serve to protect the Cerrado. It is a home for the most famous representative of the Cerrado, the Maned Wolf and many other iconic species such as the Giant Anteater and the Greater Rhea (Ema in Portuguese).
It is also home to 7 wild cats species: Ocelot, Pampas Cat, Margay, Oncilla, Jaguarundi, Puma and Jaguar.
The project
The project is a children's book series about the nature and animals of the Emas National Park, which will provide environmental education for over 1000 children at various schools in the vicinity of the national park. The main characters will be the charismatic Maned Wolf and the elusive Pampas Cat. Environmental education for children is an established and long-term successful measure to increase the acceptance and thus also the protection of an area.
The stimulation of children's knowledge is taken from
school into the parental home. This way, family and friends are involved in the knowledge process and citizens participate in building a more sustainable society. This measure, which should create acceptance and pride in the national park, is a first step for us to support the biodiversity of the Cerrado in the longer term.
Programme Coordinator: Ana Luzia de Souza Teixeira Cunha and Izabel Camille Nominato.
Ana has worked with environmental educators and been a guide at Emas Nationalpark for 15 years.
She has already written three children's books. We have found Ana to be very passionate and dedicated. She cares for the national park with heart and soul.
Izabel is a guide of the Emas National Park and has been working for 4 years in an environmental education project with kindergarten children.
We are currently fundraising to be able to continue this project.
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