Instituto de Estudos Avançados da Universidade de São Paulo

IEA research group participates in the FAPESP Week North Carolina

Richard Meckien — 2013-10-23T19:30:00Z

Maritta Koch-Weser, coordinator of IEA’s ‘Amazon Transformation: History and Perspectives’ research group, will attend the symposium FAPESP Week North Carolina from November 10 to 12, where she will present the project Rainforest Continent Business School, a pioneering initiative aimed at the training of human resources and sustainable business in tropical forests.

The symposium will address health sciences, biodiversity and environmental sciences, physical sciences and educational opportunities, with the participation of researchers from institutions of São Paulo and the USA. The purpose of the meeting is to strengthen the relationship between Brazilian and American researchers, encouraging and valuing studies and research in various areas of knowledge.

The symposium is a partnership between FAPESP, the University of North Carolina at Charlotte and Chapel Hill, the North Carolina State University and the Woodrow Wilson Center’ Brazil Institute. The event includes a celebrating programme for the Golden Jubilee of FAPESP, comprising symposia from 2011 to 2013 in Washington, Cambridge and Morgantown (USA), Toronto (Canada), London (UK), Madrid and Salamanca (Spain), and Tokyo (Japan).

Related news

Project

Research group discusses the creation of a Rainforest Business School

Rainforest Continent Business School project discussed at the Wilson Center

Richard Meckien — 2013-05-27T17:45:00Z

On May 15th, the Brazil Institute of the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, Washington, USA, convened a group of experts interested in learning about and contributing to the creation of the “Rainforest Continent” Business School (RCBS).

The purpose of the meeting was to discuss the creation of the first business school dedicated to the preservation of tropical forests not only as an environmental priority, but also a business proposal. For the discussion, representatives of government agencies, NGOs, universities, private companies and international institutions have been invited. The mediator was anthropologist and environmentalist Maritta Koch-Weser, coordinator of the research group of IEA.

The proposed school aims at providing expert training for competitive, environmentally and socially sustainable, and science-based business development in tropical rainforests. It will enable a new generation of professionals to realize the unique economic potential that can be realized within standing forests.

According to the environmentalist, although it is widely accepted that potentially the standing forest is worth more than the temporary economic benefits derived from its destruction by activities such as logging, cattle ranching, agriculture and mining, the reality is that in Brazil and other countries that are home to forests there are no academic institutions that offer expertise in Rainforest Business and specialized training in the forest business. The RCBS was conceived to fill this gap.

The project originated at the University of São Paulo’s Institute of Advanced Studies with “Amazon Transformation: History and Perspectives”, a research group led by Ms. Koch-Weser. On February 21st, she led a comprehensive all-day discussion of the RCBS project at the University of São Paulo with some thirty senior Brazilian experts from academia, government, multilateral agencies, as well as non-governmental organizations. The May 15th roundtable will bring together a similar group of experts from the United States.

Watch the video

Rainforest Continent Business School project will be discussed at the Wilson Center

Richard Meckien — 2013-04-30T14:05:00Z

On May 15th, the Brazil Institute of the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, Washington, USA, will convene a group of experts interested in learning about and contributing to the creation of the “Rainforest Continent” Business School (RCBS).

The purpose of the meeting is to discuss the creation of the first business school dedicated to the preservation of tropical forests not only as an environmental priority, but also a business proposal. For the discussion, representatives of government agencies, NGOs, universities, private companies and international institutions were invited. The mediator will be anthropologist and environmentalist Maritta Koch-Weser, coordinator of the research group of IEA.

The project

Research group discusses the creation of a Rainforest Business School

Richard Meckien — 2013-03-15T16:50:00Z

The Amazônia em Transformação: História e Perspectivas (Amazon Transformation: History and Perspectives) research group held a roundtable on the theme Economic Valuation of the Standing Forest: New Perspectives for Human Resource Development at IEA on February 21st.

The meeting brought together a group of guests who play an important role in the environmental,climatic and Amazonian issues in order to present and discuss the proposed development of a Rainforest Business School. The initiative is aimed at training human resources in sustainable business in the Amazon, meeting the demand for specialists prepared to harness the economic potential of the standing forest.

Maritta Koch-Weser, coordinator of the group, opened the discussion with an introduction on the subject. José Pedro de Oliveira Costa, professor of the Architecture and Urbanism faculty at USP (FAU) and assistant coordinator of the group, brokered a debate about the strategic viability of the project in the context of environmental, scientific and academic policies as well as the opportunities of inter-institutional collaboration.

In the second part of the event, lawyer and environmentalist Fabio Feldmann, who is one of the founders of the NGO SOS Mata Atlântica, moderated a discussion among participants on lines of funding and co-financing for the preparation, planning and implementation of the "Rainforest Business School. Each stage should take about three years.

Lastly, Koch-Weser led a discussion on possible steps and commitments of collaboration and institutional contributions regarding the formatting of a work program for 2013.

From what has been discussed at the roundtable, agronomist Warwick Manfrinato and architect Maria de Lourdes Davies de Freitas, executive directors of the Amazônia em Transformação: História e Perspectivas research group, will take the creation of Rainforest Business School to the next step.

Photos

Video of the event (in Portuguese)

The meeting