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Rainforest Nature Reserves
Daintree Eco Lodge and Spa
Jul 1st
Indigenous the new black | The Courier-Mail.
JAPAN has Shiatsu, Hawaii the Lomi Lomi, China has acupuncture and India Ayurvedic, now Australia has discovered its own indigenous spa therapies with native rosella, lilly pilly and quandong appearing on spa menus for the body.
Dreamtime is big business, especially when the dreaming is done during time out in a resort spa.
Daintree Eco Lodge and Spa, left, sits in the world’s oldest rainforest, the 110 million-year old World Heritage listed Daintree Rainforest and home to the spiritual ancestors of the Kuku Yalanji tribe.
The lodge’s 15 treehouse-style villas perch below the forest canopy where more than 135 bird species provide the soundtrack.
Daintree Eco Lodge and Spa is all about its surroundings, it’s built an international reputation on the indigenous experience offered to guests. There’s Julay Binalbu Art and Craft classes on Aboriginal culture, and the Baral Mardjanda or Aboriginal Guided Rainforest Walk.
World Wildlife Fund Contributes $3.3M to Support Brazilian Protected Areas in Amazon
Jun 16th
WASHINGTON, May 20 — World Wildlife Fund today contributed U.S. $3.3 million to secure long-term financial sustainability for the vast system of parks and sustainable use areas now being established in the Amazon by Brazil. Today’s contribution by WWF will be matched by the Global Environment Facility, resulting in a total contribution of $6.6 million. World Wildlife Fund also announced its intent to raise an additional $6.7 million by June 2007 to further protect these vital areas in perpetuity.
"As our contribution today demonstrates, World Wildlife Fund supports Brazil’s commitment to change destructive deforestation practices and protect the world’s largest tropical rainforest," said Kathryn Fuller, president and CEO, World Wildlife Fund. "A healthy Amazon is a wise investment in our future. As home to millions of species, its wilderness is a source of medicines, contains a fifth of the world’s freshwater, is key to the livelihoods and cultural survival of many indigenous peoples, and is a force in shaping continental rainfall and climatic patterns."
The new protected area in the Amazon announced today by Brazilian President Lula da Silva and WWF’s contribution are the latest installment toward achieving the vision of the Amazon Regional Protected Areas initiative — a 190,000 square-mile network of protected areas in the Brazilian Amazon one and a half times larger than the entire U.S. National Parks system. Including today’s new designation, approximately 62,000 square miles of new protected areas — larger than Michigan — have been established under the initiative, including the 15,000 square-mile Tumucumaque Mountains National Park. Additional areas have been mapped and are undergoing scientific evaluation for inclusion in the network of protected areas.
"Troubling deforestation persists in the Amazon as the Brazilian government announced earlier this week that 10,088 square miles were destroyed in 2004," said Denise Hamu, CEO, WWF-Brazil. "But this broad-based Amazon initiative with strong and committed partners shows that effective solutions can be found and implemented."
One of the largest and most ambitious conservation projects ever undertaken, this unique collaborative effort aims to bring 12 percent of the Brazilian Amazon under protection over a ten year period and establish an estimated $240 million endowment fund to finance the effective management of these protected areas in perpetuity by a partnership among the Government of Brazil, the Brazilian Biodiversity Fund, the German Development Bank (KfW), the Global Environment Facility, the World Bank and WWF.
WWF played a key role in spearheading the joint Amazon initiative from the start through a global alliance for forest conservation with the World Bank. WWF and the World Bank are committed to reducing the level of deforestation worldwide by 10 percent by 2010 and continuing to support innovative projects like this Amazon initiative.
Brazil Announces Five New Nature Reserves for Amazonia
Jun 16th
Scotsman.com News – Latest News – Brazil Announces Five New Nature Reserves for Amazonia.
Brazil’s President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva announced the creation of five new nature reserves in the Amazon region during a ceremony today to commemorate International Biodiversity Day.
The new reserves cover 261,252 hectares (645,554 acres). Four of the reserves are in coastal areas of the Amazon state of Para and the other is deep in the rainforest in the same state.
Brazil has several types of nature reserves, ranging from national parks, which allow tourism, to biological reserves that are only open to scientists for research. The new reserves will seek to protect the forest, but allow local populations access to harvest fruits and nuts and to tap rubber.
The reserves along the coasts are intended to protect the small fishing communities in the area.
Silva’s announcement comes two days after the Brazilian government announced that in the Amazon suffered the second worst rate of deforestation ever last year, with an area the size of six football fields disappearing every minute.
The environment ministry also announced the government had surpassed its goal of protecting over 9 million hectares (22.24 million acres) of Amazon rainforest this year.
The ministry said that goal was surpassed with the declaration of the 3.8 million hectare (9.39 million acre) Terra do Meio reserve and the 445,000 hectare (1,099,595 acre) Serra do Pardo national park, bringing the total to just over 9 million hectares (22.24 million acres).
The two reserves were hastily declared in February following the killing of American nun and rainforest defender Dorothy Stang, in Para state.
Since 2002, the government has placed 16 million hectares (39.54 million acres) of Amazon rainforest under protection in parks, reserves and Indian reservations, the ministry said.
While environmentalists applauded the creation of the protected areas, many worry that they will not be enforced because the government agency charged with protecting them is seriously underfunded and understaffed.
Brazil’s rainforest is as big as western Europe and covers 60% of the country’s territory. Experts say as much as 20% of its 1.6 million square miles (4.1 million square kilometres has already been destroyed by development, logging and farming.
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