Fundacion Entropika
Our Projects
Click next to a project title to find out more or scroll down this page to see all of Entropika's projects. (Please note, some projects fall under more than one category so have been organised with regard to their main objectives - please see individual projects for more details)
Education and Training
| Bringing the Amazon to Your School |
| Child-Led Research |
| Scholarship Programme |
| Sponsor a School |
| Volunteer Teaching Programme |
Local, National and International Exchange and Dissemination
| The UK-Colombian Conservation Exchange |
Research
| The Calderon Basin |
| The Woolly Monkey Project (Proyecto Churuco) |
Sustainable Livelihoods
| Borojo Commercialisation Project (Future Project) |
The Calderon basin is a forest reserve situated in the south of the Colombian Amazon between Amacayacu National Park and the Brazilian frontier, where it runs into Eware I - an area of the ancestral land of the Tikuna indigenous people. The Calderon river is one of the most important tributaries of the Amazon in the area and supports a myriad of ecosystems found nowhere else in Colombia and thus the basin has been recognised for many years as one of great biodiversity requiring formal protection. Unfortunately, to date the area has not been protected and therefore has been subject to colonisation, resulting in forest clearance.
In February 2007, the "Green Frontier" agreement was signed by IBAMA (Brazil) and the Colombian park system in a bid to create a biodiversity corridor linking the two countries and thus protecting the area. The Entropika team has been approached to collect data by means of conducting mammal and plant census to obtain evidence of the area's megabiodiversity that can be presented at government level to gain the formal protection required. To achieve this, Entropika will work closely with local communities and enlist the expertise of local co-invesigators and experts in the field of traditional botany. Alongside the census will run an education programme for local people to increase understanding of the importance of Amazonian biodiversity. Entropika will also work with the communities to aid the identification and implementation of sustainable livelihoods in the area. Back to Top
The Woolly Monkey Project (Proyecto Churuco)
Since February 2005, The Woolly Monkey Project (TWMP) has been collecting systematic census data in the overlapping areas within Amacayacu National Park (ANP) and two Tikuna indigenous communities, Mocagua and San Martin de Amacayacu. This community-based project started as a personal initiative of the Principal Investigator, Angela Maldonado, and Dr Sara Bennett, with the aim of addressing the conservation issues affecting the area, placing particular focus on woolly monkeys, one of the hunting target species. After developing a Pilot Project in 2003, the idea had the full support of six indigenous communities and ANP. This research is divided into two: (i) census field work/wildlife harvest assessment, and (ii) a conservation awareness campaign.
Aims: This project aims to address two large hypotheses:
Human activities have been directly and indirectly responsible for the perceived reduction in all large vertebrates’ populations over the past generation.
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It is possible to recover and maintain robust populations of fauna in the study site by changing human system dynamics.
Prediction: Traditional knowledge and ecological data will support the implementation of hunting bans and/or restrictions, resulting in a population increase. The success of the hunting bans/restrictions will be monitored by indigenous people as a local initiative.
Objectives:
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To asses the status of primate populations and large vertebrates in the southern part of Amacayacu National park, an area intensively exploited by indigenous communities, and provide a baseline for future monitoring
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To continue the training of indigenous wildlife monitors in quantitative methods
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To reinforce the applicability of the community Natural Resources Management plan within the two communities
Work on TWMP is ongoing and since the formation of Entropika in March 2007, the project has become integrated into Entropika's work by virtue of the fact the Principal Investigator, Angela Maldonado, is also a founding Member of the organisation. To download the Woolly Monkey Project's latest report, please click on the links below and for more detailed information on TWMP and preliminary research results, please visit http://ssl.brookes.ac.uk/primate/alumni.htm
Documents:
Bringing the Amazon to your School (Amazonas a tu Colegio)
The "Amazonas a tu Colegio" (Bringing the Amazon to your School) project is an education initiative working with city schools in the capital of Colombia, Bogota.
The idea is to provide a day of activities for each participating school to teach students about life in the Amazon for people, plants and animals as well as about the spiritual beings of the Tikuna culture which act as the guardians of the forest. Aided by experts from the Entropika team, we hope to bring the forest to life for children who may never have experienced it before and encourage emotional engagement with the incredible world of the Amazonas.
Working in teams, the children will complete a series of tasks based around play, sport, food, music and interaction to learn about the Amazon forest and all of its inhabitants in a day which we hope will be memorable, enlightening, educational and, most of all, enjoyable. Back to Top
A project to facilitate cooperation between young people in the UK and the Colombian Amazon in developing programmes of ongoing child-led conservation, and establishing continuing relationships as a means of increasing knowledge of each others’ culture and environment and motivating individuals to instigate active conservation programmes.
Entropika aims to work with urban and rural schools in Leticia and the surrounding area to facilitate child-led research projects into environmental issues in the Amazonas region of Colombia. By teaching the children valid research techniques, computer literacy and English, the aim is to equip them with skills that will aid them in their future development and empower them in their roles as future caretakers of the Amazon forest. The research results will be presented by the children to their counterparts in the UK as a means of environmental education, which we hope will lead to greater empathy and understanding within the UK groups of the issues facing people and habitat in the Amazon region due to the fact that the evidence is being presented to them by their peers. The aim for both areas is to implement conservation action plans in their localities to limit individual environmental impact as a result of their greater understanding and belief in their own ability to make changes.
Aims: The project aims to address the following hypothesis:
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Children respond better to information delivered to them by their peers and to projects in which they feel genuinely involved, thus improving levels of learning, comprehension and retention.
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Children are capable of carrying out effective and valuable conservation-based research when equipped with the techniques by adults.
Children are capable of implementing effective conservation measures and initiatives within their communities
Prediction: Implementing an environmental education programme in Leticia and the surrounding area, using child-led research, will lead to effective and integrated conservation measures being taken in both the UK and the Amazon region of Colombia, as well as empowering children to become active conservationists.
This project is in its preliminary phase at present. More information will be made available soon.
Entropika is piloting a scholarship scheme in 2007 for one young member of the Tikuna indigenous community, San Martin de Amacayacu, to attend university. Based on the belief that by facilitating local people to enter into higher education, the community as a whole will benefit, we hope that this scholarship will be the first of many.
The scholarship will be granted following an application process for interested parties. Each applicant will be taken on their individual merit and preference will be given to applicants that show clearly how they intend to use their proposed qualification to benefit the local community or area.
We are working with The Monkey Sanctuary Trust in the UK (registered charity no. 1102532 - see "Links" page for more details) to help provide financial and practical assistance to schools in the local indigenous communities to ensure that the children of the communities are given the educational opportunities that they deserve. The initial stage of this project is the launch of a “Sponsor a School” scheme which will help to provide much-needed resources to the local schools in the area.
Corporacion Selvalegre (www.selvalegre.edu.co) was established in 1999 by a group of parents in Leticia, Amazonas, who felt that the state education offered in the area did not address the social, cultural or environmental needs of their children and who wanted to establish a curriculum which was relevant to the area, including teaching based around environmental education, the forest, the local cultures and traditions and the town’s strategic position in relation to its neighbouring countries (Leticia borders both Peru and Brazil). The result was a small school which today consists of around 80 pupils from pre-school to 11 years old with a strong focus on the environment and social development in addition to compulsory areas such as numeracy and literacy.
The teaching of English in Colombia is essential for those children wishing to progress onto higher education, to communicate successfully on an international level and an invaluable tool in securing future employment and, as a result of this, Selvalegre is hoping to expand their English offer to build a team of English teachers that will work with the schoolchildren, the children of the local indigenous communities and also the wider community in a soon-to-be-established community centre using a specially-devised curriculum which focuses on environmental education and social and cultural norms of the area. By concentrating on environmental themes and equipping the children with skills to communicate effectively regarding their local environment and culture we aim to empower them in their roles as future ambassadors for the area.
Entropika and Selvalegre have joined together to initiate a volunteer teaching scheme beginning in January 2008 to offer English teachers with an interest in the environment and conservation an opportunity to work with us to achieve this aim.
Placements will be for an initial period of three months with the opportunity to extend if agreed by both parties. If you are interested in finding out more about this scheme, please email volunteer@entropika.org for more information.
Future Projects
Borojo Commercialisation Project
Borojó (Borojoa spp.) [borohó], is a wild relative of coffee (Gentry 1996). It is endemic of the Upper Amazon Basin and the Colombian Chocó Region, one of the Biodiversity Hot Spots (CI, 2002). This fragile environment is highly threatened by logging and expansion of oil palm plantations (Barona pers. obs.). A particular species, Borojoa patinoi, has already proved successful as a cash crop in the Chocó region. It is currently exported to Asia and America (DANE, 2003), and it has proved to be a high quality source of fibre and phosphorous (Banco Rep).
Information regarding cultivation techniques, fruit harvest, storage, transportation, processing, marketing and nutritional value, has been collected by private and public universities and research centres across Colombia. Moreover, dissemination restrictions have contributed to the lack of a centralised source of information on the subject. This project aims to gather and analyse data on Borojó with the purpose of promoting sustainable livelihoods for local communities. In order to minimise implicit costs of hand labour, storage, transportation and processing of the ripe fruit, local communities can play an important role in the production process. Local involvement favours marketing and adds value as an environmentally-friendly product.
The Borojó tree is both rare and attractive from the perspective of conservation. As an understory plant, it has to be grown along with other fruit and forest trees that provide protection from the sun and is ideal for agro forestry arrays. There are also similar species in the same family with potential use that grow wild and which are a main part of the feasibility study. Two pilot compost, nursery and processing facilities will be set strategically as part of the local sustainable development of the programme. To conclude, the consolidation of Borojó as a Green Product can offer an economic alternative for the wellbeing of local communities and for the conservation of tropical rainforests, as well as offering highly nutritional natural products.
Past Projects
The UK-Colombia Conservation Exchange 2007
In June and July 2007, Andres Barona (Fundacion Entropika, Colombia), Don Azulay Vasquez and Mamerto Gregorio (members of the Tikuna indigenous community, San Martin de Amacayacu) came to the UK to participate in a series of workshops, talks and lectures to interested parties from both the fields of conservation and sustainability and also the wider public to encourage an exchange of ideas on conservation and sustainable development both in the UK and in the Amazon.
On the 22nd June 2007, a day-long event was held at The Living Rainforest - an education centre based in Newbury - for professionals in the fields of botany and conservation and for other interested parties. The event, entitled “A Meeting of Minds”, explored the convergence of local indigenous knowledge and “western” science as a way forward for conservation in the Colombian Amazon. The day included talks from high-profile professionals in the fields of conservation and climatology as well as speakers from the charity and Tikuna indigenous communities. Also included in the event were practical training and demonstration workshops led by the charity’s team of skilled botanists and the opportunity to participate in an open forum during a panel discussion with all of the featured speakers.
Following this, the group worked for three weeks with the Eden Project, a world-renowned charity and visitor centre attracting millions of visitors each year. Whilst there they worked with members of the Eden staff to impart their knowledge to them in the hope that it can be utilised within Eden’s educational work on an ongoing basis, thus leaving a legacy from their time there that can be used to great advantage in future years. We are keen for this visit to form the first in a series of ongoing exchanges with Eden, and indeed all of the organizations involved, where all parties can learn from one another, allowing the development of a firm and lasting relationship between Colombia and the UK.
Ultimately, the aim of this project was for people here in the UK to gain an otherwise inaccessible insight into the indigenous peoples' use of tropical plants, their sustainable way of life and the environmental problems facing them and their surrounding habitat. In addition, we hoped to address the wider issues concerning the conservation of our tropical rainforests by creating a forum for discussion via the planned events, as the basis for ongoing communication and collaboration between all of the organizations and individuals in the future. Click the link to read the full report from the exchange.Exchange2007
