News and Updates

Scholarship Update

from Manoel da Sliva, Rio Branco Brasil

In 2010-2012, New Enchantment provided a scholarship for Manoel Gomes da Silva to attend a 2-year Environmental Management certificate course in Rio Branco, Brazil. He has successfully completed this course and sent a letter describing the positive impact these studies have provided.

To all the members of New Enchantment,

Dear friends, members of the New Enchantment Association for the Preservation of Nature. In the following paragraphs I have shared some of the most important benefits that the course of environmental management has brought me.

During childhood, I use to live in a very simple house with the floor covered by dust. In order to sustain the family, my mom and my older brothers used to cut rubber trees and harvest seeds to sell. When I became 7 years old I began helping my family cutting rubber trees, as well as farming and cultivating vegetables and fruits.

Within these conditions, to study was a distant dream. I used my first shoes when I was 11 years old, the year that I went to school for the first time. I also continued working to support my family - a condition that caused me a lot of effort. When I was fifteen years old I began to work at a farm in order to live closer to school. Then I moved to Rio Branco and went through secondary and high school. I got married at 17 and 15 more years passed without studying.

Now, after all this experience I have been able to graduate from college. Therefore, being able to go to college is more then a dream, it is a great victory. I already feel that I have an identity within the social environment that I live and also some new work perspectives. I’m really excited and very much more self-confidence. During the course I had the opportunity to network with some respected intellectuals and professionals from our city and this has really strengthened my chances of success. I already have the thought of getting into an advanced program of environmental auditing, an area that really called my attention during the undergrad program.

I was also able to see the necessity of a multidisciplinary training and educational process in order to perform the duties related to environmental management and auditing. This course has also made me realize the existing relationships between the productive activities and the ecosystems. Also, it showed me the importance of the use of legal instruments, based on the auditing and environmental management systems concepts, toward the effective preservation of natural environments.

There are many other relevant areas that I was able to get in touch with and that provided me with important skills that are necessary to support the work of New Enchantment in the State of Acre. These include the courses of water resources management, conservation unit managements, waste recycling, solid residues management and effluent treatment techniques.

In this sense, I’ve noticed that as long as we have the geo-reference of the area we can transform it into a private reserve of the natural property (RPPN, in Portuguese). This legal status dismisses the institution of paying tributes and allows the association to submit projects to NGO’s and to the national fund of environment in order to obtain funds to the preservation of the area.

Another important aspect of the Environmental Management course is that it gives me the possibility of acquiring a register in the Regional Council of Engineering and Arquitecture. This instrument allows me to propose and be technically responsible for projects related to the environmental actions. In this sense, my vision is that we should work with the area of the Seringal Novo Encanto in a more professional way than what has been done so far. As an example: we should work to transform that area into a conservation unit for sustainable use, creating the conditions for the Seringal to generate its own revenues and obtain resources through partnerships with private and public institutions.

In conclusion, my sincere thanks to all those that have somehow contributed to my undergrad studies, and I reaffirm my commitment of working for the Novo Encanto with love and dedication in order to give back a little of the help you’ve given me.

Kind regards, Manoel Gomes da Silva.