Ramon’s Weekly Report #6
Bioregionalism Education
Summer Session, 2008
June 11 & 13, 2008
As usual we met in Bahia’s main park for class on Wednesday. The theme for the day was Land Ecosystems. We split into two groups in order to conduct a debate with questions and answers. But before we began the debate, I defined what land ecosystems are.
I told them that land ecosystems pertain to everything that exists on land, such as trees, mammals, reptiles, and others. All living beings on land have their place in land ecosystems. But humans pose the greatest threat to these ecosystems because we are destroying them. Now humans are beginning to realize the destruction that they are causing and around the world there are movements to recuperate and restore habitats. There are also programs to educate the people about the environment, such as the Bioregionalism classes.
After this the students answered the questions on their worksheets so that we could begin the debates. We made a large circle and Frank began by asking what impacts does a road have on the environment. Group two responded: the destruction of flora and fauna. Then Joao asked Cesar: what animals live in the forest? And he answered: squirrels, birds and snakes. Gladis, Stefano and the others also participated. Afterwards we said goodbye and everyone went home.
For this week’s field trip, we visited of El Bosque en medio de las Ruinas (The Forest in Middle of the Ruins). On the way to the park we walked up to the lookout from the cross, which overlooks Bahia. While there we took a short break and then climbed up into the cross. From the cross I talked to the students a bit about what composes the Bahia bioregion. The students took lots of pictures. Then we continued walking to the Ruinas park. On the way, we found a shortcut through a ditch.
Then we arrived at the park and I showed the students all of the trees that have been planted by Planet Drum. We observed the steep hills that came down in the mudslides of the El Niño Phenomenon in 1998. Frank said that the trees were very beautiful, but we also found where some of the trees had been cut by people who are not conscious of the importance of these trees in nature.
The kids had fun with Faviana because she was walking in flip-flops and had trouble on the hills. We were able to see many birds and everyone loved the trip. Joao even took videos of when we had to get down some of the hills.
– Ramon
Translated by Clay.
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