Iracambi, Brazil
Brazil, Minas Gerais, Rosário da Limeira
"Iracambi, where farm and forest meet"
Ecosystem: Rainforest
Iracambi is a Brazilian registered non-profit civil association that works to promote the conservation of the Atlantic Rainforest. Their aim is to protect the rainforest by working to find ways of making its conservation more attractive than its destruction.
Specific objectives are: 
1. to promote the conservation of the Atlantic Rainforest of Brazil, particularly in the region of Rosário da Limeira in the state of Minas Gerais
2. to support research at the Iracambi Research and Conservation Center into techniques that permit the sustainable management of forested lands in the area and that will generate income from the forest, thus improving the living standards of the local people and motivating them to preserve it;
3. to support activities of the Iracambi Research and Conservation Center that raise awareness of the forest conservation issues among local people (especially young people)
4. to support activities that transfer improved management technology to local farmers; and that disseminate the Centre's research findings to the scientific community and the general public.
Volunteering at Iracambi
The Iracambi Research Center is situated on a working farm, located about 8 km from the nearest village Rosário de Limeira, commonly called Limeira. The work is varied and there are many different programmes to get involved as a volunteer, here are some examples:
Forest Restoration:
Objectives - To create Forest Corridors to link up forest fragments in the region around Iracambi to the Serra do Brigadeiro State Park.
Activities
Working with farmers to explain the idea and see how it can best fit in with their needs, studying the appropriate size, location and composition of the corridors, including finding ways to make them economically useful by including productive trees, as well as biologically useful in improving habaitas for pollinating and seed dispersing fauna. Also to try and encourage farmers to plant corridors along their boundaries, supplying seedlings from the nursery.
Trails:
They have 11 trails on the Fazenda, which need to be maintained year round. The purpose of the trails is to provide access to the rainforest for researchers, school children and volunteers.
Activities
The trails need to be maintained so that all these people can use them. They have a system of marker posts at 100-meter intervals to guide people around. Volunteers work year-round to keep them clear; which is a bigger job in the wet season than in the dry.
Environmental Education:
The Environmental Education Program is one of the areas in which you are able to directly pass on the ideas and knowledge that are generated at Iracambi. The Environmental Education Coordinator is a position that entails coordinating with local schools to arrange times for classes and trips - either at school or at Iracambi.
Activites
The coordinator prepares the lessons according to existing resources and what the curriculum the school is working on at that time. School trips to Iracambi consist of a mixture of classroom and outdoor study, based on the trails, the nursery and the other natural resources we have at our doorstep. Volunteers must have a strong command of Portuguese, a love of kids and the ability to work with other volunteers.
Past volunteers have written, directed and produced videos on environmental themes that have been enthusiastically received locally, and also run a twice weekly show on the community radio.
Other work includes, working with medicinal plants, maintenance/carpentry, IT management, marketing and fundraising and more.
If you would like to participate in our program but don’t see a natural fit between your skills and experience please do contact us anyway. They are happy to fit volunteers into their programmes, as long as you bring energy and a proactive attitude!
Food, accommodation and costs:
If you would like to come as a volunteer, their charges are:
For your first month: US$550
For your second month: US$525
For your third and subsequent months: US$500
Beyond that everyone has to pay a deposit of R$100, which covers your housing and is returned upon departure so long as you haven't caused chaos and carnage in the interim.
In addition, there is an upgraded housing option, which is an additional US$100 per month.
Placements are available all throughout the year! Please email us if you have specific dates in mind, we need three months notice before arrival.
iracambi (a) iracambi.com (this is to stop spammers - please out the @ into your e-mail)
