In the Brazilian Amazon’s most deforested zone known as the “Deforestation Arc”, there is a spectrum of relationships with the forest from coexistence with it to depreciation of it particularly amongst ranchers and monoculture farmers, who for the great majority, view the forest as useless and slash and burn it for profit. As per the Amazon Forest Code, pastures and farms should have 35 - 80% of their plot as forest (depending on the state), however the great majority do not follow this rule as most feel the rainforest provides them no value. Current political rhetoric frames the rainforest as a waste of space to be ‘developed’. This attitude towards local ecologies has contributed to ecological degradation, land disputes and the murder of many indigenous leaders who seek to protect the rainforest. 

 

This project aims to increase knowledge and education about the rainforest and thereby change perceptions of it. By proposing a wider gradient of human-rainforest interface in schools, children become agents of bottom-up change - up-cycling new relationships with the rainforest to their surroundings. Through the schoolyard program, students become stewards in practices possible within the forest’s canopy, raising awareness and creating demand for occupations feasible in tandem with traditional farms and ranches without the need for deforestation and fires.

 

A case study school serves as a precedent for other similar schools throughout the Arc. This study is located in the state of Rondônia, which has the highest rate of deforestation relative to its size and the highest indigenous population endangered of ethnocide due to land and ideology disputes.