Professor Howard Daugherty of York’s Faculty of Environmental Studies toured five universities and non-governmental agencies in Brazil recently as a guest lecturer on the principles and concepts of sustainability. Ranging from visits to the Federal University of Rio Grande in southern Brazil to the Federal University of Rondonia in western Amazonia.the tour was organized through the Brazilian Association of Canadian Studies (ABECAN), which has research centres in 17 different universities throughout Brazil.
Right: From left, Nubia Hanciau, Lauro Barcellos, director of the Museu Oceanografico in Rio Grande, and Howard Daugherty
Daugherty’s lectures focused on different approaches to rural sustainability in the tropics, particularly on agricultural sustainability and certification systems. He also spoke on sustainability issues in the marine and coastal zone environment and on the application of ecological principles to energy production. Daugherty has put several of these principles, developed at York’s Faculty of Environmental Studies and the University’s Las Nubes Centre for Neotropical Conservation and Research in Costa Rica, into practice with the Las Nubes sustainable coffee project (see story in the March 17 ,2004 issue of YFile).
Daugherty also visited several research and sustainability projects in various parts of the country, including ecologically produced rice in southern Brazil and an ISO 14001 certified thermal energy plant in Porto Velho. He also met with researchers involved with the Large Scale Atmosphere-Biosphere Experiment in Amazonia. His visit was hosted by Nubia Hanciau, president of ABECAN and Miguel Neneve, director of the Centre for Canadian Studies at the University of Rondonia and a recent visiting professor of languages and literature at York.
Left: From left, Howard Daugherty, an unidentified local rice farmer and Renato V. Carvalho, director of the Centre for Environmental Monitoring in Brazil
During the tour, Daugherty said agreements were reached on a potential network of sustainability studies involving Canada, Brazil and other countries. Faculty members who are interested in becoming part of the network can contact Dr. Neneve in Brazil at neneve@unir.br.
Left: From left, Miguel Neneve with faculty and students at the Centre for Canadian Studies at the University of Rondonia. Among the projects featured on the poster is Neneve’s translation of the journals of the father of retired York librarian Ellen Hoffman, who was involved in the rubber trade in Amazonia in the early 1940s.