Welcome to Brendan Smith's Mission 2006 Website!


I am a member of Group 8: Alternative Development Strategies

I am the liaison to Group 1: Legal and Political and Group 9: Systems Interaction

I am the chief researcher for Mining Best Practices

AGENDA 21: READ THIS OR YOU WILL REPEAT WHAT HAS ALREADY BEEN DONE-

If you thought SIVAM was important, this will blow you away


September

October

November

December


Group Definition: 

* look at history, best practices and learn from natives.

* use of resources found in forest without destruction for sustainable development of local populations, societies

* money compromise: we have to keep thinking about the balance between ideal development for locals and well-being of forest and the reality of capitalism and                                                         liberal economy (role of big corporations...)

* keeping in mind the people living there. our work has to focus on their interaction with 

* BEWARE! We should not act as a "cover-all" group.

* we stress the importance of interaction with the other teams and we plan to form organized liaisons to keep informed.

* Our main concern: Alternative Development/By who and how? This means we're are reflecting on the ecological interaction between people and nature in the                                                         region of the rainforest.

We imagine three main steps in our work:

* research on current development of forest and populations and its consequences on the ecosystem and the economy

* definition of the problems linked to this research and then definition of new objectives

* finding the alternatives to the development.

THE A:

Accomplishment of the three steps taking into account all the issues stated above.



9/17/02- In our group meeting today we discussed collecting some intial resources to assist us on assessing the Rainforest problem as it stands now.  Here are a few links that I have accumulated thus far.  

Finding Out About Rain Forest Issues: Reference Books
This link is a good jumping-off point for more in-depth reference materials than simply websites.  The sub-categories of materials on the website include: General Reference, Environmental Policy, Development Aid & Politics, Ecological Wisdom of Native Peoples, Green Primitivism: A Myth?, Intellectual Property Right for Indigenous Peoples?
Rain Forest Conservation: Sustainable Development
This is the website for the Foundation for Education and Integrated Development, an orgazation that is attempting to strike a balance between pure conservation and the realities of development needs in the Ecuadorian Amazon.  They are employing sustainable solutions, and that is exactly what we are looking for.  One example of something they have done is to create a health clinic to provide low-cost health and dental care to over 10,000 Quichua indians.
Real Solutions for Sustainable Communities
This site appeared to be an incredible breakthrough at first.  Now its feasibility is somewhat in question, especially for the Amazon, but it is still a good idea.   It speaks of how there have been numerous forest civilizations, i.e. the Mayans, that sustained millions of people in cities in the middle of the forest with no agriculture.  They employed agroforestry, harvesting the fruit of a breadnut tree that is incredibly delicious and healthful apparently.  They also altered the forest and encourage the growth of more of the breadnut trees at the expense of other species so that they were left with a gigantic, sustainable, renewable food supply.

9/25/02- We shared internet resources and resolved ourselves to pick up the pace as the semester is already a third over.  We divided up the liaison jobs and I was assigned Group #1: Legal/Political.  Here are a few more links that I have collected.

Forests.org-Amazon Internet Resources
Another reference website.  This one has numerous links to other websites, many of them public service organizations and environmental conservation groups that operate in Latin America in rainforest regions.  There are also a bunch concerning straight information in regards to flora, fauna, and other aspects of the Amazon and other rainforests.
World Resources Institute: Forest Frontiers Initiative
A reference website that divides up South America into individual nations and gives links to the NGOs that are operating within them and what they are currently doing to help.  A very useful tool because it leads to many more resources.
Rio Declaration on Environment and Development
This is an HTML copy of the OFFICAL UNITED NATIONS DECLARATION ON ENVIRONMENT AND DEVELOPMENT signed at the Rio '92 conference concerning sustainable development.  It is helpful because it lets us know the basic, rudimentary principles that the whole world stands by and will not budge on, and also the direction it would like to see us take.  Recently the Rio +10 conference was held in South Africa.  Information concerning that conference could also be helpful and something to look for if you are interested.
Forestguru.com-Ethnoforestry-GOOD SITE!
This link is broken, the site must have been taken down by the professor who had it up, but I left it in the hope that he may upload it again and also because the information in it is very good and the topic may lead to other websites.  It speaks of Ethnoforestry, using man's history and anthropology to learn conservation methods.  He looks into why ancient peoples seldom got into trouble with their ecosystems.  He uses India as a case study and observes how ancient cultures had conservation programmed into their society by religion and custom.  "Sacred" forests and places often contained keystone species or very valuable flora and fauna, for example, and were thus protected.  Perhaps we can learn from our ancestors how to preserve what we have today.
Programa Ambiental-Informative Brazilian Site
This incredibly comprehensive website contains information for all ten groups on our project.  It was created by a Brazilian luminary of some sort who started this "Programa" not as an NGO and without any government support.  He has a LOT of information to spread around to those who want to do research, though.  There is a great section on "Sustainable Agriculture" with numerous subsections that are also helpful.
Indigenous Ecotourism and Sustainable Development-References
This is a works-cited list from a paper by the illustrious David T. Schaller from the Department of Geography at the University of Minnesota.  It contains numerous references to other valuable and more in-depth resources that would be good to look into.
SELVA-Sustainable Development Projects in Ecuador
This is a website of an NGO named "SELVA-Vida sin Fronteras".  The page concerns some projects within Ecuador. First they give background information on flora, fauna, threats to biodiversity, oil exploration and drilling, expansion of the agricultural frontier, how the indigenous peoples are responding to all of this, and then they identify the principal problems.  They list their projects, which all involve helping the indigenous peoples through all of this, and include: strengthening the role of indigenous peoples in their community, protecting biodiversity, and creating an indigenous economy, among others.  This seems like an interesting alternative approach to focus on the native's problems rather than the common people's grievances.
The Advocacy Project: "Ecuador, defending the Amazon"
This page is entitled "Debt and Development" and speaks of how all the oil in Ecuador has hurt them rather then helped them.  A few got richer while the rest suffered as their ecosystem and homes were polluted and destroyed.  They suggest other sustainable alternative solutions to mining and oil-type industries such as "carbon credits".  
Project Amazonas-GOOD SITE!
This is a fascinating website which contains a solid definition of sustainable development by an NGO group, "Project Amazonas", that helps out native peoples, who know the value of the rainforest and do not want to cut it down, avoid doing just that.  They are able to do this by providing the indigenous people with skills, such as pottery and furniture-making, that they did not have before, and can now use with incredible proficiency.   They then transport the absolutely exquisite pieces of craftsmanship to market and sell them for a great price, bringing the profits back to the villages where the items were made.  Everyone is happy....that is of course, except for the logging companies....boo hoo ;(
Integrated Food-Energy Systems and Strategies
This website touts "Integrated Food-Energy Systems".  Apparently, there was a 1984 Brasilia seminar in which they defined these things as "the adoption of agricultural and industrial technologies that allow maximum utilization of by-products, diversification of raw materials, production on a small-scale, recycling and economic utilization of residues, and harmonization of energy and food production". To do this things we would need "comprehensive land-use planning as well as planned interrelations among soil, water, and forest resources in relation to agricultural residues".  There are great possible rewards though, which include "minimal negative environmental impact, and their decentralization and efficiency, which often have positive social and economic side-effects".
Climate Change And Sustainable Development Strategies: A Brazilian Perspective
This is the HTML version of a PDF file.  It is a paper by some Brazilian scientists who are obviously more knowledgeable about the situation in their own nation than we are.  They do a very comprehensive analysis and dissection of the Amazon problem, looking into all the numerous aspects of the situation.  They begin with the current state of the policy debate, move on to connections between climate change mitigation and sustainable development, then talk about barriers between the two and how to overcome them. They then look into possible "synergies" between existing climate policies and sustainable development strategies.  Finally they wrap it up with major climate issues that a nation and the world should be concerned about and future projects.
Sustainable Development in Latin America and the Carribean
This is a great website from a seminar that was held on sustainable development at Harvard University.  It had students from virtually all the nations in Latin America, all of whom wrote educated, thoughtful responses about what their respective nation needs in terms of development strategies.  This is an AWESOME resource because it is very difficult to find the opinions of native Latinos without actually going to their nations.  Even better, these people are completely aware of the problem and all possible solutions so they are in a great position to make a decision regarding what their country needs.

10/2/02- We resolved ourselves to be more organized and decided upon a timeline for project completion.  For next week we are researching the problem as it currently stands.  I stumbled upon Agenda 21, quite possibly a major breakthrough for our group that would save us a lot of time.  It is a comprehensive effort by all walks of Brazilian society to solve the problem of sustainable development.  That sounds promising...

The Brazilian Embassy in London: The Brazil Agenda 21
This website tells about the nature of Agenda 21.  After the Rio '92 conference, every nation was sent home with the assignment of creating a country-specific plan of implementation of the accord signed there.  It was to be presented at the Rio +10 summit, which it was.  Agenda 21 involved the consultation of virtually the entire nation.  For the first time, members from all walks of life were given the opportunity to input into the democratic process.  There was no geographic discrimination either.  There were forums held everywhere, with close to 6,000 plans from academia, business, elected government, the social service, and regular citizens coming in.  Everything was boiled down to create Brazi's Agenda 21, a document that an entire nation has put its stake in to guide its future along the fine line between development and destruction of their nation through the destruction of their environment.
United Nations Agenda 21: Brazil
This is a more objective, although less detailed, readout of Brazil's sustainable development plans and past performance.  It is published by the United Nations.
Brazil, Amazon, and Environmental Resources-AWESOME MAP!!!-
This is a great MAP SITE in Portuguese, though I think we can figure it out.  It has a map dividing Brazil into all the different ecosystems and terrain types.  It also has numerous links to other good MAPS and information on "Brazilian Amazon and the Environment".
Ministerio de Ciencia e Technologia-Convention on Climate Change-Agenda 21
This is an incredibly in-depth description of the Agenda 21 synthesis process.  It goes through everything, from the Rio conference through the forums, through the revisions, all the way to the signing by President in July 2002, just a short time ago.  It feels like we are standing on the verge of a new for Brazil reading all of this.  For the first time, a huge government plan has been created of the people, by the people, for the people, rather than being forced upon them.  This really seems like a good GOOD thing.
Ministerio de Meio Ambiente
THIS IS THE OFFICIAL COPY OF AGENDA 21-JUST FOLLOW THE LINKS FOR AGENDA 21 AND LOOK FOR ENGLISH WORDS.  This is a very long document but it is the comprehensive Agenda 21 as it was published en masse to the people of Brazil.  In my opinion any work that we do and plans that we come up with, should be and really must be within the framework of this paper.  The Brazilian people will not accept or support a plan being forced down their throat that runs contrary to what their entire nation agrees is the right thing to do.  There is simply to much public support for Agenda 21 for it to be ignored and thrown by the wayside.  I SUGGEST THAT ANYONE LOOKING INTO CONSERVING THE AMAZON RAINFOREST READ THIS ENTIRE DOCUMENT so that you don't come up with a brilliant strategy that has already been though of and enacted.  They had close to 200 million people thinking for them on this one.

10/9/02- Shared results and decided to really try and read Agenda 21, get a good map, and find out some important statistics that we are currently lacking.  We started to skirt the boundary between development in the cities as an alternative development to rainforest development, and that being a socioeconomic issue.  We will defintely have more instances of that and more communication between groups to iron those issues out.  I became the liaison to Group 9 when Jonathan dropped out.

10/16/02- Discussed research from everybody's website and assigned ourselves more research tasks.  I was to look into the Brazilian official policy towards creating protected reserves.

The Brazilian Embassy in London: Environment: Protected Areas
This is a subsection of the Brazilian Embassy's website.  Overall this is a GREAT site if one has any questions on official policy of Brazil on any topic, not just protected reserves.

10/21/02- Our first team meeting on a Monday went quite well, and we discussed some interesting topics.  Julianna brought up an item called "terra pretta", or dark earth, that has been found in the Amazon.  It apparently was created by farmers long ago who used a "slash-and-char" rather than a "slash-and-burn" system to continually improve the soil the more they farmed it.  To facilitate a possible synthetic creation of this stuff, I was to research the industrial processes that commercial companies employ to create charcoal in large, available quantities.

10/23/02- I attempted to research charcoal and visited kingsford.com but found only that store-bought charcoal have many additives that make them more fuel efficient but reduce their ability to do anything else besides burn efficiently.  They suggested other forms of charcoal for odor-reducers and fertilizers, and definitely were NOT giving out any secrets on how they make their products unlike what I have seen on other companie's websites.  I will definitely keep looking, and now focus on MINING BEST PRACTICES, my new and final research assignment it appears for the term.

10/28/02- I have found some sources regarding sustainable mining but have been devoting time more towards consolidating back research for our team website to boost its lowly grade.

10/30/02- Finished a whole background section on Agenda 21 for the team website, as well as some preliminary findings on sustainable mining.  One source was suggesting that mining was a positive activity for the indigenous peoples because it gave them jobs, boosting their self-esteem, confidence, and giving them more free time to engage in traditional customs, etc.  Another source said that because of the large amount of land are that modern mining techniques use (you all have seen those huge craters that they make rather than little shafts), it is more detrimental than other activities.  I am attempting to synthesize the various opinions and look for concrete facts that will sway my opinion in one direction or the other.

11/6/02-An inquiry into alternative Infrastructure plans was brought up by another group.  We decided preliminarily that railroads would be good for long-range industrial transport, airports would be quite adequate for long-range recreational and population transport, and the fantastic river network should be used whenever possible, even if it is slow-going.  We are trying to avoid highways and highway expansion at all costs, preferring those means that are more efficient and leave less of a negative footprint on the environment.  I wrote up a page for our team website that can be found here summarizing our ideas.

11/13/02-Our team has begun its push to finalize, categorize, and organize all of our proposed solutions in our respective subject areas.  I am to work on sustainable mining.  There has also been talk about reorganizing groups into solution subject areas rather than characterization areas.  If this goes through I'm doing mining from our group.

11/20/02-The reorganization proposal went through, and all the groups were created.  Our mining group met and it turned out that nobody had done any research thus far except for me.  This should be interesting...We met again on Monday and nobody had done anything.  Hopefully things will shape up.  I wrote a preliminary characterization that was torn to shreds.  The next one will be much improved.  I am writing the solutions page as well.

11/27/02-I have received no assistance from my group but completed the revised characterization and solutions pages and submitted them.  Here they are in word document format.

Mining Characterization

Mining Solutions

12/4/02-I attempted to get some last-minute assistance from my mining companions, but to no avail.  Rehearsals this week and the presentation will go up this friday.

Mining Sources

Jones, Paul M.  “Rocky Ledge Mining Supply: A Leaching Primer
(Accessed 12/1/2002)

Metcon Research, Inc. “Testing of Gold Lixiviant
(Accessed 12/1/2002)

University of Windsor, Ontario.  “Tests using leach to remediate hazardous waste”
File 1 and File 2
(Accessed 12/1/2002)

International Development Research Center.  “Environmental Impact of the Small and Medium Mining Sectors in Bolivia” Published March 5, 1999.
(Accessed 11/15/2002)

Expert Meeting on ecological and human right consequences on cyanide based gold mining: Berlin Declaration on Gold Mining using Cyanide Process

French, H. (1998) Assessing Private Capital Flows to Developing Countries.  In: Worldwatch Institute (ed). State of the World. US: Norton & Company.

French, H. (1998) 'Making Private Capital Flows to Developing Countries Environmentally Sustainable: the Policy Challenge'. Natural Resources Forum 22 (2): 77-85.

US Bureau of Mines. (1994) Minerals Yearbook 1994. Washington.

US Department of Commerce. (1998) US Industry & Trade Outlook '98. US: McGraw-Hill.

US Department of Commerce. (1999) US Industry & Trade Outlook '99. US: McGraw-Hill.

UNCTAD. (1999a) Foreign Direct Investment and the Challenge of Development. Geneva.

Masini, A. and R. Ayres (1996) 'An Application of Exergy Accounting to Four Basic Metal Industries'. INSEAD Working paper 96/95/EPS.

Muradian, Roldan and Martinez-Alier, Joan “Globalization, Natural Resources Specialization and International 'Peripheralisation' of Environmental Loads”  Universitat Autonoma de Barcelona, Dpt. D'Economia i d'Historia Economica.
(Accessed 11/15/2002)

12/11/02-CLASS IS OVER MY WEBSITE IS COMPLETE!!!