jmf's posterous

jmf's posterous

Juliana Ferreira  //  I am a Biologist, my masters degree was in Genetics, I worked with putative origins of vagrant subantarctic fur seals found on the Brazilian coast. During my PhD (both PhD and Masters in University of Sao Paulo, Brazil) I am puting together a blood bank sampled from specimens seized in the illegal wildlife trade in Brazil. I am also colecting as many blood samples as I can from natural bird populations to develop specific microsatellite markers for four passerine species through the construction of genomic libraries (what did in the National Fish and Wildlife Forensics Lab, Ashland, Oregon). My aim is to analyse the distribution of these species' genetic variability and then try to perform assignment tests on the individuals with unknown origin, both to try to send them back to the correct population of origin, and to try to understand the geographic patterns of exploitation and transportation of the illegal bird trade in Brazil. I proudly count with the collaboration of my felow researchers and advisors of the National Wildlife Forensics Laboratory (Ashland, Oregon). I also work as the geneticist for the NGO SOS FAUNA, which works together with the Police Department in actions of intelligence against the illegal wildlife trade, and also rehabilitation of seized birds. In addition, I took part in the first workshop of CSI for Coral Reef, which intended to promote techniques for analyses and sample collection in damaged coral reefs, aiming to use the info gathered in a legal context. I am happy to say that I will be helping the organization of the Brazilian workshop sometime in the near future. My life is to use Science against crimes against Wildlife, and my career main goal is to set up a Wildlife Forensic Lab in Brazil.

Furthermore I love to scuba dive, I am an avid masters swimer (Paineiras do Morumby), love outdoors activities, and practice SwáSthya Yôga (DeRose method).

http://www.ted.com/fellows/view/id/15
http://www.ted.com/profiles/view/id/113826
www.sosfauna.org/
http://usp-br.academia.edu/JulianaMachadoFerreira
http://www.tedxsaopaulo.com.br/

 
Jul 14 / 2:27am

Let's not forget

(download)

Hi friends,

I thought that being at TED Global would be an opportunity to once more bring attention to what happened to Ze Claudio and what is happening in the Brazilian rural areas, specially Para. We need to bring international attention and have countries, leaders and businesses pressure Brazil to act.
Mainly, we wanted to honor Ze's memory by remembering him.
 
May 27 / 8:42am

Barbara's testimony about Zé Cláudio

When I first heard Zé Cláudio’s name as a speaker at TEDxAmazonia I turned my nose up. I thought he would be one of those eco-bores, an agitated syndicalist who split the world between good and evil.


Still, I was assigned to coach him on his talk. Because his phone line didn't work very well, we agreed we'd speak just before the event, in Manaus. We met a day before the conference started. He had funny yellow-lenses sunglasses on and looked displaced in the fancy floating-hotel we were in. And as we sat down to talk, I realized that I didn't know that man.

It doesn't happen too often, that you meet someone who seems to have no connection to life as you know it. When I met Zé Cláudio, I had no mental file that corresponded with who he was. Here was a man who grew-up in the middle of a rainforest – its richness, central to his basic understanding of the world.

His love for the trees that surrounded him wasn't naive, as I had pictured, it came from living within and knowing them.

Here was a man who lived in constant vigilance. There were threats all the time and the pressure to give up – to succumb into the promise of simple peace – was constant. But Zé Cláudio felt he had no choice. His other option (to be paid to let the trees go down) did not make any sense to him.

It was hard for me even to speak to Zé Cláudio. I didn’t know how to (in fact, it was Felipe Milanez, the guy who is also responsible for inviting Zé Cláudio to TEDxAmazonia, who did a lot of his coaching). I sat there, listening to them, and wondering what would I do. How long would it take me to give in? Would I die for it?

Would I die for anything, really?

When we said good-bye in Manaus, Zé Cláudio told me to come and visit him in Nova Ipixuna. He promised the best cupuaçus and castanhas I would ever taste. I am dreaming of it and hope they are still there, by the time I arrive.

Barbara Soalheiro

Journalist and curator of TEDxAmazonia

 
May 25 / 8:47pm

Zé Cláudio

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May 24 / 7:59am

Blood in our hands

On feb 8th 2011 I wrote the following post at this blog: http://tedfellows.posterous.com/ze-claudio-at-tedxamazonia-killing-a-tree-is
about Zé Cláudio, a Brazil nut collector in Pará, Brazil, who was fighting the illegal timber industry. The people who Zé Cláudio was denouncing and fighting against are big time criminals, the same ones who murdered Sister Dorothy Stang and are still free, destroying our biodiversity and getting richer. And these criminals made it clear that Zé Cláudio wasn't going to last much longer.
I wrote as a cry for help, I wanted to bring Zé Cláudio's situation to light. I wanted the world to see his fight because he was fighting for us all.
Well, in the morning of tuesday, May 24th 2011, Zé Cláudio and his wife were murdered in their home in Nova Ipixuna, Pará. And I know we all have their blood on our hands. We let it happen.
Now I urge the world to not let their death be in vain. It is time we stop turning our heads to what is happening in the Brazilian Amazonia because of diplomacy. And it is time we stop thinking we have nothing to do with this situation. We have the duty of knowing where the wood products we buy are coming from. Are you giving money and profits to the same people who murdered Zé Cláudio, his wife, Sister Dorothy and are continuously raping our biodiversity? It is your money that makes all this profitable. It i your responsibility to be aware of what you are buying. 

My heart is broken and my faith in humanity in hanging by a thread. 


 
Apr 16 / 9:24am

https://www.change.org/petitions/call-for-the-release-of-ai-weiwei

OVERVIEW

On April 3, internationally acclaimed Chinese artist Ai Weiwei was detained at the Beijing airport while en route to Hong Kong, and his papers and computers were seized from his studio compound.  

We members of the international arts community express our concern for Ai’s freedom and disappointment in China’s reluctance to live up to its promise to nurture creativity and independent thought, the keys to “soft power” and cultural influence.  

Our institutions have some of the largest online museum communities in the world. We have launched this online petition to our collective millions of Facebook fans and Twitter followers.  By using Ai Weiwei’s favored medium of “social sculpture,” we hope to hasten the release of our visionary friend. 

 

SIGNATURES

86,644 

PETITIONING

Ministry of Culture of the People's Republic of China(Minister Mr. Cai Wu)

STARTED BY

Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation