An exemplary life

Send to a Friend
Print

More than three decades of dedicated environmental and humanitarian work by Swiss Laureate and ornithologist Anita Studer have been recognized by the French government.

“There are between 30 and 100 million species on our planet, and humans are just one of those many species. It is up to humans to ensure the protection of this rich biodiversity and astonishing range of resources.”

With these words, Anita Studer, reminded a gathering of 70 people at the French Embassy in the Swiss capital, Bern, of the duty of all mankind towards the planet. Family, friends and supporters of Studer’s large-scale environmental and humanitarian work in Brazil were present to applaud the Swiss ornithologist as she was presented with the insignia of the Chevalier of the Légion d’Honneur by the French Ambassador to Switzerland, Alain Catta.

Anita Studer was honoured by the French government for the perseverance, courage and energy she has displayed in her reforestation project in Brazil and in the humanitarian work that accompanies it. The ambassador praised Studer’s “exemplary life”, pointing out that she had overcome many difficulties, including death threats from landowners opposed to her green policies.

He also mentioned her long-standing connections with France – where she observed birds in her adolescence, later studied for her doctorate at the University of Nancy and eventually set up a French branch of Nordesta, a non-governmental organization that supports her work in Brazil.

“My life has been about making links,” Studer said, explaining that she had linked a rare blackbird to the forest and the forest to the people. Referring to the work she has carried out for three decades, alongside her reforestation campaign, in educating young Brazilians and giving training and employment opportunities to street children, she pointed out that while combining environmental and humanitarian work had been rare in the 1970s when she started, it was much more common now.

In her campaign to restore Brazil’s huge forests, decimated by large-scale slash-and-burn land clearance, Studer has encouraged thousands of villagers, students and farmers to plant native trees. “Sometime later this year we will reach a new milestone of five million trees planted in 16 Brazilian states,” she said after the presentation in Bern.

In tandem with the reforestation project, Nordesta supports a wide range of other projects, many of them linked to education and training of impoverished families and children. From establishing bakeries to offering computer training and scholarships to young people, and providing technical training to people who gather sap from rubber plants, Nordesta is helping thousands of Brazilians via dozens of projects, working through small associations in the various states.

“In whatever we do, we always make the environment, sustainable development and the forests a priority,” Studer explained. “If we set up a school, we also set up a plant nursery alongside. If we help youngsters through a programme, we also ask them to plant trees.”

In forthcoming developments, Nordesta will boost its programme allowing people to give friends or family a gift of a tree newly planted in Brazil, in exchange for a small donation. “Soon we are going to be able to provide GPS locations for each tree, so that everybody who has paid for a tree will know exactly where it is located,” said Studer.

Alongside the Nordesta website, she will also set up her own personal website, which will focus on a new bird each week, and will also have topical commentaries on a wide range of matters from environmentalists and others.

For more information, visit Nordesta.org

Send to a Friend
Print

Receiving the insignia of the Chevalier of the Légion d’Honneur

An exemplary life

Get Inspired