From Switzerland to Brazil, saving forests and birds

Published in 2009

Anita Studer, the Swiss ornithologist who won a Rolex Award in 1990 for her reforestry project in Brazil’s Atlantic Forest, is as busy as ever. “We’ve planted 3 million trees in cooperation with 50 municipalities spread across 14 of the country’s states,” explains Studer, who has been visiting her adopted country for over 20 years as part of her campaign to preserve its biodiversity, working hand in hand with the local people.

In 2007, Studer launched a four-year programme aimed at preserving the habitat of two of the world’s biggest birds: the impressive harpy eagle, which has a two-metre wingspan, and the hyacinth macaw, with its striking cobalt blue plumage.

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©Rolex Awards/Marc Latzel

“We work in an area covering 20,000km2 in the states of Tocantins, Maranhão, Piauí and Bahia, in north-east Brazil,” the Laureate says. “Large-scale slash-and-burn clearance has reduced the forests of large trees where the harpy eagles nest and the palm forests where hyacinth macaw find the fruit and nuts on which they feed.”

With her association, Nordesta, Studer runs a far-reaching awareness-raising campaign among local communities thanks to which slash-and-burn has fallen by 70 per cent. At the same time, she has mobilized four communities to set up tree nurseries and plant palm and fruit trees that will serve as corridors between pockets of isolated forest.

Studer is as committed as ever to improving the lot of the local population. She has coupled the programme with new, income-generating initiatives.

“We’ve introduced bee-keeping so that the villagers can sell honey, opened 12 new schools and set up 25 occupational workshops where volunteers are training about 100 young people in silk screen techniques, sewing, carpentry and electricity.”

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