Gracie Abad Maximiano, a 2007 Watson International Scholar of the Environment, is technical manager of the Paraná Biodiversity Project, Secretary of Planning of Paraná States, Brazil. This project aims to conserve biodiversity and the sustainable management of natural resources in three different environmental areas of Paraná State. The project focuses on restoring connections between the Conservation Unities and forest fragments, making natural corridors with riparian forest and recovering 20 percent of forest cover in each property as requested by law. Supported by the project, the local community is involved in recovering forest vegetation and adapting its land use system in clean agriculture. Carbon sequestration and reforestation are the strategy small landowners use to recover the legal reserve.
Maximiano participated in the Scholars Online project of the Choices Education Program, an outreach arm of the Watson Institute that brings curriculum and scholarship to secondary schools. View video clips of Maximiano here.
Contact info:
Secretary of Planning of Paraná State - SEPL
Rua Máximo João Kopp, 274 - Bl. 1
CEP. 82.630-900
Curitiba - Parana - Brazil
E-mail: gracie@sema.pr.gov.br
gracie_abad_maximiano@brown.edu
