REGUA’s Directors Nicholas and Raquel Locke, recently attended a very interesting Seminar in Rio de Janeiro organised by an NGO called IBASE (working with socio-environmental issues).   IBASE has a partnership with the State Education Agency undertaking a survey on the efficacy of conservation units being federal, state, municipal and private, under the umbrella of a new conservation or managerial mechanism called “Mosaics of the Atlantic Forest”.

REGUA is now an officially recognised RPPN (the equivalent of a SSSI in the UK or National Landscape Conservation area in the USA) and as such is part of this Mosaic of Conservation units in the State of Rio de Janeiro.

Serra dos Órgãos National Park and Três Picos State Park are the largest and therefore the most significant members of the group, however, there are also six RPPNs.

The Mosaic idea started some 8 years ago but is only now gathering momentum. One of the clauses for its functioning is that there has to be equal number of government and civil society institutions to be well and fairly represented.

Two days were spent immersed in discussions based on Mosaics in the Amazon and Minas Gerais states. A welcome development was when a renowned politician came over at the end of the meeting to express his interest in helping the Mosaic initiative.

Raquel Locke