ACT UPDATE   March, 2003

Dear Friends,

We have just received some very good news!

An anonymous donor has offered a "challenge grant" of $100,000, meaning that she will match every donation dollar-for-dollar until we (hopefully) reach the sum of $100K.

We have until the end of April to reach this goal. All donations can be sent to us here at headquarters. We thank you in advance for your continued support!

Meanwhile, Mark Plotkin, ACT President and Neville Gunther, ACT Suriname Director, recently spent two weeks in Suriname, visiting field sites and meeting with government officials to talk about our projects. They also discussed the new Tumucumaque map that ACT Suriname and the Indians worked on with Vasco van Roosmalen, Brasil Program Director, in Brasil. This map, as we wrote about in an earlier newsletter, covers 10 million acres of Amazonian forest in northern Brazil.

This map of the Tumucumaque Indigenous Reserve continues to garner accolades and attention. It was recently featured in an opinion piece in the New Scientist, an influential British publication.

ACT also expects to be featured in Scholastic News later this month, where 25 million students will read about our work.

Best wishes from your friends and colleagues at ACT!

The Amazon Conservation Team