ACT JULY UPDATE July, 2003

Dear Friends,

Summer is here, but that has not brought any lazy days to the Amazon Conservation Team.  Most of you will be receiving our latest postcard update by snail mail next week which features a striking photograph that Liliana took on her recent trip to Brazil. ACT Brasil is currently hard at work mapping the rest of the Xingu Reserve--the second workshop was held in June.

We recently received three great pieces of news from our Northwest Amazon Program.  Marta Rosero, an Afro-Colombian who has been working with ACT, has just received a fellowship to complete her Ph.D. on the history and development of our work in Colombia.  The Ingano Indigenous Reserve of Yurayaco has now received official status--a big victory for our partners who live there.  And the Research Group on Traditional Health Systems sponsored by ACT has just been incorporated into the Colombian Academy of Sciences - a great honor, and an important step towards the establishment of a Masters Program in Ethnomedicine at the Universidad del Rosario.

ACT Staff members from four countries will travel to Colombia at the beginning of August for an institutional meeting.  We will be working on improving our internal communications and accounting systems--increasingly important as ACT grows.

Thanks for all of your support, and enjoy your summer!

The Amazon Conservation Team