OUR INSPIRATIONS
or the beliefs we don´t intend to change
(1) Experience is not simply what happens, but what we do with what happens to us.
(2) Healthy food necessarily respects human and other living beings
(3) Ecotourism involves interpretation, conservation and sustainability
(4) Environmental education and social sustainability are two sides of the same coin
(1) Experience is not simply what happens, but what happens to us.
The comprehension of the experience Is how we respond to what Is happening to us and how we give meaning to It throughout life. Every day many things happen but, at the same time, almost nothing happens to us. The experience, the possibility that something actually touches us, requires a pause to look, listen and feel. To suspend automatic action, to cultivate subtleness, to talk about what happens to us.
Opposing the culture that relates experience to quantity, speed and information, we will listen closely to our hosts, revive their memories and live with them. But the experience will also be gained with silence and an uncommitted look at the environment.
(2) Healthy food necessarily respects human and other living beings
We are touched by what touches other beings which have feelings and impressions. We are genuinely interested in what other humans and animals experience. We will not become indifferent to their pain and their joy. We want to obtain and disseminate knowledge, but also to arouse awareness and sensitivity regarding this issue.
What have we, as humans, experienced in this coexistence with the other so called species? How can we hear and make heard the voices of those who do not speak human languages?
Animals are facing a paradox. While the pet market earns billions and people spend billions a year on pets, millions of oxen and pigs (and billions of chickens!) are slaughtered to become food and other consumer goods. Most often in an explicit demonstration of governments inabilities to make the links between the various aspects involved in this trade.
For a long time it was thought that people could not live - at least with health - without animal protein. However, numerous studies have proven that eating no (or, at least, less) meat and animal-derived products it is not only possible, but desirable.
Besides, cattle ranching is still the predominant cause of Amazon deforestation. And this activity, with soy production, much of which for animal feed, is related to high levels of violence against environmentalists.
Facing the cruelty of this chain and the elements responsible for environmental degradation, many people are adopting a vegetarian diet or vegan lifestyle. We support this idea and do our part by talking about the relations between our plate and a happier world for all.
(3) Ecotourism involves interpretation, conservation and sustainability
Ecotourism is characterized by the contact with natural environments, activities that can provide experience and knowledge of nature and the protection of the areas where it occurs. Thus, ecotourism is directly related to the concept of sustainable tourism, which relates the needs of tourists and host regions while protecting and enhancing opportunities for the future. It includes the management of economic and social resources and aesthetic needs while maintaining cultural integrity, essential ecological processes, biological diversity and life support systems.
In this project we seek to follow the paths of true ecotourism, learning about and contributing to sustainability.
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(4) Environmental education and social sustainability are two sides of the same
Coin
We believe the dominant model of civilization, based on overproduction and overconsumption, is the main cause of problems such as increasing poverty, human and environmental degradation and violence.
We support the Treaty on Environmental Education for Sustainable Societies, document written and approved by educators from various countries during the Rio Conference, in 1992.
The Treaty has 16 principles, some of which are very meaningful to us:
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Environmental education (EE) is a continuous learning process, based on respect for all forms of life, which requires individual and collective responsibility at local, national and global levels
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EE is not neutral, but an ideological, political act, based on values for social transformation;
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EE must stimulate solidarity, equality and respect for human rights, by means of democratic strategies and interaction between cultures;
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EE must address critical global issues - population, development, health, democracy, hunger, degradation of flora and fauna, for example - their causes and interrelationships in a systemic perspective, in their social and historical context.
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