History: The Global Awareness Institute (GAI) was founded in 1997 to prepare the public for a global economy that is shifting toward renewable resources. All of our programs, workshops and projects focus on sustainable development, with emphasis on the use of renewable resources, particularly those found locally. Our commitment is to design and support sustainable industries that encourage preservation of rainforests and the species they support by benefiting local communities. GAI is a nonprofit, publicly-supported organization under Section 501(c) (3) of the Internal Revenue Code.
Programs: GAI has three ongoing projects: GAI Selva(Peru), GAI Maya (Belize), and GAI Spirit (Indonesia). The Ride will support GAI Selva’s medicinal plants and medicine projects and help develop its newly formed Center for Natural Medicine. In so doing, we will prove to local communities and the world that it is more valuable to preserve the rainforest than to cut it down.
GAI Selva: “Selva” in Spanish means forest. GAI Selva is a 75-acre research institute and animal/plant preserve located on the Amazon River near Iquitos, Peru. The facility hosts seminars, workshops and conferences; supports the planning and development of sustainable projects; and coordinates projects that benefit the local economy. A primary focus of the GAI Selva project is the development of medicinal plants and medicines as a sustainable industry. To that end, GAI works closely with local and national Peruvian research institutes; conducts workshops, seminars, and conferences for students, faculty, and professionals in the field of Pharmacy; and, through its new Center for Natural Medicine, will soon begin conducting informational workshops on medicinal plants and natural medicine for the general public. Our organization also supports the creation of women's cooperatives for the gardening and gathering of medicinal plants; maintains a network of local shamans and clinics that offer natural medicinal therapies; and is striving to create the means by which medicinal plant products can be processed and marketed by local cooperatives. In addition, the GAI Selva reserve houses an animal rescue center to protect species from abuse and extinction and a medicinal plant garden and plantation.
Iquitos and its Natural Wealth: The Amazon River runs through the heart of Iquitos, a poverty-stricken city of approximately 500,000 located in northern Peru. The Amazon region is the largest and most biologically-rich biome in the world. It is habitat for more than 25,000 species of plants. As the local population has become aware of the economic viability of many of these plants—particularly those with medicinal properties—they have begun to strip the jungle in search of crops. In the last three years, approximately ten million hectares of tropical rainforest were decimated, and some billion hectares of agricultural land has lost productivity due to soil erosion. Since many of these medicinal plants grow along the banks of the river, they also serve as a primary source of food for the fish (a principal source of food and income for the local population). As the jungle is stripped, the fish lose their supply of food—consequently, there are smaller, and fewer, fish upon which the population can subsist. Moreover, haphazard harvesting destroys the plant habitats, thus reducing additional crops and in many cases, eliminating the possibility of additional crops entirely. At present, some 650 plant species with pharmaceutical effects and economic value have been identified in the Amazon. More than two-thirds of all mass-produced drugs are derived from medicinal plants. Given that 70% of cancer curing plants are in rainforests, preserving and sustainably developing them is both a local and global imperative.
The Ride for the Rainforest Project: Funding for GAI’s projects comes primarily from individual donors and from fundraising efforts like The Ride For The Rainforest. Funds generated by The Ride will allow us to complete the Center For Natural Medicine in Iquitos, Peru, through which indigenous women will establish a self-sustaining environmentally-responsible medicinal plant and natural medicine industry. This project will not only provide a source of income for the community, it will serve as a model to demonstrate that sustainable gathering of medicinal plants of the jungle (e.g., Camu-Camu, Uña de Gato, Yumanasa, etc.) can be a viable means of support that does not contribute to the destruction of local habitats. GAI will work with the Instituto de Medicina Tradicional (IMET) in Iquitos in carrying out this project. GAI will provide land and facilities for the project, technical training and assistance, and administrative support. Through the Center for Natural Medicine, it will establish an accountable network of skilled shamans and scientists and a database of patients and cures that it will share with participants in Center workshops. GAI will also work with local shamans to help them to market their products commercially, establishing an online industry in their name. A percentage of revenues generated by members of the Center for Natural Medicine network will be invested into the establishment of a regional micro-lending institution, the Selva Bank. GAI will provide training in entrepreneurship and business management to Selva Bank investors and borrowers and will assist in the management of the bank until it can be wholly run by locals. (www.ridefortherainforest.org)
Project Goals: GAI will train and work with the target population to achieve the following:
· Establish a replicable model for the establishment of environmentally-responsible, profitable, commercially-viable sustainable enterprises in the Peruvian Amazon;
· Identify other suitable areas in which to establish environmentally-responsible sustainable industries;
· Carry the message of the commercial viability of sustainable development to the rest of the populace in the Iquitos area and elsewhere; and
· Establish a micro-lending institution through which to assist others in the Iquitos community to establish environmentally responsible sustainable enterprises.
Target Population: Initially, twelve indigenous Shaman women and a local coordinator in and around Iquitos, Peru will be participating in this project. We have chosen to work with the Shaman women for the following reasons: 1) These women have an extensive working knowledge of the nature and value of medicinal plants, and 2) the women are highly respected in the Iquitos community—thus the local population is more willing to listen to their message and follow their example. GAI will train the twelve Shaman women and the local coordinator. Each woman will in turn train an assistant. The women have already agreed to participate in this project. Initial training will last for one week—follow up training and additional support will be carried out on a regularly scheduled basis throughout the course of the project.
Project Leadership:
Dr. Barbara Brodman - Professor of Latin American and Caribbean Studies, Nova Southeastern University; Founder/President, Global Awareness Institute
Ruth E. Nemire, Pharm.D.- Director of Clinical Education, NSU College of Pharmacy; Vice President, Global Awareness Institute
Ing. M.Sc. Herman B. Collazos Saldaña - Vicerrector Academico, Universidad Nacional de la Amazonia Peruana (UNAP), Iquitos, Peru
Dr. Roberto Incháustegui Gonzalez - Director, Instituto de Medicina Tradicional de EsSalud, Iquitos, Peru
Mario H. Pinedo Pandero, Ing. Agr. M.Sc. - Instituto de Investigaciones de la Amazonia Peruana (IIAP)
Ron Flavin - Acting Executive Director, GAI
Tedy M. Pacheco, Director of Special Projects, GAI
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