I Bought a Rainforest Consultant Joins IKD

We're pleased to announce that Andrea Berardi, a lecturer in environmental systems with qualifications in ecology, nature conservation and environmental sciences, has joined IKD. Andrea's interests lie in facilitating grassroots approaches to ecological sustainability, and social justice using a participatory action learning process. Simply put, this allows people to learn collaboratively from their own practical experiences using local resources rather than being told what to do by 'experts' or relying on external support.

Andrea is currently a co-investigator on Project COBRA, a -1.9 million EU project promoting indigenous solutions to emerging challenges in the Amazon. In addition, building on 20 years of research investigating fire management within Brazil's rainforests and savannas, he is now collaborating with the Kayapo indigenous tribe on Project Kremkrem. Using the participatory video techniques first tested in COBRA, this new project aims to explore how best to support the Kayapo in managing the increasingly destructive wildfires that are encroaching onto their territory from adjacent deforested lands, while at the same time protecting biodiversity and traditional resource use.

Andrea acted as Academic Consultant on the recent OU-BBC co-production, I Bought a Rainforest and has put together a new learning experience on the Amazon which is available on OpenLearn, the OU's free learning website. The resources include an Adventure in the Amazon gamebook, which lets readers experience the day-to-day decision-making of a visitor to the Amazon - and the consequences.