FOUNDER OF THE RAINFOREST AWARENESS PROJECT WILL SPEAK AT BARD COLLEGE ON WEDNESDAY, MARCH 28
ANNANDALE-ON-HUDSON, NY—The Earth Coalition, Bard Environmental Resources Department, Office of Student Activities, Dean of Studies, and the Ecology Program at Bard College will present a talk by Kevin Russell, the founder of the Rainforest Awareness Project, on Wednesday, March 28. The talk, which is free and open to the public, will begin at 7:30 p.m. in Room 102 of the F. W. Olin Humanities Building.
Russell's "Voices of the Rainforest" is a multimedia presentation illustrating, through slides and music, the unique ecology and cultural diversity of the Bornean rainforest. The Island of Borneo, located between Indonesia and Malaysia in the Pacific Ocean, has one of the earth's oldest and most diverse terrestrial ecosystems. Russell will speak about the indigenous people of Borneo, the Penan, whose culture and livelihood are deeply intertwined with the health of the Bornean rainforest. He spent several months living with them, observing their lifestyle, and travelling deep within the rainforest with them. The Penan are a hunter-gatherer society who practice slash-and-burn agriculture and their traditions are now being threatened by increasing commercialization and deforestation, according to Russell.
The Rainforest Awareness Project is an organization of educators based in Boulder, Colorado, that is concerned with educating others about rainforest conservation. Among other activities, the group sponsors students who wish to travel to Borneo to complete independent studies among the people of the rainforest.
For further information, call 845-758-6822 or e-mail [email protected].
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