Instituto Curicaca

Instituto Curicaca is a non-governmental non-profit organisation that works for the conservation of nature, the appreciation of culture and the promotion of eco-development in Brazil.

Instituto Curicaca operates through four programmes, which take an integrated approach to the complex environmental challenges its team has chosen to address:

1) A biodiversity conservation and protected areas programme, which focuses on threatened ecosystems and species and uses ecological corridor strategies;

2) An eco-development programme, aimed at local communities and developing sustainable economies near protected areas;

3) An environmental education and culture programme, which includes awareness raising for the conservation of biodiversity, the safeguarding of the immaterial cultural heritage of traditional peoples and communities, and the training of educators; and

4) A public policy and institutional strengthening programme, which includes activism, representation on collegiate bodies, training of public officials and integration of projects with federal and state policies.

These are implemented through projects and actions in partnership with universities, public agencies, other NGOs and local leaders.

Instituto Curicaca started its journey in 1997, in the Atlantic Forest biome, then expanded to the coastal and marine zone and the Pampas to, more recently, carrying out its first project in the Amazon. Synchronicity Earth’s Amphibian Programme is supporting a community engagement project around the very limited habitat of the admirable red-bellied toad on the Forqueta River, in the southern extreme of the Atlantic Forest.