WHO ARE WE?

AMBÁ is an interdisciplinary team driven by our wish to preserve and regenerate the biodiversity in the East Hills in Uruguay.

Since 2016, the area our project addresses belongs to the upper basin of the Rocha lagoon which is a protected area by the National System of Protected Areas (SNAP). Within these hills, many communities and farmers live together and we all share the same interest and concern about the preservation of biodiversity, environmental recovery and ecoturism as ways to promote a sustainable territorial development.

Together we organize and participate in a land network composed by six different environments which, in more than 3000 hectare, shelter more than twenty mammals species, one hundred and thirty bird species and more than fifty plant species. At this moment, Ambá works in several programs to protect this natural paradise.

WHAT ABOUT THE NAME AMBÁ?

In the Guaraní cosmovision, Ambá refers to the place we should walk to because such place is our main purpose. Far from South American indigenous people, in the East side of Russia, to the Udegei people, Ambá is the amur tiger: the biggest feline in Siberia. In the Udegei cosmovision, this animal is also the personification of the Wood Spirit. To us, we believe that the presence of felines is a sign of a rich and abundant biodiversity that still survives in the hills of Rocha.

For these reasons, we decided to name the project Ambá to honor the living creatures that guard and protect this natural wealth because it is their home. In this context, as human beings, we cannot ignore our key role and, therefore, we are determined to show and defend a different relationship between nature and us.

The main challenge lies within us because, to achieve the change, it is crucial to abandon predatory habits that, day by day, put biodiversity at stake. Thus, to spread the urgent need to make a real change on these matters is our main goal and, to do so, we have to share vital knowledge on biodiversity so that people can join us in the process of understanding that we, human beings, belong to an unconditional love circle together with nature.

In this sense, Ambá pays tribute to the ancestral tribes who have wisely, humbly and respectfully lived in harmony with nature. We need to learn from them in order to know how to take care of nature the same way it takes care of us and lives in us. For this purpose, it is essential to introduce and share a different view on preservation, coexistence and production so that we are, finally, able to stop destroying the purity of nature.

TEAM

Maximiliano Costa

I am a father, group therapist, naturalist and I used to be a business owner years ago.

In Ambá, I am in charge of the general coordination of the project. Therefore, I constantly work to make the project grow and to expand its programs. In my opinion, there is no other way to carry out my tasks as the leader coordinator if I do not go out into the field in order to deeply understand and feel the wide biodiversity that lives in these lands.

Rodrigo Patrón Silva

As a field coordinator, I am responsible for leading the environmental education program together with other team members and I am also in charge of the ecoturism program. These activities provide the possibility to be nourished from the wisdom and beauty of an incredible ecosystem. I am deeply grateful to be part of a project that has allowed me to put previous knowledge and experience into practice as I have been capable of joining together my teacher background with my parenthood.

I believe that to commit ourselves to regenerate the biodiversity is a mandatory task and, in doing so, we will also regenerate ourselves too in order to sow a new seed.

Inti Carro

I serve as a specialist technician within the Native Wood and Yerba Mate Recovery Program in Ambá. I concentrate on researching ways the ecosystems could regenerate and recovery. Some of the following words define me: biologist, akidoka and father.

Working in Ambá is an invaluable opportunity to collectively work to achieve a sustainable territorial development. To accomplish this task, we created different tools to cope with the challenges the climate change locally poses every day. The only way to confront them is to actively participate in the preservation and revalue of nature.

Sergio Campos Urueña

I am a school teacher, a naturalist and a biobuilder. In Ambá I am in charge of monitoring and registering of the birds belonging to the East Hills. Thanks to field trips -offered to visitors and students- and to the bird watching program, I have the chance to work to promote environmental education which attempts at raising awareness about the importance of knowing about nature. At the same time, as a specialist technician, I also work to preserve the Andean condor in the Argentinean Patagonia within the framework of an international program fostered by the Fundación Bioandina. My tasks consist of breeding, field tracking and recovery of condors.

Matías Loureiro

I am a vet by profession and I specialize in health concerns related to native fauna. An important part of my task is to develop plans to assure the preservation and reintegration of native species. In this way, progressively, we will be able to regenerate native landscapes and ecosystems.

Besides, Ambá also gives me the opportunity to develop unique programs, such as the Yaguatirica Conservation Program for instance, which makes the involvement with the different communities possible. This dialogue between Ambá and the inhabitants of the hills proves to be fundamental in the light of our goals to promote environmental education and an active commitment towards our mission.

Guillermo Schneider y Florencia Barre

We are committed to connect ideas, people and messages. One day we visited Ambá and we never left because we found a group of people that give shape and meaning to our vision.

In this sense, we are both in charge of spreading the programs beyond the Rocha Hills. To do so, we develop content and communication strategies to invite people to join us. We trust in Ambá and its work, and, therefore, we want to give it a voice.