Earth Train

Earth Train and Junglewood are proud to announce our partnership with Juanito Pascual (juanitopascual.com). Juanito will be performing at the Regattabar on June 5th in support of his upcoming Junglewood fall tour. Juanito will also be giving a workshop in the Mamoni Valley Preserve Thursday August 5th through Sunday August 8th. Please contact info@earthtrain.org for more information.

May 12th - 15th, 2010

May 12 through the 15th seventeen MBA business students from Thunderbird School of Global Management visited the Mamoni Valley Preserve as part of their two week program "Doing Business in Panama". The students stayed at Earth Train's campus for education and research, had the opportunity to hike throughout the Preserve, and spent three days exploring not only the intricacies of the rain forest but the environmental and cultural elements in socially positive investment and business strategies, using the Mamoni Valley Preserve as a case study.

April 17th - 18th, 2010

Earth Train received Centro Educativo Integral Montessori at the Mamoni Valley April 17th and 18th. The students and parents of Montessori planted trees, hiked around the campus, and interacted with Raúl Mezúa, Earth Train staffer and Emberá youth leader. We look forward to future collaboration with Centro Montessori.

On December 27th, fourteen students from across the United States and Canada piled into 4-wheel-drive trucks and began a journey through degraded rainforest and cattle pastures to the entrance of the Mamoní Valley Preserve. They spent the next 5 days hiking with Panamanian naturalist Lider Sucre; studying systems thinking with David Stroh, a National Science Foundation Fellow at MIT and founding partner of Innovation Associates; and learning the intricacies of sustainable development with Earth Train Founder Nathan Gray. Almost all the students were members of Global Brigades, and many were even leaders of their own Global Brigade trips. They acted as consultants to Earth Train and the Mamoní Valley Preserve, using the systems thinking tools provided by David to explore Earth Train's projects and the possible unintended consequences that they carried.

Photography here is accredited to one of the student participants, Jonathan Lee.

On the morning of October 9, 2009, Dr. Jane Goodall addressed the plenary session of the international symposium of the Association of Environmental Studies and Science - live via satellite from Earth Train's Centro Madroño. Introduced by Dr. Glenn Adelson, Earth Train's Co-Chair for Life Sciences, Jane began with a word of gratitude to the howler monkeys who so kindly served as her alarm clock early that morning. "What an inspiring way to wake up," she said.

Dr. Goodall's speech capped a visit to Panama to discuss collaboration with Earth Train on the realization of a goal she has held dear for several years: The establishment of an international center in the Americas for youth leadership in connection with her worldwide youth action and learning program, Roots and Shoots. At a reception Earth Train hosted at Casa Arias, in team with partner organizations Fundación Danilo Pérez, the Kuna General Congress and BioMuseo, Dr. Goodall acknowledged "the powerful forces unleashed when young people resolve to make a change." She spoke enthusiastically about how much she looked forward to working with Earth Train and its partners on supporting youth in "taking informed and sustained action toward realizing their vision for a just and healthy world."

We are delighted to be working with Dr. Goodall and her colleagues at the Jane Goodall Institute on establishing, in the Mamoní Valley Preserve and at Casa Arias, a new multi-cultural center for Roots and Shoots, a learning and action campus for young emerging leaders from around the Americas and beyond.

New York Times Best Selling author John Perkins' newest book, Hoodwinked, is now on sale. Rich in hard-hitting stories and insight, the book describes the deep underlying causes of the current crises and provides a blueprint for change, for creating a world our children will want to inherit.

Hoodwinked concludes with an inspiring description of the Mamoní Valley Preserve and Junglewood projects: "The Mamoní Valley Preserve... is a place to incubate dreams. The old dream was based on exploiting - conquering - nature and people. The new one is about living in harmony."

You can learn more about John's work at his website. Order Hoodwinked today through www.dreamchange.org and help support the non-profit with your purchase!