Search
-
With the October 2 presentation by parishioner, John Carter, we anticipate the October 4 feast of St. Francis and the closing of the Season of Creation promoted by Pope Francis.
Entitled, Frontier Conservation, the Fight for the Amazon, John’s presentation will describe personal experience of living for years in a remote region of the southern Amazon and the lessons learned that are being applied to affect positive change. John will give an update on the current situation of the agricultural frontier in Brazil as well as the front-line efforts deployed to counter the destruction of the forest, those being:
1. A free market private property land registry called the Producing Right Platform and
2. A private wildland firefighting unit trained by United States Forest Service Hotshots and Smokejumpers and now led by an ex-5th Group Special Forces Soldier.
John Carter is founder and President of Aliança da Terra, a Brazilian landowner-based conservation organization that was started in 2004. Firsthand experience living and flying over the southern Amazonian frontier gave John the vision for a new conservation model, which builds on the goodwill inherent in private landowners to take care of the land. His efforts culminated into the creation of a responsible production land registry that encompasses nearly 10 million acres across Brazil’s vast frontier.
John earned a degree in geology from the University of Texas and served in the U.S. Army’s Long Range Surveillance Detachment – 101st Airborne Division. In addition to running Aliança da Terra, John and his wife Kika, manage multiple ranching operations in Mato Grosso, Brazil, to include Brazilian Adventure Travel, a backcountry travel company. Their company won Outsidemagazine’s 2006 Trip of the Year for South America. John, Kika, and their two daughters split their time between Mato Grosso, Brazil and Nashville, Tennessee.