A few years ago, a few of us – ecology, economics, and business graduates – founded a nonprofit organization called Third Millennium Alliance. We raised some money and bought a lot of land in a critically-endangered rainforest and established an ecological reserve. There was a small patch of previously-degraded land right in the middle, where we have built an innovative and surprisingly comfortable research station out of bamboo, by hand. Immediately surrounding the house we are designing/growing/building a living laboratory of sustainable resource management (i.e. permaculture). Our goal is 100% food self-sufficiency within 10 years. So far, we’re maybe 20% of the way there. Likewise this is a testing ground for appropriate technology, such as off-the-grid renewable energy, water treatment and management, organic pesticide production, etc. We are also in need of various biological research projects and inventories, such as botanical research, cloud forest precipitation research, GIS mapping, setting up sample plots for a bio-mass inventory, and building a native hardwood tree nursery and seed collection and germination system.
Priorities for the Fall Internship include: • reforestation of native timber species • entomology (insect) inventory • species identification and labeling of trees in the forest • photo inventory of native flora • mushroom propagation system • implementing of a small-scale aquaculture system • grafting of fruit trees • native bamboo propagation If you would like to learn more, please visit our Internship page on our website, where you can download a PDF file which includes a detailed program description, at: http://www.3malliance.org/index.php?id=320 If you would like to apply, send an informal email to the address listed in the program description. We hope you work with you! Sincerely, Bryan Criswell, Isabel Dávila, Jerry Toth Directors, Jama-Coaque Reserve Third Millennium Alliance Jama, Ecuador www.3malliance.org