Mario-Christian Meyer | |
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Born | Salta, Argentina | 4 June 1953
Nationality | Switzerland Brazil Argentina |
Known for | Works on "Alliance between modern technology and ancestral knowledge", Valorization of Amazonian biodiversity, Amazonian forest, Amazonian indian |
Awards | Giant of Ecology (2008) |
Scientific career | |
Fields | Neuropsychiatry, neuropsychology, neurolinguistics, cross-cultural psychiatry, epistemology, life sciences, biotechnology, medicinal plants, mythology, ecology, Sustainable development |
Institutions | Sorbonne |
Neuropsychology |
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Mario-Christian Meyer is a Swiss-Brazilian doctor and advocate for the sustainable development of the Amazonia and preservation of its indigenous cultural heritage.
Meyer was born in Salta, Argentina. His father, Hermann Meyer, a Swiss polytechnics engineer specializing in agronomy, became a fazendeiro (large plantation farmer), first in Argentina, in the early 1930s, then in Brazil in 1954. His mother, Anne Camille Blanc de Corbières Meyer, was a Swiss structural engineer. The young Meyer spent his first months in Salta, where his father had established a Hacienda and an olive oil production plant. Because of Peronism, with its nationalism and isolationism, his family lost everything and, in 1954, consequently moved to Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
In the book Embracing Amazonia, published in Brazil, 2008, Eliana Spengler (Giant of Ecology Award coordinator) talks about Meyer's childhood and youth: [1]
In his early years, he elected his father's library as his shelter; there he nourished his young mind and imagination reading books by classical Brazilian writers about Amazonian rainforest and Índios. Later, through encyclopaedias, he developed personal approaches to his numerous questions about the meaning of life.
The stories of Brazilian authors Jose de Alencar, Castro Alves and Machado de Assis fueled Meyer's love of the Amazon, while reading Montaigne's" Bon sauvage", Rousseau's " État de Nature " and Locke's concepts of empiricism and "tabula rasa" directed his thoughts on the nature of human development.
Later in life, Meyer experienced an Índios initiation rite, an experience that sealed his commitment to the Amazonian cause.
Meyer studied medicine, specializing in Developmental Neuropsychology and Child Psychiatry. He went on to teach at the Sorbonne in Paris. His thesis Apprentissage de la langue maternelle écrite: étude sur des populations autochtones dites socio-culturellement défavorisées dans une approche interdisciplinaire, [2] prefaced by Prof. Dr. Julian de Ajuriaguerra of the Collège de France, published by UNESCO, examined the problems of underprivileged indigenous populations in learning written language.
This work for UNESCO has induced Meyer to study the contribution of western sciences (neuro-psychiatry, neuro-linguistics, neuro-psychology, psycho-motricity, etc.) to the approach of learning disabilities occurring with illiteracy in the developing countries. This official mission led him into the heart of the Amazonian rain-forest for the first time, [3] where he undertook an exhaustive case study about the different forms of graphic representations of the written language used by the Amerindians in their pictographs, ideograms, petroglyphs and body paintings (e.g. Genipapo – Genipa americana, Urucu – Bixa orellana), obtained using plant pigments, [4] where he discovered the power of their active ingredients. Meyer evolved from this work to a general effort to promote the value of indigenous ancestral knowledge and to preserve their natural environment (the Amazon).
Focusing then on the cross-cultural psychiatry's field, he developed through the 1980s his researches for a better understanding of the interactions between Culture and Psyche. [5]
In 1989, Meyer was made a Fellow of the Paris Society of Medicine (in French Société de Médecine de Paris), [6] founded on the "2 Germinal year IV" (French Revolutionary calendar, i.e. 22 March 1796), originating from the Société Royale de Médecine [7] founded in 1730. There, he presented his works on Amazonia, which were to give birth to new medicines.
His missions in the Amazonian rain-forest (see map at right) in close contact with the "People of Nature", the Índios [8] gave him a new conception of Man-Nature interaction. [9] They lead him to combine his expertise in neuro-psychology in the field of linguistic and cultural diversity with his experience in biological diversity and its preservation by bio-technologies.
This association allowed him to fight for the transformation of the Amazonian biodiversity and medicinal plants into a truly genuine pharmacology benefiting both Amazonia and the Western world. [10]
Thus, from 1992 Prof. Dr. Meyer participated as an official member of the State of Amazonas delegation in the UN Earth Summit Rio 92. It is in this context that, in 1994, he coordinated on Brazilian territory – after a due hand-over by the French Ambassador in Brasília – the first Ministerial "mission for biotechnology to valorize biodiversity" ever to be organized between France and the State of Amazonas. [11]
This mission, which had been initiated in 1993 by the French Minister of Research and Space Hubert Curien (via the National Program of Bio-technologies, directed by Prof. Dr. Daniel Thomas), was carried out under the auspices of the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs, with the active involvement of the Governor of the State of Amazonas.
In 1994, Meyer appeared as a special delegate from Brazil to the UNESCO's World Symposium on Literacy [12] in order to present his new approach merging linguistic abilities and biodiversity know how.
In 1999, Dr. Meyer was appointed by UNESCO to write a report on the means to consider in order to establish a "bridge of equitable communication and cooperation" between the Amazonian Amerindians and their traditional knowledge, on the one hand, and the Western world and its modern Culture, on the other hand. The bottom line was to set up the appropriate tools and create the necessary procedures for such a cooperation to be made possible, taking into account the specificity of cultural diversity, the way both these cultures function, and the pragmatic instruments of cooperation. [13]
Since then, he has gone on to found PISAD: [14] Programme International de Sauvegarde de l'Amazônia, Mata Atlântica et des Amérindiens pour le Développement Durable [International Program to Safeguard Amazonia, the Mata Atlântica and the Amerindians for Sustainable Development], a humanist and non-profit organization. To implement it, he has created a "platform of fair and equitable dialogue – a bridge – between preserved Índios and western scientists" [15] to valorize the ancestral knowledge of the Índios and the Amazonian biodiversity. Originally, Meyer set up an operational concept and methodology regarding the psycho-cultural revitalization of endangered Amerindian knowledge which he had pioneered as Cogni'Índios. [15]
Meyer is currently adapting a process for the bio-production of active ingredients contained in medicinal plants to the needs and abilities of the Índios, enabling them to manage the production of these pharmaceuticals and ensuring them economic autonomy and self-sustainable development. This bio-production is based upon the alliance between the Índios' know-how and a green biotechnology (Plant Milking Technology) developed by INPL – Institut National Polytechnique de Lorraine (National Polytechnic Institute of Lorraine), France. [16] UNESCO's Participation Programme entitled "Amerindian Communication and Sustainable Economic Development Programme for a Culture of Peace in Brazilian Amazonia" (00 BRA 603), which Meyer managed from 1999 to 2003, has been a central element of his work and a starting point for his further action. [17]
In the last years, Meyer has been concentrating his activities on the first transfer [18] of the "plant milking technology" to an Índioscommunity in the virgin rain-forest: this is a unique example in recent history of an actual biotechnology transfer to Amerindians. [18] He is now focusing his work on the goal-achievement methodology of his original research and development program to ensure a functional and active link between theÍndios ancestral knowledge and Scientist's advanced biotechnology. [19]
For more than three decades, Meyer's work has been published by leading international scientific journals, magazines and books, as well as progressively in the mainstream press, as can be seen in "Selected Publications", up to recent articles.
In this sense, see " Médicaments de demain:l'avenir est sous les tropiques " (Amazonia: Medicines of the Future) [20] cf. his interview in the scientific section "MatchDocument" of the magazine Paris Match (France), 2018, nº 3586, pages 107–108. In the article "Amazonie: Médicaments du Futur" [Amazônia: Medicines of the Future] (Full Web version) [21] ,chap. "Quel rôle joue l’industrie pharmaceutique dans ces alchimies?" ,it is written :
"Nearly two-thirds of modern medicines come from nature: 35% are directly or indirectly derived from natural molecules, 25% are inspired. We know that nature has a much more elaborate chemistry than synthetic molecules: the natural active principles - fruit of millions of years of trial and error in order to identify their biological utility - have a structure that is much more complex than those of chemical synthesis; today, biotechnologies manage to imitate them via Bio-mimicry. In this sense, the Amazonia is the largest laboratory in the world"
See also "Amazonia, the knowledge class" published in the Franco-Swiss Standard magazine, 2012, nb 37 about the "Financial crisis: a new green bio-economy vs the Knowledge class": Mario Christian Meyer : interview Standard [22] . In the § 6 p. 159 we can read:
"The urgency of safeguarding the primary forests of Amazonia and the preservation of biodiversity leads to inventing other ways for the valorization of this heritage. The project Herb'Içana, that we are trying to implement in agreement with the Chiefs of the Amazonian territories (...) will create green jobs of the future. The big challenge is the transfer of green biotechnology "plant milking technology" (...) to enable Índios to train in bio-production activities."
Meyer has treated other subjects such as pesticides, because of their relevance to health, specially related to cancers, leukaemia, hormonal perturbations… see the article "Du mythe du Timbó à la biotechnologie empirico-naturelle: les biopesticides en question" [23] published in the magazine Hortis, [24] nº 61, pages 55–57. [25]
In September 2017, the Herb'Içana project was awarded and received special homage from the Giants of Ecology Institute (Brazil) for its relevance, and was appointed as a solution for the wound no 7, "loss of biological diversity which affects the lives of all living things", described in the book "12 Feridas Ambientais do Planeta" ["12 Environmental Wounds of the Planet"], coordinated by Gustavo Siqueira and Prof. Dr. Joel Dias da Silva, Brazil, 2017. See the article entitled "Um novo modelo de valorização da biodiversidade: eco-etno-biotecnologia na Amazonia" [26] by Eliana Spengler, Coordinator of the Honorary Committee of the Giants of Ecology Award 2017–2018. See § 3 p. 128 (reference Nb. 25). [27]
For his efforts, Meyer was awarded the Brazilian prize Gigante da Ecologia 2008 [28] (Giant of Ecology), [29] an honour tribute by the Instituto Gigantes da Ecologia (Giants of Ecology Institute), in Blumenau, Brazil.
On 21 September 2017, Meyer was again awarded the prize Giant of Ecology 2017 [30] for "Scientific Excellence", as the founder and President of PISAD, thanks to the project Herb'Içana.
On 25 September 2017, Meyer received a high distinction from the French Government through the Ministry of Agriculture, which appointed him Knight of the Order of Merit. [31] [32]
Meyer was made an honorary citizen of the city of Manaus, capital of the State of Amazonas, and was granted a gold medal by its legislative chamber, in recognition of the 30 years of services he provided for the defense of the rich biodiversity of Amazonia and the development of the Herb'Içana project. [33] [34]
The Amazon rainforest, also called Amazon jungle or Amazonia, is a moist broadleaf tropical rainforest in the Amazon biome that covers most of the Amazon basin of South America. This basin encompasses 7,000,000 km2 (2,700,000 sq mi), of which 6,000,000 km2 (2,300,000 sq mi) are covered by the rainforest. This region includes territory belonging to nine nations and 3,344 indigenous territories.
Amapá ( ) is one of the 26 states of Brazil. It is in the North Region of Brazil. It is the second-least populous state and the eighteenth-largest state by area. Located in the far northern part of the country, Amapá is bordered clockwise by French Guiana to the north for 730 km, the Atlantic Ocean to the east for 578 km, Pará to the south and west, and Suriname to the northwest for 63 km. The capital and largest city is Macapá. The state has 0.4% of the Brazilian population and is responsible for only 0.22% of the Brazilian GDP.
Amazonas is a state of Brazil, located in the North Region in the north-western corner of the country. It is the largest Brazilian state by area and the ninth-largest country subdivision in the world. It is the largest country subdivision in South America, being greater than the areas of Chile, Paraguay, and Uruguay combined. Neighbouring states are Roraima, Pará, Mato Grosso, Rondônia, and Acre. It also borders the nations of Peru, Colombia and Venezuela. This includes the Departments of Amazonas, Vaupés and Guainía in Colombia, as well as the Amazonas state in Venezuela, and the Loreto Region in Peru.
The Jaú National Park is a national park located in the state of Amazonas, Brazil. It is one of the largest forest reserves in South America, and part of a World Heritage Site.
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The Cerrado is a vast ecoregion of tropical savanna in eastern Brazil, being present in the states of Goiás, Mato Grosso do Sul, Mato Grosso, Tocantins, Maranhão, Piauí, Bahia, Minas Gerais, São Paulo, Paraná and the Federal District. The core areas of the Cerrado biome are the Brazilian highlands – the Planalto. The main habitat types of the Cerrado consist of forest savanna, wooded savanna, park savanna and gramineous-woody savanna. The Cerrado also includes savanna wetlands and gallery forests.
Hélder Lima de Queiroz is a Brazilian conservation biologist, primatologist, and fish behaviorist.
A caboclo is a person of mixed Indigenous Brazilian and European ancestry, or, less commonly, a culturally assimilated or detribalized person of full Amerindian descent. In Brazil, a caboclo generally refers to this specific type of mestiço.
Aziz Nacib Ab'Sáber was a geographer and one of Brazil's most respected scientists, honored with the highest awards of Brazilian science in geography, geology, ecology and archaeology. Graduated in geography, he was a president and honorary president of the Sociedade Brasileira para o Progresso da Ciência and Emeritus Professor of the University of São Paulo. He received the Grand Cross in Earth Sciences of the National Order of Scientific Merit, the highest rank. Among the awards, he has received the UNESCO Prize on Science and the Environment in 2001 and the Prize to the Intellectual of Brazil in 2011.
Darrell Addison Posey was an American anthropologist and biologist who vitalized the study of traditional knowledge of indigenous and folk populations in Brazil and other countries. He called his approach ethnobiology and combined research with respect for other cultures, especially indigenous intellectual property rights.
Anavilhanas National Park is a national park that encompasses a huge river archipelago in the Rio Negro in the state of Amazonas, Brazil. It is part of a World Heritage Site.
The Mamirauá Sustainable Development Reserve in the Brazilian state of Amazonas, near the city of Tefé, is a 4,300-square-mile (11,000 km2) reserve near the village of Boca do Mamirauá. It includes mostly Amazonian flooded forest and wetlands. The ribeirinhos are native to the area.
José Márcio Corrêa Ayres was a Brazilian primatologist and conservationist who founded the Mamirauá Sustainable Development Reserve in 1996, followed by the Amanã Sustainable Development Reserve in 1998. The two reserves are located in the central region of the Brazilian state of Amazonas, and are joined to adjacent Jaú National Park to form a corridor spanning over 20,000 square miles (52,000 km2) of protected rainforest.
Aripuanã River is a river in the Mato Grosso and Amazonas states in north-western Brazil. It is a tributary of the Madeira River in the Amazon Basin. The town of Novo Aripuanã is located on its banks where it merges into the Madeira River. The town of Aripuanã is also on its banks, but on the upper (southern) section of the river.
Igapó is a word used in Brazil for blackwater-flooded forests in the Amazon biome. These forests and similar swamp forests are seasonally inundated with freshwater. They typically occur along the lower reaches of rivers and around freshwater lakes. Freshwater swamp forests are found in a range of climate zones, from boreal through temperate and subtropical to tropical. In the Amazon Basin of Brazil, a seasonally whitewater-flooded forest is known as a várzea, which is similar to igapó in many regards; the key difference between the two habitats is in the type of water that floods the forest.
Dr. Pia Parolin is a biologist and tropical ecologist, council member of the Society for Tropical Ecology (gtö) and active member of the Association for Tropical Biology and Conservation (ATBC). She is also a photographer, member of the German Society for Photography (DGPh) and Leica Akademie Deutschland.
The Aripuanã National Forest is a national forest in the state of Amazonas, Brazil. It supports sustainable forestry, and also protects the environment, supports scientific research and protects the sustainable lifestyle of the traditional inhabitants of the forest.
BR-319 is an 870-kilometre (540 mi) federal highway that links Manaus, Amazonas to Porto Velho, Rondônia. The highway runs through a pristine part of the Amazon rainforest. It was opened by the military government in 1973 but soon deteriorated, and by 1988 was impassable. In 2008 work began to repair the highway, which will provide an alternative to boat travel along the Madeira River or flying between Manaus and Porto Velho. Protected areas have been created along the route in an effort to prevent deforestation when BR-319 is reopened, a serious concern given the devastation caused elsewhere by highways such as BR-364. As of mid-2016 paving of the middle section of the highway had yet to be approved. Construction permits will depend on measures to prevent future damage to the forest.
The Central Amazon Ecological Corridor is an ecological corridor in the state of Amazonas, Brazil, that connects a number of conservation units in the Amazon rainforest. The objective is to maintain genetic connectivity between the protected areas without penalizing the local people, where possible using participatory planning that involves all affected actors.
Carl F. Jordan is Professor Emeritus, Odum School of Ecology, University of Georgia.
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March 1987, pp. 6.