John Smit Secretary
is entomologist working for the European Invertebrate Survey – the Netherlands. It was these insects that astonished me as a child through their diversity and up till now they never cease to amaze me with their diversity, both in appearance as well as in biology and ecology. John guides trips with Dutch students to Peru for the Dutch foundation Biodiversity and Education (stichting BEE). The main goal of this foundation, of which I am a board member, is to create awareness for the biodiversity in the world and the rapid decline thereof.
Jack Allen Chairman Amazon Fund USA
is engineer by training and worked in most states as well as for a number of other countries. He retired from the California Department of California in 1997 where I was last employed as a Senior Transportation Planner.
For some years he owned and operated an export import company dealing with Bolivian handicrafts and was involved with the early development of the coop movement to assure the indigenous producers were provided with a fair price for their goods. For the past 6 years he has been involved with the development of potable water systems for the communities within the Pilon Lajas Indigenous Preserve. He have also been involved with the Native North American Indian community for almost 20 years. Primarily with those originating in the Pacific Northwest and the Northern Plains regions of the U.S.
ADVISOR COUNSIL THE NETHERLANDS
Elisabeth Rijpkema Fundraising
is communication and fundraising specialist for non-profit organizations and projects, particularly in the areas of international, humanitarian and sustainable development. She studied at the ESSEC Business School, High school Zuyd and at the School of Management in Maastricht. She previously was a senior communications consultant at Oxfam, board member foundation IBISS and project manager at Van Rossum & Partners. Now she owns the organisation Matters of Value.
Bert van Barneveld Project development
Tropical agriculturalist and natural resources management specialist (Wageningen) who worked his entire life in the tropics, including over 30 years in South America. General Manager Latin America of the DHV Consulting Group from 1990-2008. Presently sustainable business development consultant in South America with emphasis on agribusiness, environmental conservation, regional planning and public-private partnerships.
Jan Kaiser General
is the founder (in 1971) of I.D.A., Amsterdam, a non-profit organisation, which has as main aim the provision of essential drugs in developing countries at affordable prices. He also initiated the building of pharmaceutical factories and stores in Africa and Asia. Until 2003, he had leading position in similar organisations. For over fifteen years, he also has been secretary and chairman of the Foundation AAP, an organisation, which takes care of confiscated primates and other mammals.
ADVISOR COUNSIL INTERNATIONAL
Daniel Manzaneda Juridical and project development
Rurrenabaque Bolivia. A town in the Bolivian Amazonia, close to the Madidi National Park and the Pilón Lajas Indigenous Land and Biosphere Reserve. He worked as a lawyer of the local indigenous people. He has a Master degree in Natural Resource Management (University of Goettingen, Germany), the fieldwork of his studies was made at the Yaminahua Machinery Indigenous land about the dependence of two communities on Brazil nuts. He believes that sustainable activities like tourism, harvesting of NTFP (Non Timber Forests Products) and many others can provide a good income to the people in Amazonia and at the same time conserve the tropical forests that are of global importance.
Paul F. Torrence General
is Emeritus Professor of Chemistry and Biochemistry at Northern Arizona University, Flagstaff, USA. His career spanned 30 years at the US National Institutes of Health where he was a Section Chief and then 8 years at Northern Arizona University where he was department Chair for 3 years. He has published more than 200 papers and edited 4 books in medicinal chemistry and drug discovery. He now lives in Williams, Oregon where he is a small organic farmer also involved in forest and watershed restoration. Volunteer activities in conservation have included organizing US Congressional advocacy/lobbying campaigns for the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, member of the Maryland governor’s Endangered Species Taskforce, and consultant and witness for the plaintiffs in Navajo Nation et al vs. US Forest Service et al, a case likely headed for the US Supreme Court.
Antoine Hanzen Adviser
He was born in Belgium. In Liège, he studied architecture and then moved to Louvain-la-Neuve to study urbanism. In 2004 he travelled to Bolivia to study a master in cultural heritage management. From that time forward, Antoine has worked in various countries including South America and Africa but also in Belgium where he’s still have some strong working ties. He’s now a consultant for IFC-World Bank as a specialist in Building Categorization Matrix, Construction Risk Matrix and Associated Inspection Procedures. He now lives in Cochabamba, Bolivia.
SUPPORT TEAM
Rietje Verweij Administration and events
is a nurse and works at “Aan de Pas”, a housing for people with muscle diseases in Bunde the Netherlands. She graduated in Hilversum as a Naturopath specialized in homeopathy.
Alina V. Stiefel Translation – Maintenance Amazon Fund Facebook
She received her education at the National University of Córdoba, where she got her English Teaching and English-Spanish Translation degrees. Currently, she is working as a freelance translator mainly in the areas of the social sciences (gender-related issues, armed conflicts, refugees, informal work, poverty, violence against women, cooperation agreements, etc.). As an English teacher, she has worked for telecommunication companies, universities, secondary schools and private institutions. She enjoys teaching the language through projects related to the environment, ecotourism and solidarity. She has also worked as a Tutor and Virtual Classroom Coordinator for the Instituto Universitario Aeronáutico as well as some private English institutions. She has created and edited several e-learning materials and worked as an Instructional Designer for different e-learning solutions companies.
Cokky Klein Hofmeijer Events
since her childhood surprised bij nature and involved in the environment like that wonder to young and old. Fueled bij the period, that she lived in Zimbabwe since then, she knows even more value to (the) nature and (the) preservation of this and she wants to do. She does nothing more than to involve every one to nature and the natural heart. In (the) small she does this in the guided tours in the Hortus in Amsterdam and as a nature guide school in the region.
After ten years with a lot of passion in the basic education and to have been the NT2 education working , she has joined Amazonfund. She sees that the creation of awareness is a requirement to the Amazon area, one of the few remaining tropical rainforests, and that education, experience and information contribute. In it she sees a role for her in the Netherlands and elsewhere.
Francoise Bourzat Project development
She was born in France and raised with both the farm life and the Parisian culture. Travelled early in South America and Asia. In Paris she studied and became a dancer in 1971. After moving to the U.S. she continued to study several forms of dance and body healing arts and became a body worker. She earned a Masters Degree in Somatic Psychology: unifying touch, movement, expressive arts and mindfulness. (New College of California, 1990), received the Certification as Hakomi Mind/Body Therapist in 1991 by the Hakomi Institute of San Francisco and underwent shamanic explorations from 1987 onward and apprenticed under the masterful guidance of medicine men and women.
Randa Verweij General
Became involved by enthusiasm for this project. She was a nurse in Nepal for 4 years.
Now she works as a community psychiatric nurse with asylum seekers in Emmen, Musselkanaal and Drachten, the Netherlands. My contribution to the Amazon Fund is through my many activities, very briefly, it also has notably increased my knowledge and has increased my respect for those who want to use this. I see the preservation of nature as a human task, in addition to love the other as yourself.
