Grants:Project/Rapid/Jani Pereira/PETAR Expedition
usp.br
After the success of the "Wiki Takes Santana de Parnaíba" the city of Iporanga invited us to register PETAR's natural heritage. The Iporanga Department of Tourism and Environment excitedly showed interest in having us in their home.
Background[edit]
The Atlantic Forest has been reduced to less than 12% of its original extent in Brazil due to political and historical pressures. Despite its importance for the conservation of world biodiversity, only a minimal percentage of its original vegetation area (1%) is protected under some legal form of protection.
This is the case of the Alto Ribeira Tourist State Park (Parque Estadual Turístico do Alto Ribeira - PETAR), managed by the Forest Institute and Secretariat of the Environment. The Conservation Unit with over 35,000 ha is located at the Vale do Ribeira, south of the state of São Paulo, is part of the municipalities of Iporanga and Apiaí. Having four cores: Caboclos, Casa de Pedra, Ouro Grosso and Santana.
PETAR is one of the last preserved Atlantic Forest areas in the country, with over 1200 ha of forest. It has the largest concentration of caves in Brazil, more than 350, some with giant halls, dunes, waterfalls and depths of up to 240 meters deep. The park has the cave with the largest portico in the world, the Casa de Pedra Cave, and also the largest in the state of São Paulo state, the Santana Cave, over 8 km long, with wonderful speleothems. PETAR also has dozens of waterfalls, some over 70 meters high, and underground waterfalls hidden inside the caves.
Even with the drastic reduction in area, the Atlantic Forest is one of the biomes in Brazil with the highest species of fauna and flora, is home to several endemic species. This high biodiversity can be attributed to the existence of a great variety of habitats and microhabitats in this locality, besides the PETAR presents a wide altitudinal gradient (80 - 1,160 m) that confers a great climatic, geological and hydrological heterogeneity to the area.
Along with this environmental diversity there are cultural elements of great interest, such as quilombolas communities in their domain and the city of Iporanga (city of PETAR) full of Brazilian historical heritage Iporanga.
Unfortunately, Brazil has a history of deforestation and burning of natural and historical heritage. Therefore, the photographic record is a way to maintain and disseminate these heritage to the world. This is why the PETAR expedition is so important. Also, PETAR is one of the oldest and most important parks of the São Paulo state.
Even with all this importance, PETAR have little record on Wikimedia Movement, the Wikipedia articles are uninformative, Wikidata lacks the record of all important caves, waterfalls, quilombos, and the existent entries about the cultural heritage, have little data, and no photos at all. Commons Category do not achieve the 1/10 of potential of the photographic of the park.
Mostly because of the lack of information on how to contribute with us, and the difficult access to the park, not being a high accessible park.
Project Goal[edit]
Choose one or more of the following goals. You can add or delete goals as needed. You can add details to each goal.
- Add or improve content of Wikimedia Commons, Wikidata, Wikipedia and Wikivoyage around fauna and flora, geological formations, waterfalls, and the structure available of PETAR.
- Recruit new photographers and journalists;
- Engage the local community.
Project Plan[edit]
Activities[edit]
Tell us how you'll carry out your project. Be sure to answer the following questions:
1. How many walks/tours will you organize and how many people on each walk?
- Photowalk - 2 days
- Participants: around 10
- Edit-a-thon with the local community (Iporanga, São Paulo, Brazil)
- Participants: around 10
- Edit-a-thon among the participants of the photowalk
- Participants: around 10
- As we will have 2 days of expedition, we will only have two main walks, 16 hours in total, 8 hours for each day.
- The park demand a local guide, who is a resident of the region, to accompany external visitors.
- We will have me as a Biologist, 4 photographer (one of them also a Biologist, and one is an old time contributor to Wikimedia Movement), and a Journalist specialized in writing about expeditions.
- We will be divided into two main groups to cover the largest area of the park possible, both focusing on recording the fauna, flora, geological formations, waterfalls, and the structure of the Park. Some areas have a controlled entrance, due to conservation and preservation, for that so, a big group could not access some parts of the park. Having these groups we can cover all the educational values available to the Wikimedia Movement.
We have the intention to promote one edit-a-thon with up to 10 locals during our stay in the city and one more edit-a-thon with the participants of the photowalk after the expediction.
2. What kind of content will the walks focus on? Why is this topic a priority?
- We will register the local fauna and flora, caves, waterfalls, the structure of the park, and the equipment available to the community.
3. What is the plan to ensure images will be used on Wikimedia projects?
- Edit-a-thon among the participants of the photowalk after the Expedition
- One edit-a-thon is scheduled after photowalk to ensure participants will share photos as best they can and increase their use in WP and WY articles, as well as Wikidata. This edit-a-thon is also important for the formation of the participants, because even though half of the participants had already contributed to Wiki sites, some have never edited articles before.
- We hope that the Wiki community will make use of the photographs and disseminate them due to their presence in the articles and after they receive nominations from Quality Image and Valued Image. And, although we have biologists among the participants, the process of identifying animal and plant species from Atlantic Forest correctly can be a lengthy process that will pull together participants and wiki community.
4. Do participants have the equipment or skills needed to participate and contribute high quality content? If not, how will you support them?
- The biologists are researchers:
- I'm a biologist, and have master and doing my PhD at USP (University of São Paulo) focus in animal behaviour. I travel around Brazil knowing its biomes, communities, and helping to spread Science through my work.
- Tony is a biologist specialized in herpetology (amphibians and reptiles), having a master's degree in anatomy of wild and domestic animals, and also a nature photographer (@TonyBordignon).
- All photographers are great experience in register nature, all of the then already had visit the Park before.
- Luan is a nature photographer and has registered several parks in Brazil, (@luan_alveschaves).
- Leo has been travelling around Brazil and recording his motor adventure (@lpgentile).
- Rodrigo is a photographer and active member of the Wiki community, has experience with urban and natural heritage registration (@rtargenton).
- Paty is a Journalist that is being writing about trips and expeditions in a specialized website. She has been travelling around Brazil and have a great knowledge about parks and natural reserves (@patricialaraia).
- Sturm is an administrator on Wikipedia and has experience organizing, running, and participating in edit-a-thons (User:Sturm).
All of us have DSLR to register the park.
5. Is there anything else you want to tell us about this project?
- The main objective photowalks is to register the ‘‘natural’’ heritage of PETAR, however we are aware that the activity may change according to weather conditions. If for reasons of majeure force the access to the park is impeded, we propose to change the days o register the historical heritage of the city Iporanga.
- Also, this is for us a first step to better illustrate the Vale do Ribeira, as we have the intention to register the local cultural heritage and intangible cultural heritage, being already in touch with the quilombola leaderships that leave at the Vale do Ribeira, creating a path to more bold and continuous work with the local community, allowing they to have a constant contribution with the Wikimedia Movement.
Impact[edit]
How will you know if the project is successful and you've met your goals? Please include the following targets and feel free to add more:
- 500 photos uploaded to Wikimedia Commons;
- At least 100 photos in use;
- At least 5 drone photos of each place visited and 1 video compiling the registers of these tourist attractions.
- Create or improve at least 50 Wikidata entries at Wikidata around fauna, flora, caves, waterfalls, the structure of the park existent at PETAR;
- Improve,update and translate (english and portuguese) 10~ Wikivoyage and 10~ Wikipedia articles in each edit-a-thon about PETAR, Iporanga and the region to which they belong (Vale do Ribeira).
- Number of participants: 10~ participants in each edit-a-thon and photowalk.
Resources[edit]
What resources do you have? Include information on who is organizing the project, what they will do, and if you will receive support from anywhere else (in-kind donations or additional funding).
- Equipment: 7 DLSR, 2 action cameras, 5 tripods.
- The city will provide the place for edit-a-thon, accommodation for participants and tour guides..
What resources do you need? For your funding request, list bullet points for each expense and include a total amount.
Resources Value (USD) Organization of the event São Paulo - PETAR/Iporanga (transportation, food and drinks for meeting) 122,00 Expenses São Paulo to Iporanga/PETAR 170,00 Expenses inside Iporanga/PETAR 24,00 2 days photowalk (Food and drinks) 100,00 Photographic accessories: Rent a drone for aerial images 240,00 2x edit-a-thons (Food and drinks) 146 Total 832
Endorsements[edit]
Community members are encouraged to endorse your project request here!