Indoor Soccer Scores Outdoors: The White Lipped Peccary and its Habitats in Pantanal, Brazil
This project's parent organization is Wildlife Conservation Society Brazil & Quinta do Sol
It operates in Brazil
It uses Football (Soccer)
Entered the Sport for the Environment Award
More about Indoor Soccer Scores Outdoors: The White Lipped Peccary and its Habitats in Pantanal, Brazil
WCS uses futsal tournaments as a community platform for education and engagement, and to develop futsal players into passionate advocates for conservation. WCS is working in one of the most biodiverse and endangered biomes in Brazil to preserve charismatic species of the area like jaguars, peccaries and giant river otters that are in serious decline due to conversion of native habitats to crops and pasturelands, and due to conflict with local farmers.
The increasing pressure on natural resources in the Cerrado savanna forest in central-west Brazil, brought on by current agricultural and cattle management practices, has reduced natural resources and iconic wildlife; and these are no longer able to support the livelihoods of the local communities. Futsal matches and two WCS sponsored teams provide opportunity to integrate positive social change into general community practice in a way that has opened other doors for community education opportunities, and conservation advocacy. Our eco-athletes share information with families and friends concerning the importance of biodiversity for rural livelihoods. Together we develop informative brochures that are distributed to their fans during tournaments. Through these contacts we are able to recruit rural community members to participate in our capacity-building courses on sustainable land-use practices.