The Forest School is an educational and research facility that specializes in the Atlantic Rainforest biome. Since 2012, it has offered several courses that focus on environmental conservation and forest economics, and it has helped to disseminate the sustainability movement in Southern Bahia. The training is offered free of charge to interested parties. The primary audience is community leaders, researchers, university students, the public elementary school network and residents of the region. Among the courses offered are: Agroecology, Bioconstruction, Sustainable Civil Construction, Ecotourism, Woodworking, Forest rangers and Permaculture.
In order to increase attendance capacity the Forest School has expanded its facilities using bio-construction techniques . The work itself was part of the Low Impact Civil Construction course, which brought together the main construction leaders in Serra Grande, Uruçuca and Itacaré. Participants learned how to collectively build this kind of “green” roofing for one of the classrooms. The auditorium has already been constructed from recycled glass and bamboo.
From 2017 on, through a partnership with Yale University (USA), the Forest School curricula are being reviewed and improved. IFV has also become the Brazilian base of the Yale Environmental Leadership Training Initiative (ELTI), an international reference center for empowering rural leaders to preserve the environment.
