by Paula Alvarado, Buenos Aires on 05.29.07

(Picture by El Pais newspaper) During their recent tour in Latin America, musicians from the Mexican group Maná -one of the most popular bands in Latin America, which also filled the Madison Square Garden Stadium two nights in a row last March- used every chance they had in front of the press to bring up themes related to ecology and Global Warming. PR strategy? Not so much. That's actually how we found out about Selva Negra, an organization this group brought together over 12 years ago, in 1995, to canalize their environmental preoccupations and put their fame to use for relevant causes. The organization's main projects include initiatives to incentive environmental education (which is not provided to Mexican kids in school), actions to preserve turtles in camps in Nayarit and Jalisco (Mexico), economical support to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) to carry on the project called The Growing Connection (aimed to the sustainable production of vegetables in areas like Ghana, Africa and Mexico), and several independent projects such as the re-construction of houses devastated by hurricanes in Chiapas, Mexico. All these might be the reasons Maná was called by former US vice president Al Gore to perform in the Live Earth concerts that will be held next July 7th: they will be the only Latins in the Germany edition of the event, which will be held in Hamburg. To find out more, visit Selva Negra's website (only in Spanish) or the band's (both English and Spanish). ::Selva Negra ::Maná official websit

Labels: Live Earth, Mana