The Black Jaguar Foundation
Reforestation project works to recover the world's largest biodiversity corridor
Deforestation in the Amazon Rainforest is a tragedy that has been unfolding for decades. However, fortunately, there are organized efforts around the world focusing on improving this scenario. This is the case of the Black Jaguar Foundation, which maintains an ambitious project for environmental recovery in the Brazilian Amazon and the Cerrado regions.
History
Most people at some point are confronted with the fact that natural resources are finite and that this is the only planet we can inhabit. For Ben Valks, the founder of BJF, such a moment of clarity came when he lived in the Amazon Rainforest for six months in 2009 during his quest to document the Black Jaguar in the wild. The drastic deforestation he witnessed in one of his expeditions led him to the conclusion that something had to be done to change this reality.
Valks is a businessman who, at the age of 34, decided to put his work on hold to follow his personal dreams. His story begins in Alaska, where he is the first Dutchman to participate in the 1100-mile Iditarod dog sled race: Sixteen dogs, one sled, and one man struggling with nature and himself. He then rides a motorcycle from Alaska to Argentina on “Death Road”. Finally, in Brazil, he goes on a nerve-racking search for the black jaguar – the most elusive feline on earth – but he is unsuccessful in finding the animal.
Back home after his adventures, Valks was inspired by the powerful documentary ‘HOME’ by Yann Arthus-Bertrand and its message that ‘we all have the power to change.’ Ben then decided to expand the scope of his foundation, and instead of being the focus of the BJF, the black jaguar became its icon. It symbolizes the precarious future of the entire Amazon and Cerrado as well as the endangerment of our own species. Now, the foundation’s sole focus is tree planting and the restoration of biodiversity.
Deforestation in the Amazon and Cerrado regions
Despite being widely known worldwide, the deforestation of the Brazilian Amazon is relatively recent. Until the 1970s, the Amazon was a practically preserved biome. Based on the policies of the authoritarian regime of the time, a project to expand roads to the region and population occupation took place. Before, the Amazon was more inhabited around the rivers and closer to the coast. Since then, the forest started to be cut down along the extensive Transamazônica Highway to make room for livestock, agriculture and new settlements. The roads also enabled illegal timber and mineral resources to be trafficked abroad, as well as illegal land grabbing and gold-digging. From the 1970s until 1988, deforestation remained accelerated, but the economic recession slowed the trend. After a following increase in the 1990s, the government has since continued efforts to reduce the advance of deforestation, which indeed led to a significant decline. Unfortunately, in recent years deforestation has been rising again, and now it is almost back to 2007-2008 levels.
While national and international eyes are focused on the Amazon Forest, the diverse vegetation of the Cerrado – ranging from savannas and natural fields to forest formations – has been almost wiped off the map. The movement of deforestation began in the 1970s, stimulated by government projects that favored the occupation of the region. Flat and easy to irrigate, the area was ideal for the expansion of agriculture. At the present, the Cerrado savanna is the Brazilian biome that concentrates the largest cattle herd – about 36% of all cattle – and where most soy is produced – more than 63% of all Brazilian grain. Within 50 years, almost 50% of the native vegetation has disappeared and 30% of the area became pasture.
Both biomes are extremely important for the climate and depend on each other to exist. The waters of many Amazonian rivers come from immense underground water reserves in the Cerrado. With the devastation of the latter, rainwater has been failing to penetrate the deforested soil. This might compromise the underground water reserves in the future, causing numerous environmental problems that could affect the whole earth.
The project: The Araguaia Biodiversity Corridor
The Araguaia River is one of the largest Brazilian rivers – with 2,115km in length – connecting two vital ecosystems: The Amazon Rainforest and the Cerrado savanna. It springs in the highlands that divide the states of Goiás and Mato Grosso do Sul, and flows north into Pará state, where it reaches the Tocantins River.
Biodiversity corridors, or nature corridors, consist of strips of (reforested) land that connect isolated ‘islands’ of pristine and intact nature. The BJF’s project is to make the Araguaia Biodiversity Corridor in Central Brazil, that will become the longest of all nature corridors on earth and one of South America’s largest reforestation projects.
The Corridor connects the remaining 30% of ‘natural habitat pockets’ with each other. It will save thousands of species and bring forth a massive reforestation project, converting agricultural land back to the original state of the Amazon rainforest and Cerrado savanna. Hundreds of millions of indigenous trees will be planted and go on to have a positive and permanent effect on each of us and all future generations.
The project consists in replacing the native vegetation alongside 40 kilometers covering both Araguaia river banks, with 20 kilometers on each side. This resonates with the 2012 Brazilian Forestry Code, that requires a percentage of legal ecological reserve depending on the ecological characteristics of the rural property, as well as permanent environmental reserve regions. One of the most impacted areas will be the riverbanks, which must be recovered to prevent degradation of the surrounding ecosystem.
The massive task of restoring the Araguaia Corridor is a project that can only be realized through a step-by-step approach, detailed planning and close partnerships. The first stage was completed in 2018 and consisted in mapping the Corridor’s entire 10.4 million hectares (more than 25 million acres), to identify its landowners and determine their land use. The partnership with the World Resources Institute (Brazil) played a crucial role in creating an online mapping platform for the entire Araguaia river region.
The second phase of the project is currently happening and has to do with the planning of Biodiversity. Each part within the ecosystems of the Corridor has its own unique mix of native trees that is essential to restoring the natural balance. This second task therefore consists of in-depth studies to determine the right combination of indigenous trees to be replanted and meticulous plans for the reforestation itself. The BJF will also set up an Ecological Agriculture Knowledge Center to help with the landowners’ transition into sustainable ecological farming while increasing their productivity.
The third and final task is the reforestation itself. All the information gathered will be turned into restoration models, designed and offered to local landowners. In partnership with them, the Black Jaguar Foundation will finance and carry out the reforestation plans, often with the landowners assisting with some of the provision of resources and/or labour. 80,000 native trees were restored in 2019 through 2020! And over 1 million native trees are to be planted by the end of 2021! Their plots of land will serve as positive examples to other landowners who are considering creating private protected nature reserves, in line with the environmental laws of Brazil. The BJF will carry out all these complex tasks in close partnership with world renowned scientific institutions and their partners.
When you support us, you are also contributing to the realisation of this huge reforestation mission!
We are happy to announce Mind-Up’s partnership with the Black Jaguar Foundation! When you buy our products, we donate a percentage of the profits to the BJF, to help the efforts to protect the biodiversity of the Brazilian Amazon and the Cerrado savanna!
If you would like to know more about the project and donate, please visit their website here.
Our main product, the Baru nuts, come from a native tree from Cerrado, the Baruzeiro tree. You can find more information about the health benefits of Baru nuts here!