Ana Carolina

Black Jaguar Foundation founder Ben Valks joined the episode “The Severed Lifeline: Rebuilding a Fragmented Amazon” on the Rewildology podcast, an international platform focused on stories, research, and initiatives related to conservation and ecological restoration around the world. 

In the episode, journalist Brooke Mitchell explores how Amazon fragmentation is affecting biodiversity, local communities, and the future of the forest. Throughout the conversation, experts and local leaders share perspectives on conservation, ecological connectivity, and large-scale restoration. 

Alongside Ben Valks, the episode also features Juliana Martins, road ecologist and PhD candidate at Imperial College London, and Bruno Paladines, coordinator of the Amazon Platform at Nature and Culture International. 

Representing the Black Jaguar Foundation, Ben shares the vision behind the Araguaia Biodiversity Corridor — one of the world’s largest ecological restoration initiatives — which aims to reconnect the Amazon and Cerrado across 2,600 km. 

The conversation highlights how large-scale restoration goes far beyond planting trees. It involves restoring soils and water systems, strengthening biodiversity, and building long-term collaboration with farmers, local communities, and technical teams working to regenerate the landscape. 

The episode also reinforces the essential role of Indigenous Peoples and local communities in protecting forests, showing how lasting solutions depend on collective action, territorial knowledge, science, and long-term commitment. 

The impacts of this restoration are already becoming visible in areas where native species — including giant anteaters, tapirs, and jaguars — are beginning to return. 

🎧 Listen to the episode on Rewildology 

▶️ Watch on YouTube 

Rio Web Summit 2026 will bring together thousands of participants, startups, investors, companies, and global leaders to discuss the future of technology, innovation, sustainability, and climate action. This year, biodiversity and ecological restoration will also play a central role in these conversations — and the Black Jaguar Foundation will be part of that dialogue. 

On June 11, BJF will participate in two panels exploring the connections between nature, climate, and the economy, reinforcing the role of ecological restoration as a key solution for a more resilient future. 

Save the date! At 2:40 PM, Sonia Guajajara, Prof. Carlos Nobre (BJF ambassador) and representatives from The Earthshot Prize will discuss how the biodiversity crisis is directly impacting economies and businesses worldwide. The session “The biodiversity crisis is a business crisis” will bring together experts, leaders, and international representatives to discuss how biodiversity loss is affecting supply chains, businesses, economies, and quality of life around the world.

Later, at 3:25 PM, during the session “Restoring the planet’s longest biodiversity corridor”, Prof. Carlos Nobre and Ben Valks will present the vision behind the Araguaia Biodiversity Corridor — a 2,600-km initiative reconnecting the Amazon and Cerrado through large-scale restoration. 

Black Jaguar Foundation’s participation at Rio Web Summit reflects how ecological restoration is increasingly becoming part of global conversations around innovation, climate, development, and the future of our planet. 

Would you like to follow the event? Learn more on the official Rio Web Summit website 

Only 3 days to go… The amazing Hike4Nature campaign is about to officially begin! Humberto Tan, TV personality and BJF Ambassador, will give the official start signal.

On 1 June, Rituals, the global wellbeing and cosmetics brand, will support Hike4Nature by having employees around the world walk a combined 2,600 kilometers during their Global Impact Day – the exact distance of the Black Jaguar Foundation’s Biodiversity Corridor.

This symbolic distance reflects the full length of the Black Jaguar Foundation’s Biodiversity Corridor – a mission to reconnect nature at scale in Brazil.

2,600 kilometers is also the distance the Hike4Nature team will cover during their extraordinary walk from Amsterdam to Lisbon. As they take their first steps, they will be symbolically joined by Rituals employees around the world.

One day. One distance. One shared purpose.

Now, let’s make this movement even bigger.

“As a global HR community at Rituals, we have the power to connect and create impact. With Hike4Nature, we walk together for 2,600 km, the same distance as Esther’s journey and the lifeline where the Black Jaguar Foundation restores nature. Every step counts. Join us, activate your network, and let’s make a real difference together.”

Anne Jaakke, CHRO at Rituals

This partnership highlights the power of collective action, showing how individuals and organizations can come together
to support nature restoration and create meaningful impact. 

We invite your company to take part in Hike4Nature by getting your teams moving and contributing to this collective journey to help make the world’s largest biodiversity corridor a reality. 

Step by step. Team by team. 

Interested? Simply send an email to info@hike4nature.nl 

The Black Jaguar Foundation welcomed a delegation of four consultants from GOPA AFT, a German consulting firm involved in the project “Innovation in Agricultural Production Chains for Forest Conservation in the Amazon (Sustainable Supply Chains)”.  

Supported by the German development bank KFW and executed by the Inter-American Institute for Cooperation on Agriculture (IICA) in partnership with Brazil’s Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock, and food supply (MAPA) the initiative aims to support rural landowners across the Legal Amazon in developing more sustainable soy, cattle, and timber supply chains.  

During the visit to Santana do Araguaia, Tomas Inhetvin, Fábio Rodrigo da Silveira, Mariana Barbosa Vilar, and Michel Gondim Oliveira explored active restoration areas within the Araguaia Biodiversity Corridor, visited BJF’s large-scale seedling nursery, and met with seed collectors from the Araguaia Seed Network (Ressemear), the seed network mobilized by the Black Jaguar Foundation in the region. The delegation also joined field monitoring activities in restored areas, where camera traps were installed and signs of wildlife presence offered firsthand evidence of how restored areas are coming back to life.  

Beyond the exchange with BJF’s technical teams, the visit also included a meeting with one of BJF’s partner farmers and a conversation with the Mayor of Santana do Araguaia, demonstrating how large-scale ecological restoration becomes possible when rural landowners, local government, and local organisations work together.  

The visit strengthen connections between initiatives working toward shared goals: supporting rural landowners in the environmental regularization of their properties to scale up ecological restoration across the Amazon biome.  

As the Araguaia Biodiversity Corridor continues to grow, the Black Jaguar Foundation has taken the first concrete steps toward developing our ‘2nd Hub of Restoration’  in the Araguaia region. Expanding our long-term restoration presence across the landscape.

Earlier this year, we signed an institutional partnership with the Municipal Secretariat of Environment and Water (SEMMA) of Lagoa da Confusão, in the state of Tocantins (Brazil). The agreement represents an important milestone in strengthening long-term collaboration around ecological restoration and scaling restoration efforts across the region.

The partnerships create the foundation for expanding BJF’s operational presence in Lagoa da Confusão, including plans to establish a new large-scale forest nursery and the infrastructure needed to support restoration activities throughout the surrounding landscape.

This future hub is expected to play an important role in increasing native seedling production capacity, supporting field operations, strengthening local restoration initiatives, and enabling the geographic expansion of restoration efforts within the Araguaia Biodiversity Corridor.

Beyond infrastructure, the partnership also reinforces the importance of collaboration between local governments, technical teams, rural landowners, and restoration initiatives working toward shared environmental goals in the Amazon-Cerrado transition region.

As restoration efforts continue to expand, partnerships like this are essential for creating the long-term structure and local support needed to restore ecosystems at scale.