We are very excited to announce that the leveling of the land for our newest and largest nursery has begun!
Before starting the building of the infrastructure, we are currently in the process of clearing and levelling the land. This has to be done very carefully to ensure that there will be no water damage done to the nursery once it is up and running. Stay tuned for more updates on how the nursery construction progresses!
It’s maintenance time! This very important phase of the Restoration Cycle takes place throughout the year, regardless of the season. Our teams in the field then dedicate themselves to taking care of the seedlings and seeds planted in the last rainy seasons.
The maintenance process consists of removing invasive plants that eventually compete with the planted trees, complementing fertilization and taking care of fences and firebreaks around the projects. These activities are carried out every four months, for three years, or until the complete closure of the forest canopy. Without these actions, new trees won’t develop properly.
In the past months of May and June, our teams went through all areas in the process of restoration to complete this work, which only increases every year! This is how we ensure that our trees will generate healthy and functional ecosystems.
In cooperation with Sam’s Tulips, based in The Netherlands, we were able to surprise some of our valued partners and sponsors just in time for the Easter Holiday! We partnered with Sam’s Tulips in this endeavor, as he aims to produce tulips with the smallest carbon footprint possible.
We spent all day on the Wednesday leading up to Easter Weekend, some of us in a car and others on a bike, traveling around the Netherlands and into Belgium to visit our partners and sponsors.
With each visit we personally delivered beautiful bouquets of tulips and an Easter card. We loved seeing the surprised faces of our unsuspecting friends, and might try and turn this idea into a long-lasting tradition!
In March, we embarked on a partnership with the Municipality and the Secretary of Environment (SEMA) of Santana do Araguaia, our focus area of restoration in the Araguaia Biodiversity Corridor in the coming years.
This important partnership will allow BJF to use all the terrain needed of our brand new nursery in Santana do Araguaia. The 3,6 ha terrain dedicated to us by the Municipality is within the city centre limits and just next to their future environmental park. The park will include a number of public facilities that are focused on the usage of natural resources, and meant to connect the Brazilian citizen to nature, such as a hiking trail and playground area.
This is the Black Jaguar Foundation’s third and largest nursery so far! This nursery will be able to produce 500,000 seedlings a year, which will help restore the degraded areas around the Araguaia River and, most importantly, will become a hub of ecological restoration in the region, providing much needed jobs for the local community, a sustainable approach for the agricultural industry and environmental education for generations to come.
This nursery will become a unique hub, where the agro-industry will take on the role as a carer of nature and biodiversity. At the nursery, the Agro-sector and Environmental movement will become one, demonstrating to both Brazil and the world that these sectors can indeed work together. In partnership with the Black Jaguar Foundation, the farmers will be able to show their care for the environment, and want to work within the Brazilian environmental regulations, by restoring their APPs to the natural habitat of the Cerrado and Amazon. This in turn will create a win-win-win partnership, and will show that farmers and nature can and will go hand-in-hand. We are very excited to work together with the Municipality and the Secretary of the Environment of Santana do Araguaia!
A look at the making of the partnership between BJF and Municipality of Santana do Araguaia:
The more we restore, the more we learn about the species we use in our projects. In both of the biomes we work in (Amazon and Cerrado), tree biodiversity has one of the highest rates in the world. So, it is in our project’s best interest that we try to conserve as many species as possible. The process of adding a new species into our portfolio begins with a careful observation of the tree in its natural habitat. Following these observations and based on their results, we collect the corresponding seeds and set up a nursery trial with them. These tests will make it possible to determine germination rates and initial growth of the seedlings.
A further trial is then carried out in the field to determine if the species is more useful for rebuilding the forest structure or if it will compose the biodiversity later. Experimentation will also tell us if this species can be used in other techniques, such as direct seeding.
Since 2018, our main portfolio has consisted of 42 different tree species. In the last rainy season, however, we managed to add 11 new species to this portfolio. A very good example is the pequi tree (Caryocar brasiliense), a very important species native to the Cerrado and the fringes of the Amazon.
In the past, difficulties in cultivation has stopped us from using it in our projects. Now, however, we have come up with strategies to overcome the challenges and bring it to more and more restoration sites. This increase in species will help increase the success and quality of our restoration projects, and will allow for even more species to be restored in the Amazon and Cerrado biomes!
– Written by our Project Coordinator Dimitrio Schievenin
As more people are learning about the Black Jaguar Foundation’s mission, it is also catching the interest of numerous news outlets. Over the past few months, we have had our story shared on multiple global news platforms, including Mongabay, the World Economic Forum, Waste-Ed, and The Financial Times. Many of these platforms have shared or highlighted the work that Black Jaguar Foundation is doing in Brazil, and have received positive responses from their respective audiences. This reassures us that we can count on public support, and hopefully continue to increase this support in the coming time.
We are very proud to have the story and mission of Black Jaguar Foundation broadcasted to such large audiences. Journalism has the power to spread the message of hope that we have the power to change the future of this planet, and improve the lives of future generations. We’d like to extend a thank you to the authors of these articles, as they have managed to portray our work in such a beautiful light. As we are now planting our first million trees, we believe it is more important than ever to share the story of the Araguaia Biodiversity Corridor!
Many thanks to Jenny Gonzales from Mongabay for writing so beautifully about our mission!
Have a look through the news platforms below, and press the images to get to the full article if you’re interested!
We are proud to announce we have contracted Baker Tilly, one of the top 10 global accounting & auditing firms. To have our financial processes and accounts in the Brazil and the Netherlands being consolidated and audited by a global well respected auditing firm, has been on our wish-list for many years. Now, starting from Annual Report 2020 onwards, it is a fact.
We believe this collaboration to be a great fit, as Baker-Tilly holds industry specialization in the not-for-profit sector, and has good local representation in our countries of operation, with 13 offices in The Netherlands and 8 offices in Brazil. As we have a Brazilian and Dutch office, we work with both Baker Tilly Brazil, and Baker Tilly Netherlands. The company will help Black Jaguar Foundation increase its transparency, as it is leading our auditing process from beginning to end.
This is the first time Baker-Tilly is engaging in auditing, with the project led by Renato Ruiz, the director of the firm. Baker-Tilly did a thorough job, asking for a lot of information and posed critical questions, but the mood between the Black Jaguar Foundation and the Baker-Tilly teams was synergetic and good-spirited. We spent three months auditing our books in Brazil, and 2 months in Holland. We have engaged in this collaboration, and this intensive work, in order to ensure that each Euro, or Real, given to us will be spent correctly and transparently.
This independent audit, will help Black Jaguar Foundation to further increase its transparency towards you: Our vital sponsors and donors from all over the world.
2W energy is a leading renewable energy company in Brazil, and this year they committed to supporting the Black Jaguar Foundation by planting native trees on behalf of their clients.
Focused on bringing affordable, sustainable energy to every state in Brazil, 2W Energia is looking to make an impact for the future of Brazil. Now, with this partnership, 2W Energia has expanded this commitment to the restoration of Brazil’s biodiversity.
Each month, client’s of 2W Energia’s will receive a personalised tree planting certificate, letting them know exactly where their tree will be planted. They can find out about the farmer who will be planting their trees and our tree planting commitment for the farm.
With our new donate a tree page, any company can now give any number of trees to their clients, partners or team, and in doing so contribute to the preservation of two of our most vital ecosystems. We want to say a huge thank you to 2W Energia for joining us and we look forward to what’s to come!
To learn more about the partnership between BJF and 2W Energia, check out this post on their Instagram!
That’s a wrap! Another planting season is complete, which means another 80,000 trees planted by our team along the Araguaia River. This was a special planting season for us, and for all of you who have been supporting us, because it marked the start of our first million trees!
This season our team grew to 36 local tree planters, next season 300 local planters will join us from November 2021 to March 2022, to complete the planting of our first million trees. But it doesn’t stop there, by 2025 we’ll be planting 10 million trees which means we’ll be straight onto the next million trees! This 10 million trees will bring the restoration of the degraded land in the Santana do Araguaia region to completion.
In case you missed it, see the planting in action here…
Share the beautiful tree planting progress on Linkedin and Facebook.
In March, we signed a partnership with the Municipality of Santana do Araguaia to build our third, state-of-the-art nursery. We’ll be building this nursery in the city’s nature park, and the work has already begun! This week we’ve been clearing the land, next is the construction of a bridge over the nearby river, and soon after the construction of the nursery itself. Ready to grow seedlings for the coming planting season in November!
When we met with Santana do Araguaia’s environmental secretary and his team last month, we were met with an extremely warm reception. The Agribusiness sector is one of the leading employers in the region. This project and this nursery will not only benefit our environment and provide local job opportunities, but it will contribute to the sustainable development of the agribusiness sector in Brazil and Santana do Araguaia will be at the forefront of this.
This is a huge milestone that has only been possible with your support! This nursery will house 500,000 seedlings and with space for workshops and environmental education, it will become a hub for the restoration of nature along the Araguaia biodiversity corridor and a center for the development of sustainable agriculture in the region. Let’s plant more trees together!
