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We are proud to share that the renowned National Geographic Magazine (NL/BE) has published an article about the BJF and the Araguaia Corridor, written by the dedicated reporter Marieke van der Heijden. The article describes how the BJF has started to plan and help realize one of the largest reforestation projects on earth, after its initiator, Ben Valks, came across the drastically deforested Amazon rainforest and Cerrado savanna along the Araguaia river in central Brazil.

Reporter and photographer Marieke van der Heijden traveled along the Araguaia Corridor zone, in Brazil, for over three weeks and has documented our ambitious mission. She interviewed landowners and partners of the BJF and produced an inspiring collection of photos, reflecting the valuable ecosystems and their alarming deforestation.

The article explains how the BJF, in close partnership with landowners, has started to implement this immense reforestation project. It illustrates the importance of restoration in this area and beyond and how the mindset is positively changing towards the need for forest restoration and ecological farming.

The February edition of National Geographic Magazine with the BJF article is now available in stores in the Netherlands and Belgium.

Click on the video below to explore the dynamics of The First 600 campaign.

The First 600 campaign is formed by the first 600 sponsors who support the BJF in realizing the Araguaia Biodiversity Corridor in Brazil. Focusing on a positive path, we have renamed the Last 600 campaign The First 600, and it is now integrated into the BJF website.

On The First 600 page, you will find a photo wall divided into 600 numbered pixels or windows. Clicking on a gray or deforested window allows you to sponsor that specific window for a period of two years. When your window is sponsored, its color changes from ‘deforested gray’ to ‘jungle green’, bringing us one step closer to realizing the Araguaia Biodiversity Corridor.

Moreover, each ‘green’ window will direct you to a unique profile page of the person or company who sponsored that specific window. The profile pages display the video testimonial and background of each sponsor.

The video testimonials on the profile pages are fun and inspiring to watch and are a great tool to convey your social and environmental commitment to your friends and clients.

Not only will your sponsored window open a site that displays your video statement of positive involvement, you will also receive the official title ‘Supporting Friend’ or ‘Corporate Friend’ of the Black Jaguar Foundation for a period of two years. In addition, you will receive, as a permanent gift for you to keep, one of 600 individually handcrafted black jaguar sculptures. Each sculpture is unique and has been designed by award-winning sculptor Chris Tap.

Chris is one of the many amazing people who stood up for the BJF and donated his time and craftsmanship to produce these astonishing works. You can meet Chris in window number 155 by clicking here.

The Black Jaguar Foundation has launched a brand-new and remodelled website in January of 2018. The new interface is user-friendly and brings together field updates, a new campaign, insight in our Community, updated trailers in ten languages, Q&A’s, partner profiles and much more and can now be viewed all in one place, on any device.

But more than that and thanks to your support, the launch of the new website marks the end of many years of our Preparation phase during which we built cases of first successes on all fronts. Now we can finally enter the Fundraising & Implementation phase!

We have integrated our old campaign (TheLast600) into the new site and renamed it TheFirst600! Taking a more positive path, our new campaign is focused on the first 600 sponsors who are going to help us realize the longest nature corridor on Earth and one of South America’s largest reforestation projects.

On TheFirst600 you will find a photo wall divided into 600 numbered pixels or windows. Clicking on a gray or deforested window allows you to sponsor that specific window for a period of two years. When a window is sponsored, its color will change from ‘deforested gray’ to ‘jungle green’. Moreover, each window will link to the profile page of each sponsor and comes with a unique URL and portrays you or your company: a great tool to convey your social and environmental commitment to your friends and clients.

After months of dedicated craftsmanship, award-winning sculptor Chris Tap did it again! He crafted another sculpture and donated it to the BJF. This third in his family of jaguar heads is life-size and is now part of the benefit package for BJF Diamond Friends. Thank you, Chris, for your incredible support to our foundation!

Actiforce is a family-owned global business that provides exceptionally high-quality height adjustable desk frames for enhanced ergonomics. The company started in Holland, but ambition took them global!

CEO Jason de Weerd: “Aiming simply for more and more revenue. Is that all we’re going to pass on to the next generation? We really wanted to give something meaningful back to the world. That’s why we are proud to be part of the Black Jaguar Foundation.”

Watch the Actiforce video in English

Watch the Actiforce video in Portuguese

Watch the Actiforce video in German

The BJF Team attended the VII SER World Conference 2017, the most important congress on Ecological Restoration, last August in Foz do Iguaçu (Brazil). The event focused on discussing the different methodologies available for forest restoration, among other topics that can help us achieve our goal.

Many “seeds” have been planted for technical cooperations in the Araguaia Biodiversity Corridor. We also started to build on future partnerships with key nature organizations such as Conservation International and the World Resources Institute. We will keep you updated about the developments on these topics!

Guilherme Fleury is a devoted BJF Team member in Brazil. With a rich background as an agronomist, he has lived in many states in Brazil and uses his experience in the field to work with our technical restoration partners. Gui is also a board member of BJF Brazil. Thank you, Guilherme, for your continuous energy and genuine care for nature!

We are excited to inform you that the BJF took part of the VII World Conference on Ecological Restoration, hosted by the Society for Ecological Restoration (SER). This congress was held from August 27th to September 1st in Foz do Iguaçu, Brazil, and received over 1,000 delegates from all over the world to share their projects and experiences on ecological restoration.

BJF’s Team present at the congress was composed of Caspar Burn, Ben Valks, Guilherme Fleury and Ivan Nisida. We are keen to share the results of our participation at the SER 2017 soon enough!

The month of August 2017 brings a landmark for the BJF: we are on the way to materialize the first two nurseries of indigenous trees for the Araguaia Biodiversity Corridor. Along with our technical reforestation partners Bioflora & LERF, we have carried out field visits to Caseara (Tocantins) and Santana do Araguaia (Pará) in order to budget and design these nurseries in close partnership and full support with the landowners.

The areas to construct the nurseries have been identified in Santa Juliana and Santa Fé farms. The start to build a network of seed and seedlings providers in the region has begun! The goal is to enable a forest restoration network by involving local communities. The final budget and planning will be ready by November 2017.