As we are finalising our 2021/2022 planting season, our field team has started carrying out maintenance activities for our planted seedlings!

Our technical team has diligently been going through all areas currently undergoing ecological restoration and monitoring their progress. This allows us to identify any future steps that are still needed for maintenance and contributes to planning for the next rainy season.

This involves evaluating the last planting season, the irrigation of areas where we planted trees during the last rainy season, and removing invasive grasses, among other activities.  

The 21/22 planting season brought with it many valuable learning moments for our technical team: we improved our direct seeding techniques, joined forces with Ciclus – a company that specialises in planning, implementing, and monitoring ecological restoration, and strengthened our relationship with rural landowners in the region.

Implementing these measures allowed us to successfully carry out ecological restoration in the following six partner farms: Fazenda Santa Fé, Fazenda Serra Morena, Fazenda Santa Izabel, Fazenda Bela Vista, Fazenda Cantão, and Fazenda Anajá. The first three are located in Santana do Araguaia (PA), while the other three farms are in the municipalities of Caseara and Marianópolis do Tocantins (TO).

The progress made during this season was made possible by the continuous support and trust that we receive from our amazing supporters and landowner partners.

While our field team is conducting maintenance activities, they are also planning for the next planting season, which will start somewhere between September and October 2022!

Environmental restoration is a long and complicated process which requires a series of steps. First, we need to map all the ecological restoration sites for the planting season. Following this, the planting techniques to be used per hectare of land are defined in all of the rural properties that the Black Jaguar Foundation has agreements with. Simultaneously, our field team makes sure that we have enough seedlings for the planting season.

Our planting season can only begin after all these steps have been completed!

In the next rainy season, our objective is to complete our first million native trees! To accomplish this, we have built one of the biggest nurseries in Santana do Araguaia, which will have the capacity to produce 500 thousand seedlings per year.

Our new nursery, located in Santana do Araguaia, will have the capacity to produce half a million seedlings every year and will become the central provider of seedlings for the Araguaia Biodiversity Corridor. To help manage it, we are welcoming new additions to the BJF team!

From the vast pool of applicants provided by our Human Resources team, five were selected to join our existing nursery team, currently led by our Seed Production Analyst, Norivânia Diniz.

Training sessions for the newest members of our nursery team were organised from the 9^th to the 13^th of March.

On the first day, our Field Coordinator, Carlos Eduardo, orchestrated introductory sessions, where he presented the Black Jaguar Foundation’s mission and work, explaining future steps that need to be taken to realize the Araguaia Biodiversity Corridor. At the same time, Norivânia Diniz emphasised the importance of teamwork and collaboration in ensuring that healthy seedlings are able to grow in the nursery.

The rest of the week’s training sessions were held by Guilherme Faganello,  an expert in seedling production who directs projects for Embira Consultoria Ambiental.

Our new nursery is already producing seedlings! Norivânia and her team are currently producing seedlings in small tubes, and making our nursery a little bit greener every day.

The Black Jaguar Foundation and Santana do Araguaia’s community of rural producers and municipality organized a fire prevention and control course for the second year in a row!

The course, taught by Anderson de Freitas and his team, consisted of five days of both theoretical and practical lessons focused on combating fires in farms and urban areas.

Participants included  members of our field team, fire brigades operating in Santana do Araguaia, farmers who have to deal with fires on a regular basis, members of Santana do Araguaia’s Secretary of Environment (SEMMA), voluntary fire fighters from Caseara (TO),  and many other interested individuals.

Fire prevention is a crucial part of contributing to increasingly healthy forests. This is especially true during the dry season, where the environment is at an increased risk of catching fire.

Our Community Outreach Coordinator, Joel Boele, was selected to participate in the 12th edition of the The Nudge Global Impact Challenge!

The Nudge Global Impact Challenge is a six-month personal development program focused on leadership, sustainability, and creating an impact. Together with a group of 70 inspiring young professionals from all over the world, Joel worked to ‘Rebalance our Planet’!

Throughout the Nudge Challenge, Joel advocated for the BJF’s mission,  emphasizing the importance restoring the environmentally degraded areas connecting in the Brazilian Amazon and Cerrado Savanna to bring back biodiversity in the Brazilian Amazon and Cerrado Savanna. We are incredibly proud of Joel for making it to the final stage of the Nudge Challenge!

Finally, we would like to congratulate this year’s winners! In first place was Timothy Wabukoti, who created a large-scale irrigation plan for Africa, working towards realizing the “Zero Hunger” sustainable development goal. Coming in second, Anna Spinelli received her award for creating a manual to fight waste, that is currently being used by the CEO Of Gruppo Mondadori. Third place was shared by Sanne Kruid, Peter Akkerman and Sofia Kavlin, for launching an app to help with water management.

Scelta Mushrooms has renewed their partnership with us for a seventh year in a row!

For almost 30 years, Scelta’s CEO Jan Klerken has been inspired by the power of mushrooms in contributing to a healthier and more sustainable world.

Scelta Mushrooms has been a loyal partner to the Black Jaguar Foundation from the start. Jan Klerken, Scelta’s CEO, planted one of our first trees and introduced us to many other partners!

Scelta Mushrooms is globally known for their mushroom products and vegetable appetisers. Since 2002, the company’s strategy has focussed on taste and health, making sure sustainability is at the core of everything. Whether it’s forging mutually beneficial partnerships or stimulating change with community partners. ‘Winnovation’ is part of Scelta’s DNA.

Scelta has also been developing a comprehensive line of innovative mushroom solutions! Some of these include: their MycoFeed, which contain supplements that boost the immune systems of people and livestock, natural alternatives to artificially produced taste accelerators, and substances rich in vitamin D!

Find out more about the power of mushrooms on Scelta’s website!