We are happy to welcome three new members to our Core Team!

Planting one million trees requires the support of many motivated professionals. To help manage the new additions to the team, we have recruited the amazing Rafael Pedro Cassio Marques.

Have you read out latest newsletter? We are happy to share with you that it is the first to be completely produced internally! If you did not receive it, feel free to subscribe to next month’s newsletter via the following link.

This was made possible by our latest additions to the communications team: Ana Paula Mendes and Julia Silveira. Ana Paula will be joining our team in Brazil, while Julia will be supporting our Amsterdam office.

Click through the descriptions of some of our newest team members to get to know them better!

The Black Jaguar Foundation was Featured in Estadão, one of the most read and relevant newspapers in Brazil.

We are incredibly grateful to Eduardo Geraque for taking an interest in our mission and giving the world a closer look at how we are ecologically restoring the Araguaia Biodiversity Corridor.

The Estadão piece begins by highlighting our project’s goal:

“If all Legal Reserves and Permanent Preservation Areas in Brazil complied with Brazilian Law, the forest’s ecosystem services, which include the preservation of biodiversity and natural water resources, would be working at full speed”.

At the Black Jaguar Foundation, we aim to restore Private Protected Areas and Legal Reserves together with landowners along the Araguaia Biodiversity Corridor.

Nevertheless, as Geraque points out:

“The environmental deficit in the 2.6 thousand kilometers along the Araguaia river is of one million hectares”.

The scope of our project is big, and this is part of what makes it so challenging. Still, we believe that, together with our loyal sponsors and partner farmers, we can realize the Araguaia Biodiversity Corridor.

Let’s make this happen together! Join our mission by donating a tree or reaching out to us at partners@black-jaguar.org

Read the piece here to find out more about how the Black Jaguar Foundation is restoring the Araguaia Biodiversity Corridor.

Carlos Felix and his wife Regina are the owners of the Belavista farm, in the heart of the Araguaia Biodiversity Corridor.

We are extremely excited to have them join our journey to realize the Araguaia Biodiversity Corridor. At the Black Jaguar Foundation, we believe that connecting with where our food comes from is the first step in transforming food systems.

It motivates us to see that farmers in the region acknowledge the importance of ensuring our ecosystem’s health and are passionate about creating a better world for our future generations.

As Carlos Felix puts it in the following video:

“Our biggest wealth today is water” and “Our biggest treasure is rain”.

Without water, there is no agriculture. Carlos Felix knows that it is too late to be a pessimist.

Have a listen to his inspiring testimonial in the video below.

Biodiversity and ecosystem services keep our world alive. Farmers like Carlos Felix are aware that food production depends on sustaining our environment.

Together, we can align food production with the preservation of the Amazon Rainforest and Cerrado Savanna!

Erivelto Carvalho started working with the Black Jaguar Foundation during the 2019/2020 planting season. Despite not having professional experience in ecological restoration, Erivelto learnt very fast and connected well with the local team. He grew up in a small local settlement, 80% of which was covered by native vegetation. His skills quickly made him an invaluable addition to the team, and what started out as a temporary job became a life changing experience!

Initially, Erivelto was hired to work in the Santa Fé farm for 10 days. Nevertheless, unforeseen circumstances delayed the planting process, which ultimately took around three months.

Nearing the end of the planting season, three members of the Santa Fé planting team were selected by the farm to take care of maintenance throughout the year. Among these was Erivelto, who then spent another 11 months working exclusively on ecological restoration activities in the Santa Fé farm.

In his interview, Erivelto explained that:

“During this time, [he] accumulated knowledge by constantly observing and asking questions”.

Erivelto’s efforts and dedication quickly showed results. Carlos Eduardo and Dimitrio, our Field and Project Coordinators respectively, noticed his excellent work and invited him to officially join the BJF team in May 2021 as a field supervisor.

Now, Erivelto is responsible for managing some of the field teams carrying out ecological restoration.  This involves ensuring safety measures are in place, including the proper use of Personal Protective Equipment (PPEs), and training team members along every step of the way.

“One of the first things I explain is how to clean the area to be restored and prepare the soil. During this stage, we won’t have defined how to plant the seedlings yet. Finally, the maintenance process has a completely different rhythm. It is slower and we use this period to carefully identify different species”, he explains.

According to Erivelto, training new members is a process that takes one year and needs to be completed in the field, so that everyone learns how to carry out different procedures correctly.

In this past year, Erivelto has also spent a great deal of time contributing to some of the Black Jaguar Foundation’s other projects, alongside his responsibilities as field supervisor.

For instance, whenever possible, Erivelto supports Norivânia and Sebastião with our temporary nursery, located in the Santa Fé farm. Among many valuable skills, he has learnt to prepare seedlings and knows about the development of each species in our nursery.

Erivelto dedicated a lot of his time to studying different species in the region, as well as the best periods to harvest seedlings, and continuously uses this knowledge to make significant contributions to our project. Erivelto was particularly helpful in starting the Araguaia Seed Collection Collective. It was his proactiveness that made it possible for local communities to donate native seeds like the red jequitibá, ingá, murici, jacarandá, jatobá, cajá, yellow ipê, and many others.

Erivelto sees himself working with the Black Jaguar Foundation on realizing the Araguaia Biodiversity Corridor for a long time.

“My financial life changed a lot after I started working with the Black Jaguar Foundation. I am more centred, more focussed”, he explains.

Erivelto’s life wasn’t the only one that changed. His three kids, his wife, and his two step children are now all loyal supporters of the Black Jaguar Foundation. Some of his children have even expressed that they wish to become a part of our Project after finishing their studies.

Additionally, Erivelto’s sister-in-law

“studied Agronomy and dreams of working at the Black Jaguar Foundation”.

These stories make us incredibly happy because our goal has always been to develop the region, generate new jobs, and acknowledge local talents via one of the biggest ecological restoration projects in the region.

Originally from Pedreiras, in Maranhão, Erivelto moved to Pará when he was 17 years old, where he lived in a small farm with his family. The farm was in a settlement belonging to the Institute of Agrarian Reform (INCRA), in Santana do Araguaia.

From a young age, Erivelto learnt how to plant different crops including corn, produce cheese, breed cattle, birds, and pigs.

“We were born planting”, he jokes as he tells us about growing up in the farm.

The Black Jaguar Foundation participated in the main agricultural fair in Santana do Araguaia for the first time! The fair provided a great means of expanding our reach in the region, building relationships with rural landowners, and making new partnerships possible.

The event lasted five days and throughout this time our team welcomed hundreds of visitors to our booth. Our visitors included rural landowners, governmental representatives, local leaders, and locals interested in the Araguaia Biodiversity Corridor.

We were invited to give a lecture on the Environmental Regulation procedures conducted by the Black Jaguar Foundation. In the lecture, Marcelle Grumberg, our Rural Partnerships Coordinator, and Carlos Eduardo Oliveira, our Field Coordinator, highlighted the importance of ecological restoration in the region and explained how local landowners benefit from a partnership with the Black Jaguar Foundation.

Together with our team of specialists, Ben Valks, our initiator, was given the opportunity to talk to governmental representatives in the region. We spoke with Zequinha Marinho, the senator of Santana do Araguaia, Toni Cunha and professor Nilse, state deputies, and Eduardo Alves Conti, the mayor of Santana do Araguaia.

All of them showed a great deal of enthusiasm and willingness to contribute to the Araguaia Biodiversity Corridor.

Our participation in Santana do Araguaia’s annual agricultural fait showed that we truly value the agricultural sector in the region, and that we are here to add value to rural properties and create positive win-win-win partnerships with local landowners. We aim to create partnerships in which everyone wins: agricultural producers, local landowners, the planet, and of course, all living things in this and in future generations!

Finally, we would like to thank the “Da Aparecida” restaurant for showing us great hospitality throughout the whole event. We are also incredibly grateful to the representatives of the Syndicate of rural producers of Santana do Araguaia: namely André Felipe Klein (president), his wife Ângela, César Gonzaga (vice president), and Rodolfo Valladão. None of this would have been possible without them!

We have recently filmed a video testimonial with our partner AgroSB, a company well known in agricultural and livestock markets in Brazil!

This partnership shows that bringing back biodiversity and restoring ecosystem services like soil health and water quality can go hand in hand with meeting global demands for food production.

AgroSB is commited to aligning their production with environmental conservation focused on the Amazon Rainforest and Cerrado Savana. The company’s partnership with the Black Jaguar Foundation allows them to promote the restoration of Permanent Preservation Areas and Legal Reserves along the Araguaia biodiversity Corridor.

We are grateful for AgroSB’s support and trust in our misison. Watch the following video to learn more about our mission.

Together, we are currently working on restoring the native vegetation in Fazenda Nova Esperança, which is part of AgroSB’s Vale Verde farms in Santana do Araguaia. This will be the first of their farms to be restored, but we have already started the process of technical analysis needed to restore their other lands as well.

As Cristiano puts it, the Black Jaguar foundation:

“Provides the expertise in planting as it should be done, helping farmers fulfil obligations in relation to the Brazilian forest code”.

Our objective is to restore the Araguaia Biodiversity Corridor. To do this, we need farmers to join our mission and be at the forefront of ecological restoration.

We would also like to thank the Environmental Secretary of Santana do Araguaia, Mr. Cleiton Carveli, for supporting our mission and introducing us to the AgroSB team.

Would you like to become a part of our story of hope? Donate a tree here!

Tulpen van Sam is a Dutch tulip and tulip bulb company, and has partnered with the BJF in an effort to render the production of his tulips carbon-neutral. Sam Ruijter, owner and CEO of Tulpen van Sam, talks all about the story of his company in the new video testimonial for the BJF.  

Sam has already taken many steps to ensure that his company becomes climate-neutral. This includes the installation of a heat pump, to allow his glasshouse to run completely without fossil fuels for example. Now, he is partnering with the BJF to plant trees in the Araguaia Corridor to compensate for the CO2 emissions produced by his business.  

He hopes to set an example and inspire others, to use energy and raw materials in a circular way.  

A few weeks ago, our BJF Holland Team spent the day delivering Sam’s Climate Neutral Tulips to some of our loyal BJF partners and Friends.  

This amazing collaboration with Tulpen van Sam, shows we can all make the difference today! The tulips were a small reminder to everyone that restoring the Araguaia Biodiversity Corridor cannot be possible without your continuous support. 

Find out more about Tulpen van Sam on his first600 page!  

The construction of our new nursery is progressing, and the field team is hard at work with preparations. This exciting new venture started in March last year and will make use of 3,6 hectares of land to nurture around 500,000 native seedlings per year. 

We are currently finalizing the construction of our office, classroom and storage buildings in Santana do Araguaia. It is all coming together nicely, and we are excited for these areas to be put to good use!

In addition, our nursery is almost done, and we expect to start producing seedlings in the first two weeks of May. If all goes according to plan, the nursery should be functional by the 31st of May.

This nursery will have an incredibly positive impact on the restoration of the Araguaia Biodiversity Corridor. Establishing it would not have been possible without the support of our loyal sponsor partners. Thank you once again for your valuable support and contributions!

Earlier this month, we participated in the BTG Give Back Day to celebrate our graduation from BTG Soma, a project aiming to improve Non-profit Organizations’ abilities to fulfil their goals.  

The program challenged 10 non-profit organizations, chosen out of 230 applicants, to actively participate in 100 hours of BTG workshops. Our Development Coordinator, Carol Sacramento, took this opportunity head-on and attended the workshops during the evenings, conciliating this with her fulltime responsibilities at the Black Jaguar Foundation.  

During the graduation, Carol was granted a BTG certificate, together with a cheque for 25,000 Reais on behalf of the BJF! 

The event was concluded with some closing remarks and calls to action by the participating non-profit organizations.