Category Archives: Donations

Going, Going, Gone.

Going, Going, Gone. by Josef O’Connor, on display at the Royal Academy of Arts (© Josef O’Connor)

British artist Josef O’Connor has teamed up with our UK partner the World Land Trust to help save 20 hectares of Atlantic Forest in the Guapiaçu valley. Josef is selling edition prints of his work entitled Going, Going, Gone, currently on display as Lot 44 at the Royal Academy Winter Exhibition in London.

Centuries of deforestation have left a mere 7% of the original Atlantic Forest area standing, and what is left remains highly threatened. With generous donations, REGUA is able to purchase areas of Atlantic Forest in the Guapiaçu valley as well as reforest cleared areas to connect these fragments, restoring deforested land and preserving the Atlantic Forest’s unique biodiversity.

Going, Going, Gone features a visual representation of the area to be purchased. Lot 44 is a screen-print onto an aerial photograph of the region, with 100 prints available at £400 each to raise £20,000. Each print sold in the edition equates to 0.5 acres.

Josef is hoping that environmentally conscious art lovers will help him raise funds to save this area of forest. “We all know our way of life is killing the planet, so we have a clear choice – either take responsibility for our actions and work together to bring about positive change, or face the stark reality that the ecosystems we all rely on will soon be lost forever. Going, Going, Gone was conceived to encourage people to be part of the solution. It’s a great opportunity to be part of something truly transformational, so I’m hopeful it will really appeal to those determined to make a difference.”

Going, Going Gone by Josef O’Connor will be on show until 3rd January 2021, and prints of Lot 44 to raise funds for this appeal are available for purchase here.

Help to raise funds for REGUA with AmazonSmile

If you shop with Amazon, you can help to support REGUA. Just register the Brazilian Atlantic Rainforest Trust as your “AmazonSmile Charity”. The AmazonSmile Foundation will then give 0.5% of all your eligible purchases to the charity which is supporting the protection and preservation of the Atlantic Rainforest in South-east Brazil and has given over £2.5 million to REGUA in the last 20 years. Once you have registered the Brazilian Atlantic Rainforest Trust as the charity you wish to support, as long as you log into your AmazonSmile account your purchases will generate vital funds which will help to continue our work.

Follow the link: smile.amazon.co.uk/ch/1079038-0

If you prefer to make a donation directly please click on the donate button.

Please spread the word!

British artist Jelly Green donates exhibition proceeds to REGUA

British artist Jelly Green has spent four years painting rainforests around the world.

Jelly Green, a British artist from Suffolk, has spent the last four years painting rainforests in central Brazil, as well as other places around the word. But seeing the devastating effects of rainforest destruction first-hand had a lasting impact on Jelly, who began to focus on the issue of deforestation in her work.

Last April, Jelly displayed her work at a sold-out exhibition in London, England, and very generously decided to donate £9,000 from her exhibition to REGUA. This will enable us to buy an area of farmland to be forested and incorporated into the reserve, where the unique flora and fauna of the Atlantic Forest is protected and can thrive.

We would like to give a huge thanks to Jelly for her kind donation.

Read more about Jelly on the BBC website. To see some of Jelly’s work visit her website at www.jelly-green.com, or follow her on Instagram.

British painter Jelly Green raising funds for REGUA

'Into the Shadows' 2018, oil on canvas, 153 x 183 cm
‘Into the Shadows’ 2018, oil on canvas, 153 x 183 cm

Contemporary British painter Jelly Green has spent the last four years painting rainforests around the world, mainly in central Brazil.

Jelly will be showcasing these paintings at an exhibtion in London in April to raise awareness of the devastation that is happening in rainforests worldwide and will also be very generously donating 25% of the exhibition profits to REGUA.

If you are in London in April why not visit the exhibition? Details are given below:

Devour
4th – 7th April 2019 (open 11 am – 6 pm)
gallery@oxo
204 Oxo Tower Wharf
Bargehouse Street
South Bank
London
SE1 9PH

For further details check out Jelly’s website. You can also follow her on Instagram.

Seo Taiji’s 1st year anniversary tree planting at REGUA

Seo Taiji, South Korean singer, musician, and songwriter is helping REGUA replant the Atlantic Forest.
Seo Taiji, South Korean singer, musician, and songwriter is helping REGUA replant the Atlantic Forest.

To mark the International World Water Day, 22 of March, the Young Rangers met with Professor André at their local school to clear old plastic recipients found in the river Guapiaçu along the small village of Guapiaçu. But sadly there had been a lot of rain the previous night and the swollen river was impossible to work in and we adjourned the event to this week.

The second part of the event was to celebrate the 1st year’s anniversary of the Seo Taiji forest with a symbolic planting of 60 trees on the riverside to REGUA land. The Young Rangers is an important programme that involves young students enrolled at school and wanting to take part in a structured one year programme by sharing in weekly lessons, walks, visits and excursions to learn of the importance of the natural world. These kids relay the acquired knowledge to their parents and later as they grow themselves learn to see REGUA as a partner and understand the organization’s mission and approve of its efforts. Planting trees is an easy activity which the kids like to share in.

The area we chose was important as it celebrated the 1st years anniversary of Korean singer Seotaiji Fandom club planting of 5000 trees that was organized by the World land Trust. These trees are already enormous and we received such a warm reception from Korean journalists asking us how we intended to celebrate this mark that the local prefecture came to see what it was all about. We have a picture of Seotaiji in the lodge and all those visiting us ask who the person is. We are all eager to say that this young pop music singer surprised us by choosing to plant these trees far from his home country and inspired us to have his photo and show to all that this was an inspiration for the future. We all need inspirational people to help us with our work. Well done Seo Taiji!

Young Rangers plant 60 trees in the Seo Taiji Forest, part of REGUA
Young Rangers plant 60 trees in the Seo Taiji Forest, part of REGUA
Young Rangers plant 60 trees in the Seo Taiji Forest, part of REGUA
Young Rangers plant 60 trees in the Seo Taiji Forest, part of REGUA
Young Rangers plant 60 trees in the Seo Taiji Forest, part of REGUA
Young Rangers plant 60 trees in the Seo Taiji Forest, part of REGUA
Young Rangers plant 60 trees in the Seo Taiji Forest, part of REGUA
Young Rangers plant 60 trees in the Seo Taiji Forest, part of REGUA

More on Seo Taiji and his fanclub’s support of REGUA here.

Does anyone have any old unwanted digital cameras?

REGUA currently employs 10 rangers who regularly patrol the forest to prevent hunting and other illegal activities, but they also maintain the forest trails and help guide visitors, volunteers and University students. Most of the rangers are ex-hunters who have had a very limited formal education, and so it is difficult to expect them to maintain written records of anything interesting they may encounter on their walks – such as evidence of hunting, animal tracks, snakes, orchids etc. One solution that seems to work well is to provide them with a cheap small ‘point and shoot’ camera that they can use to record anything of interest, and these photos can then be downloaded in the office by our volunteers and written records made. The cameras need to be easy to use and they don’t have to be the latest model, so if you know anyone who is buying a new camera and discarding the old one, then we could find a very good use for it. Obviously they have to be in good working order as the cost of repairs can outweigh the replacement cost.

If you can help then the cameras should be sent to Alan Martin at Alureds Oast, Northiam, East Sussex TN31 6JJ and he will ensure they get to REGUA. Thanks.

REGUA receives generous wedding gift

Last November Dale and Helen visited REGUA and in July this year they became Mr and Mrs Middleton. Instead of handing out a wedding list they very generously asked for donations from their many birding friends to be given to REGUA to support our conservation work. We are delighted to report that the wedding went smoothly, a total of £530.00 was raised which will be put towards further land purchases in the Matumbo Gap area, and the message about REGUA’s work has been spread wider in Yorkshire. Thank you both so much, and we look forward to your next visit.

REGUA in new rainforest book

Cover of John Feltwell’s latest book Rainforests

John Feltwell’s latest book, Rainforests has just been published and contains over 600 pages and 300 colour plates describing the marvels of the rainforest from the forest floor to the rainforest canopy. John is a trustee of the Brazilian Atlantic Rainforest Trust and a long-time supporter of REGUA, which is mentioned regularly throughout the book and there is a separate chapter on Atlantic rainforests.

We have negotiated a special price of £40 to include postage in the UK, from which John will donate £5 to REGUA for each order. The book can be ordered by sending a cheque (made payable to John Feltwell) to John Feltwell, Marlham, Henley Down, Catsfield, Battle, East Sussex, TN33 9BN, but please make sure you mention that you are a friend of REGUA.