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.
Photographic registers are always great and can often give one a shock when seeing how fast forests, when properly cultivated, can spring back into life. An area of grassland acquired from the Lemgruber family represented an important forest corridor to areas both to sides. The World Land Trust rushed to our support and helped fund this tree planting which has resulted in this extraordinary transformation. This forest is only 24 months growth!!
Over 150 species were planted in the green grasslands in March 2018 and carefully tended. The results are dramatic!
We are very grateful to the REGUA field team who have put the effort and the WLT team who funded us. The results are worth every effort and today we have birds and mammals associated with secondary forest cover using this young forest. Thank you all for your support in providing area for these trees, it’s another 7 hectares that will turn into RPPN shortly and be protected for ever. This is the very essence of REGUA’s work here in the Atlantic rainforest, a global hotspot, in its aim of
REGUA’s Keeper of the Wild ranger Rildo da Rosa Oliveira funded by the World Land Trust found this banded lizard on the red trail at around 600 metres above sea level. This lizard has very short legs and if were not for the scales on its body, one could mistake it for a salamander, but salamander are not currently known to be further south than Roraima, Northern Brazil.
We had help to identify this individual from Canada’s naturalist Mike Patrikeev who stated it was Banded Galliwasp, Diploglossus fasciatus of the Anguidae family.
Indeed this example measured close to 30 centimetres in length, and Rildo said that in all his years as a ranger, he had only once seen this species before.
There is a similar Banded Galliwasp (Diploglossus lessonae) endemic to Brazil’s Northeast region, rated “Least Concern” by the IUCN, but I wonder whether it’s Atlantic Rainforest cousin is as common? In fact, we all wonder when we shall see another one.
We are always so pleased to share our work with interested parties and Patrick Sherriff’s lightening visit was no different.
Patrick lives in Hong Kong, and is World Land Trust (WLT) ambassador to the Far East. Due to start a tour of the Andean countries, he took time to visit REGUA to see the hard work we are engaged in.
Patrick arrived on a boiling hot day and we started his visit at the Matumbo Gap, a series of properties acquired over several years with WLT support. The area Patrick is standing on is being funded by Petrobras (the well known Brazilian petroleum company). The first hillside behind him is the area funded by WLT and the reforested area behind Patricks hat was funded by Brazilian SOS Mata Atlantica.
A real funding fruit salad and an excellent example of people and organisations coming together in partnership to achieve great success. This co-operation has enabled us to protect and begin the restoration of this vital landscape. The forest corridor being created across the “Matumbo Gap” of land which is starting to connect REGUA land to a previously fragmented area of forest.
As Patrick said “I’m glad I made the effort to visit you. Inspirational meeting real people making a real change through commitment and dedication. It was terrific to see first-hand the reforestation. Backbreaking work especially on some of those slopes. Your whole team needs to be congratulated! To see the growth of the reforestation over the years since replanting was also an eye-opener.”
Thanks Patrick, your appreciation is our encouragement!
Photographs and video captured by World Land Trust funded “Keeper of the Wild” REGUA Ranger Rildo da Rosa Oliveira, show the “endangered” Muriquis seem to have been less affected by the Yellow Fever bout that impacted the populations of the Howler monkeys earlier this year.
A couple of Howler carcasses were found on a REGUA partner property and the forests have remained silent as a result of the Yellow Fever that spread over South East Brazil. A massive campaign to vaccinate people resulted but it was impossible for doctors to reach the primates in the forests.
Rildo was walking the REGUA Red Trail high, above the waterfall in November and heard barking coming from lofty tree canopies some way away. Following the sound he quickly detected the group of five adults. An adult female Muriqui had her young with her and tried to scare Rildo away, but it was too good an opportunity to miss.
Rildo has heard the Howlers calling over the last month, so it seems we haven’t lost all populations. Fingers crossed that our continued restoration will give all species the room to increase in numbers and with corridors strengthen their populations.
Further studies are needed, but Rildo is delighted to share his rare sightings of the Muriqui with us.
Last weekend REGUA received Thomas Brooks, Head of Research at Geneva for IUCN.
In between seeing birds in the day and waiting for the owls to call in the evening, we discussed the importance of monitoring, something talked about at the recent World Land Trust conference in Thetford UK.
He also asked us about long term sustainability. I told Tom that we believe REGUA will continue to grow and reach to tourism, education and research income streams and that we look at the protection core costs such as Ranger work being covered by Eco-service payments.
As there is increasing evidence that forests produce water, we believe that grants will be available in the near future that provide annual fee given to those proprietors who have forest cover.
The Atlantic Rainforest has been subject to enormous change over the years and many species are suffering as a result of the forest vegetation cover change and, of course, hunting.
REGUA received UNESP (São Paulo State University) researcher Carla Martins Lopes with a team of three researchers. They are sampling leaf litter at the higher elevations of the Reserve to seek residues of DNA that can offer identification of the species that lived and frequented the same area in the past.
The World Land Trust Keeper of Wild Ranger Rildo da Rosa Oliveira guided the group to the top of the green trail, gathering leaves and bringing them down to our research laboratory.
We are very interested in the results, as this is a very new area of research sampling, and may offer some exciting surprises. Perhaps we can build up images of the animals that occupied these forests in the past, such as the Jaguars, Tapirs and White-lipped Peccary!
The amazing thing about planting trees is that they will grow with a little effort, dedication and perseverance.
The area of the Matumbo Gap acquired by the Danish Travel Fund is an example of such an area. Planted in early 2017, the area a year later has already closed and the grass has virtually gone, crowded out by the strong saplings as they drink up the generous Brazilian rainfall throughout the summer, and grow towards our sunlight .
REGUA planted over 25,000 trees in this area some of which were also funded by the World Land Trust’s “Forests of the Future” initiative.
The mix of over 150 native species are growing very well and REGUA has engaged the Rio Rural University in monitoring plant plots to measure growth.
The Atlantic Forest snake species, Bothrops jararaca, a type of pit viper, is one that locals hold in the highest regard and with good reason. It is dangerous only if one steps on one and accidentally gets bitten.
According to serpent specialists, snakes are not uncommon in REGUA’s forests. I have to admit that although I have walked many times in the forest I have failed to find one. However, I am sure that finding one coiled on the path can be a harrowing experience. In the distant past most local people would kill every snake irrespective of colour, thickness and length.
Today the REGUA rangers know that reptiles form an important part of our biodiverse forests and are not aggressive. They now leave them to their own business, and are helping to spread the word that unless they are inadvertently disturbed, most snakes would slither off into the forest before we are even aware of their presence.
REGUA’s World Land Trust “Keepers of the Wild” project sponsored ranger Rildo da Rosa Oliveira found this one by a rock and left it apparently dozing. He didn’t want to look closer!
REGUA and the Fatorelli family signed the deeds to the Lagoinha valley on 14th January 2018, at long last completed this delicate land purchase. The Rainforest Trust has not only been totally supportive but also very generous and patient, helping us to maintain the calm and vigour required during the entire period of negotiation. This has been one of the most complex and delicate land deals we have been engaged in, but through gentle persistence we managed to secure the property at an affordable value. I still feel fairly faint with the completion of this ultra-sensitive land purchase.
The story behind the scenes is really of soap opera magnitude. The Fatorelli property has a title that extends over the entire Lagoinha valley and this valley is located between two adjacent tracts of Atlantic Forest. Since the 1940s the property has been occupied by 40 tenant farmers working and living off the land. They have simple houses and undertake slash and burn agriculture causing serious habitat damage, some still hunt and the impact on the valley’s biodiversity is severe and one in conflict with REGUA’s objectives.
Over recent years farmers’ interests have declined and many wish to leave the valley and follow their family, moving to the nearby towns.
Tenant rights in Brazil are transferable and outsiders can buy plots on which to build second homes, attracting opportunistic local city dwellers to the area. The construction of second houses attracts others and ultimately poses a problem for the long term conservation aims of the Guapiaçu watershed along with many other areas of the world.
Limited energy and vehicle access are two factors that have helped reduce the threat locally up to now, but the availability of cheap plots and desire for second homes can abruptly change the scenario. This has been seen in the more accessible areas around the village of Guapiaçu in just the last decade.
Following the successful World Land Trust sponsored ‘Matumbo Gap’ land purchase, REGUA has addressed this issue, sought support and reached fair agreements to compensate those occupying the land and enabling them to vacate their properties. This gives REGUA the opportunity to protect the forest and allow it to recover.
REGUA is home to 11 species classified by the IUCN as Threatened – Brown-backed Parrotlet, White-necked Hawk, Golden-tailed Parrotlet, White-bearded Antshrike, Salvadori’s Antwren, Fork-tailed Tody-Tyrant, Russet-winged Spadebill, Bare-throated Bellbird, Black-backed Tanager, Buffy-fronted and Temminck’s Seedeaters are all classified as Vulnerable. A further 26 species at REGUA are classified as Near-Threatened further 28 bird species at REGUA are classified as near-threatened. In addition it is home to several troops of Southern Woolly Spider Monkey or Muriqui Brachyteles arachnoides South America’s largest and rarest primate classified as endangered. Many of these species are decreasing in number giving more urgency to the purchase and protection of the remaining Atlantic Forest.
In theory reserves and parks should not have houses or people living within their limits, but when protected areas are established with tenant farmers already living within, the Government prefers to avoid confrontation and circumnavigates issues permitting tenants to continue their lives and activities on site until they are ready to move.
Tenant farmers are protected by law yet do not have deeds with which to prove ownership. By openly negotiating with the families, explaining the aims and arriving at favourable agreements, the Fatorelli case is felt to be a key success story for the conservation movement in this country.
REGUA’s new full time ranger will regularly walk the Lagoinha valley and REGUA will continue to offer opportunities to those wishing to change their home for one closer to their families. The REGUA reserve continues to expand and guarantee an immense forested corridor to benefit its fauna and flora diversity. This is triumph for the conservation world and shows that sensitive conflict areas occupied by humans can be solved.
The Southern Muriqui (Brachyteles arachnoides) restricted to the Serra do Mar mountains of South East Brazil and classified as “endangered” on the IUCN red data list, used to have a much larger home range.
Sadly forest loss, fragmentation, timber extraction and urban expansion reduced its home range area and today the sighting of this magnificent species is really rare. Some retired hunters have never seen them!
Rildo da Rosa Oliveira is one of REGUA’s team of rangers. Rildo, who is funded by the World Land Trust “Keepers of the Wild” programme, caught these amazing photographs of the species with young of various ages indicating the population is stable and healthy.
Rildo (himself an ex-hunter) is engaged in helping University researchers in their studies. REGUA likes to promote research in the Reserve as a means to maintain a positive presence in the forests which are home to peccaries and pumas, the Solitary Tinamou and the Variegated Antpitta as well as important tree species. Maintaining a low impact and constant presence dispels the hunters and charismatic important species such as the Southern Muriqui become less flighty over time.
These animals are now being more regularly sighted and specialist André Lanna suggests REGUA might be home to the largest population of the Muriqui in South East Brazil, or the world for the matter, as the species is endemic to this region.
REGUA wishes to thank the World Land Trust for their support that permits ranger Rildo to keep a whopping 2500 hectares free for the species and the forests of hunters.
We are delighted to report that the donation from the Danish Travel Fund that led to the acquisition of Anderson’s property in 2014 has resulted in a dramatic change within the Matumbo Valley.
The highly degraded and eroded area is on the road towards the Waldenoor trail on the way to Matumbo. Until last year cattle were being grazed there and it is amazing how quickly birds and insects come into land after planting.
REGUA planted 25,000 native trees on this 13 hectare site between November 2016 and January 2017 and the weather has been most favourable.
The trees are growing very well. Thank you Danish Travel Fund for helping to acquire this strategically important area and to the World Land Trust through their “Plant a tree Fund” for financing the tree planting.
One of Raquel’s favourite trees, the planting was made possible by the World Land Trust UK as part of its “Plant a tree” fund, and with the land donated to REGUA by the Danish Travel Fund this was truly a team success. This particular piece of land is very important as it faces the High Matumbo community and strengthens the barrier of the forest.
This marks a very important point in history for us all and we can only hope that we can, with your support continue to plant trees and reach a million!
90% of REGUA’s trees come from its plant nursery and the entire process of restoration involves local community members and is admired by local residents.
Thank you again – this just proves what can be done when we work together and there is the will to succeed.
The forests at REGUA are growing! The area known to friends as the Protestant land in the Matumbo Gap was an area of pasture that REGUA had long wanted to reforest. It represented a corridor that could link precious areas to the main REGUA block of forest.
The World Land Trust had helped us acquire the land in 2014 but the thick mat of imperata or brachiaria grasses was not permitting trees to germinate and gain a foothold. The answer lay in an assisted planting scheme.
The World land Trust helped us again with a grant “Forests of the Future Fund” and Seotaiji the great South Korean singer helped us with the necessary funds to enable the planting of 10,000 REGUA nursery native trees. Only a year later the results show for themselves.
We have taken many guests and specialists who have been bowled over with the rapid growth of the trees showing that the trees are anxious to form a forest once again. The weather was kind to us after an initial drought and since we have been looking very well after the forests. I wish all forests could grow so quickly!
We are now preparing another area for the World Land Trust “Forests of the Future” programme, but thank you World Land Trust and Seotaiji so much for this important support.
Nothing could give us a greater thrill than the news announced by Debby Pain on the penultimate day of the Britsh Birdfair that the World Land Trust had achieved their target for the Olympic Forest Reserve Appeal; the purchase of the Paloma property situated high in the Sao Miguel valley within the Guapiaçu watershed. Dan Bradbury’s team at the World Land Trust had taken under four months to reach the target, showing how supportive and determined everyone has been to reach this goal.
On behalf of everyone working at REGUA, we wish to dearly thank every single individual supporter who contributed towards this appeal. We can now say that this forested property of 221 hectares full of tall trees and rare orchids, together with it’s animals, can be safely integrated in the REGUA reserve contributing to the permanent conservation of another important section of Atlantic Forest. Thank you all so much.
Earlier this year, a 9 hectare area of land in Matumbo was replanted. This land was acquired through fundraising by our invaluable partners, the World Land Trust and a total of 15,000 native trees were planted here. A year on and the trees are establishing themselves, as shown in this photograph.
This brings the total number of trees planted by REGUA to date up to 350,000!
Work will commence shortly on the next piece of land to be replanted. The difficult task of preparing the soil by scorching the non-native African grass has started, ready for the tree saplings to be planted towards the end of the year.
Though hunting has been severely reduced at REGUA as a result of patrols by our rangers, it occasionally still occurs. Hunting in the area is becoming less popular – the older hunters are giving up and the younger people are not so interested in this “sport” and as a result of the development of our trail system and a decade of environmental education this pernicious action has been largely eliminated, and overall the population of animals at REGUA has increased. Camera traps have caught video of the Puma Puma concolor and bands Collared Peccaries Pecari tajacu foraging on the trails.
Traditionally, hunters have respected REGUA’s limits, and gunshots at night are a thing of the past, but very occasionally we see evidence of some traps and snares. As the REGUA reserve increases in size, the rangers are stretched to cover the whole area. and it was quite disconcerting that one member of the local community received this photograph of a Lowland Paca Cuniculus paca kill on a distant area of REGUA land.
It is painful to see the cold blooded killing of this animal and it reminds us that there are those who do not respect REGUA’s efforts to stop this sort of senseless slaughter. It reminds us that though biodiversity is rebounding from distant days, there are people out there who do not share our passion and do not care. This should encourage us to keep hard on the trail and stick to our guns – that we are gaining ground and that the forests are becoming healthier, and that our objective is worth every effort.
One of our UK partners, the World Land Trust, is currently appealing to raise £40,000 to allow REGUA to buy an area of forest in the Guapiaçu valley that is very much under threat from hunting as well as urbanisation. By adding this area of forest to the reserve we will be able to patrol the forest and deter hunters. Please help by making a donation to the World Land Trust Olympic Forest Reserve Appeal. Any contribution would be very gratefully received. Thank you.
In partnership with the World Land Trust, REGUA has launched a campaign to raise funds to purchase a highly threatened area of Atlantic Forest located in the Guapiaçu Valley.
Called Paloma Coelho, this 89.5 hectare (221 acre) area of high quality forest is under threat from hunting and deforestation, threatening the survival of the rich flora and fauna found here. In addition the property protects the streams that feed the Guapiaçu River, an important water supply for the local community.
The most effective way to conserve this important area of forest is for REGUA to purchase the land and incorporate it into the reserve. The Olympic Forest Reserve Appeal aims to raise £40,000 to enable this to become a reality. Please help us save this forest by making a donation.
Recent years have seen a rapid rise in urbanisation within the upper Guapiaçu valley. The new tarmac road to Guapiaçu village has brought with it an influx of people, many of whom have chosen to build weekend homes in the area, clearing areas of forest in the process. The most effective way to ensure the long-term protection of the Atlantic Forest of the upper Guapiaçu valley is to purchase as many land plots as possible to incorporate into the reserve.
The World Land Trust in the UK have been funding land purchases for REGUA since 2005. They have launched a new appeal to raise £25,000 required to buy a small plot in the currently unprotected ‘Matumbo Gap’ – a series of properties situated between two separate parts of REGUA. This property is crucial to our aim of creating a forest corridor between the two parts of the reserve.
Land prices in the upper Guapiaçu valley have risen sharply in recent years due to very high demand, and this plot may not be for sale for long. To help us secure this vital property please visit the World Land Trust website to make a donation.
REGUA was first represented at the UK Birdfair in 2007, when volunteers Rachel Walls and Lee Dingain were invited by the World Land Trust to use part of their stand. Proving very successful, we teamed up with the World Land Trust for the next three years, until last year when we shared a stand good friends Rick and Elis Simpson. This year we successfully applied for our own stand, and this has been a huge success.
The stand attracted a large number of people interest in the birds, wildlife and conservation work at REGUA, and several more tour companies expressed an interest in adding REGUA to their tour itineraries. It was great to meet new people and see so many past guests stopping by the say hello, many of which wish to return to REGUA again to see how the reforestation and wetland reclaimation is progressing.
Volunteers Siri and Richard White created two small guides to butterflies and bugs that we were popular, and our new Checklist of the Birds of REGUA sold well (with all proceeds going direct to our conservation work). Rachel’s home made Bristlefront Brownie, Forest-Falcon Flapjack and Sharpbill Shortbread also proved extremely popular – encourging many to return to the stand several times! Check out Rachel’s baking blog here.
Many thanks to Rachel Walls and Lee Dingain for their hard work organising the stand, and to Sue Healey, Alan Martin and Richard Robinson for giving up their time to help man the stand. Thanks also to everyone who came by to show support and say hello. We look forward to seeing you at REGUA soon.
