What is being done to save the Atlantic Rainforest

in Brazil?

We take off to Salvador da Bahia to interview Hans Leusen, the Dutch consul of

Bahia. We are going to talk to him about sustainability and the Atlantic Rainforest.

What initiatives are being taken to save and reforest the Mata Atlantica, the Atlantic

Rainforest of which only 5% is left, mainly because of urbanization and agriculture.

“Luckily there are more and more initiatives to save the Mata Atlantica, from

maintaining what is left to reforesting parts that have disappeared”, Hans explains.

"There are several interesting ones, SOS Mata Atlantica, Arvorar by IPE, Michelin in

Itubera and at Dannemann, of which I am President, we are planting native Atlantic

Rainforest trees at all parts of our land that are not suitable for tobacco plantations."

“The oldest one I know is a NGO called SOS Mata Atlantica, the

name says it all. They exist since 1986 and were the first

organization to start with a campaign to make people aware that

the Atlantic Rainforest was threatened with extinction. They are very active, similar

to the kind of activities we know from Greenpeace, shaking and waking up everybody

with a serious message. But, they have accomplished a lot. What they mainly do is

awareness campaigns, education, sharing knowledge, research and the protection of

ecosystems.”
 “For quite some years already, I have been the president of

Dannemann, and in 2001 we started reforesting parts of our

plantation that are not suitable for agricultural production. It is

also a law in Brazil that every farmer has to dedicate 25% of his land to reforesting or

maintaining the rainforest. In the end the other parts of his land will benefit from

this, think of more shade, more animals to spread seeds, a more healthy ecological

system. We decided to use the replanting of the forest also as a marketing tool and to

make people aware of the necessity and beauty of nature in Brazil. So if we receive
guests at our plantation, we offer them a tree which they can either plant themselves

or we plant it for them. We have records of the trees so we know where we can find

your tree. Next to the trees we plant for guests, we have dedicated several people to

work exclusively on the reforestation project. So far, we have planted over 100.000

trees, we still have a long way to go.”

“In 1992, Claudio Padua founded the NGO ‘IPE’, the ecological

research institute. After a business career, he had already been

working for years as a biologist and decided to dedicate the rest of

his life to ecological research in Brazil. From studying the mating and moving

behavior of the jaguar to the survival of nearly extinct bird and small mammal species

to reforesting the Mata Atlantica, and many subjects more. By now they have a team

of 90 people working all over the country on different projects. The head office in

situated in Nazare Paulista, in the middle of a beautiful part of nature. It is a study

and research centre where enthusiastic nature lovers, biologists and other nature

scientists gather to learn, teach and share information and research knowledge. A

couple of years ago they have started a new company called Arvorar that is dedicated

to reforesting the Mata Atlantica. They work together with the government, who are

giving them access to pieces of land that need to be replanted. They plant trees for
Brazilian companies like Havaianas, Natura and Danone that want to compensate for

their CO2 emissions, which makes that by now they planted several million trees.”

“In the 80s, Michelin bought a huge piece of land in Itubera, in the

South of Bahia. 9,000 hectares partly covered with rubber

plantations. Today, they have dedicated 5,000 hectares as a nature

reserve of the Mata Atlantica. This area is partly covered with rubber

trees, but after 2024 these trees will no longer produce latex. No new rubber trees are

planted and the whole area is being reforested, maintained or enriched with native

Mata Atlantica trees and a lot of biological and ecological research is being done here.
They have started planting trees in 2006 and have by now planted almost 80,000

new trees. They are creating so-called ‘corridors’, pieces of forest that connect

fragments of the native forest. In this way, animals will start reproducing again and

the ecosystem has a better chance of surviving or being restored.” We have visited the

Michelin rubber plantations and discovered a lot of interesting things!

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