Unless you've been living under a rock, you know that the Amazon is facing an existential threat. I'm not being over dramatic when I say it may be at its tipping point soon. This Vox video covers how bad things are and how we got here extremely well:
In case you weren't able to watch the video, here is a key excerpt:
“The Amazon rainforest has been reduced by about 17% since the 1970s. Cattle ranchers, loggers, and farmers are mostly to blame for the deforestation, but the demand driving them comes from all around the world. Brazil's economy depends on agriculture, especially beef and soy, which is grown on cleared land in the Amazon. Today, president Jair Bolsonaro, is weakening the environmental protections there in order to give agriculture more power. This came to a head when, in summer 2019, more than 30,000 wildfires burned in the Amazon, sparking worldwide outrage."
Money isn't always the solution, but if like me, you can't really go over to help protect the forest yourself, it may be the best you can do. And the good news is that deforestation was halted before and hopefully will happen again soon.
The key is to donate to causes doing meaningful work, ideally in a way that is transparent, today. If the people protecting the forests have the resources they need, they might be able to hold strong, until the president of Brazil feels enough pressure from governments and corporations around the world to change policies again.
One such area that needs protecting is in an area called Cruzeiro Do Sul in Brazil. Here it is on Google Maps.
As you can see it is near the highway like the video speaks about, and as far as I can tell an important area worth protecting. Here is a National Geographic article all the way back from 2015 which speaks to the dangers the highway would bring for the forest. And here is a time lapse video of how deforestation spreads in such areas (notice the area in the top right in particular):
Here is the link to CarbonFund.org’s project page that you can use to donate: https://carbonfund.org/project/the-russas-valparaiso-projects-tropical-forest-conservation-projects/ (Notice the location on that page). I was able to get in touch and confirm this is indeed the location of their conservation work.
Not only is the project verified by Climate, Community and Biodiversity Standard (CCBS) - a well reputed agency that comes up regularly if you follow the conversation around forest protection, but with LowCoLiving we can now take you another step closer!
Here is a video showing actual satellite images of the area up until the end of September 2019 (more recent images as soon as we have it) with Cruzeiro Do Sul in the top left.
So far so good - the forest is still alive and well and we hope to keep it that way!
Does this convince you to donate towards the fund? Tell us more by contacting us here or on Twitter.
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