Novalis Conservation Peru - Habitat for Change

Thank you for everyone's support. This campaign was fully fund through our original Indiegogo Campaign, and several offline donations.

We have bought the 32 hectares with the support of 57 individual donations, and 6 other people investing in land title.

https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/habitat-for-change/

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WE ARE NOVALIS

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Novalis is a Peruvian-based association composed of members from all over the world. We are stewards and protectors of over 2,000 hectares of Amazonian rainforest. We are active in the harvest of Brazil nuts and the conservation of the ecologically valuable forests where we live in the Las Piedras region of the South-Eastern Peruvian Amazon.

Novalis serves as a center for cultural preservation and rainforest conservation. Our philosophy and approach is that in order to preserve forest, we cannot fully separate people from it, so our work focuses on the the surrounding communities & cultural conservation whilst promoting sustainable forest use, especially traditional uses and those which preserve biodiversity. We also believe forests should be well-stewarded and protected, particularly this rainforest that we consider our home.




WHAT WE DO

Novalis is a platform for botanical explorations, anthropological research, indigenous collaborations and human connection to Nature through interactive retreats and programs.

Each year since 2011, we have been making interventions to protect our forest, collaborating with indigenous people in neighboring communities, and also with other like-minded individuals and organizations. We take pride in our work, and so far the monies we receive from our activities go directly back into keeping Novalis up and running.




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THE CURRENT STATE OF AFFAIRS

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… here in the amazon, one of our neighbors is a clearcut cattle-rancher. 


Everyday, we walk the 200 hectare (~500 acres) plot he has clear-cut in the last 8 years to arrive to our protected forest 3.5km from the river, where we live.  We have watched him cut down 50 hectares each year during the last 4 years, and he has plans to keep going. 

The intention of our campaign is to protect the at-risk forest remaining and lessen the risk of our neighbor’s clear-cutting from encroaching any further. We offer you the incentive to protect these forests by way of purchasing land with title right here in the Peruvian Amazon. Through your financial support we can move forward with purchasing the land around his operation to realize these goals. 

Clear-cutting in the Amazon is happening on a huge scale. Across our region, and in the neighboring Amazonian territories and countries, forest loss is occurring just like that which we are facing... 50 hectares lost one year, 50 hectares lost the next. 


This is the way the forest disappears, all across the Amazon: One hectare at a time.


This clear-cut is the classic story about deforestation in the Amazon. The one you have probably read about in magazines, or seen on the TV or the internet.  This above photo shows cleared land beside a part of the forest we are trying to protect. (image: drone capture Julio Araujo)




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THE STORY

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Cattle from one of our other neighbours along the river Las Piedras. (image: Tui Anandi)


… about our neighbor the cattle-rancher. 
The cattle-ranching operation is neighboring to our land at Novalis. A lot of forest loss in the Amazon is caused by families looking for livelihood. However, we know this is not the case here. Our neighbor in fact has 600 heads of cattle, 300 heads of sheep, and 200 heads of goat, as well as a fish farm and is the owner of two Brazil nut concessions. 

Unfortunately he is becoming a negative social reference for our other neighbors and native communities around us; seeing this activity as an example of income security but at the expense of the forest's ecosystem. There are other favorable techniques around cattle raising that we suggested to him but he simply was not in favor. Though we keep up the conversation, this type of campaign of change requires time and shifts in societal views. 

Then we supported denuncias (legal denunciations) against his illegal practices aiming to slow him down and get him to see that his practices are more damaging than they are wise. Such unwise practices included logging of a creek, and burning legally protected Brazil nut trees. He also infiltrated 15,000 square meters of our land with more cut and burn.

He continues to want more land but, as we explain below, it's not at all a sustainable venture given that Amazonian soil does not support long-term cattle farming. With cattle ranching, usually the land is spent within 6-10 years after the clearing is made. This means a longer-term cattle venture in the Amazon will almost always require more land. 

Thus, the reality of cattle ranching in the Amazon is that it:

1) deforests the Amazon;

2) kills the soil & makes barren the once thriving landscape;

3) discards the land after a period of time & requires more;

We want to prevent these kinds of outcomes in the neighboring forests where we work.




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The Science of Cattle Ranching in the Amazon

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BIODIVERSITY & AMAZONIAN CLEAR-CUTTING

The Amazon Rainforest is biologically diverse, beyond what most people realize. And in the world’s present ecological crisis, there is an absolute need for people to realize that our future depends on these forests.

It is estimated that over 10% of vertebrate species (i.e., animals) are Amazonian - so there are many species of fish, bird, and mammals. There countless species of insects and fungi accompanied by over 5,400 plant species in the Peruvian Amazon, 2,700 of which are known tree species. Many of these species, such as the amazing and ancient Brazil nut tree, depend on highly specialized ecological relationships that are vulnerable to changes in forest cover, and species loss. We want to prevent major forest loss. And a 200 hectare clear-cut, that is at risk of growing by 50 to 100 hectares more this year is exactly this kind of loss.




AMAZONIAN SOIL ECOLOGY:

Rainforest soils are some of the least fertile on the planet. The topsoil organic layer in rainforests is thin, and is sustained by biomass. Biomass is the total mass of organisms in an area, such as trees, insects, bacteria, animals, fungi and herbaceous plants. Biomass is very high in rainforests and is the only reason rainforests have organic topsoil at all. When an organism dies it decomposes very quickly in the humidity becoming food for other organisms with a rapid release of minerals and nutrients. For this reason, organic top soil is thin, as this nutrition is utilized quickly by other living things.

The type of soil in rainforests is referred to as oxisols. Oxisols are depleted in minerals, partly because of the decomposition rate of organic material and also because of the amount of rainfall that leaches most minerals out of the system. For this reasons the soil that Amazonian cattle ranchers aim raise livestock on is poor. Fertile cattle country, this is not! The first year after a rancher clears the forest, and then burns it, there is good nutrition in the cow pasture of tropical grasses which rapidly grow back. But within years of repeating this cycle on the same plot of land, the topsoil layer becomes completely depleted, and there becomes poor pasture for the cows. Soon the farmer abandons the plot. Biodiversity is lost. Topsoil is adversely affected. And the mature forest disappears.

In most cases, centuries of forest-cover has been lost for just a decade of farming.


Mariluz collects Brazil nuts in her forest. To produce, Brazil nut trees depend on complex relationships between pollinators, pollinator habitat, and a rodent that can break open the hardshell. These types of relationships are only possible in mature, intact forest. (image Cassandra Caroline)


SOCIETAL CONSIDERATIONS:

Because for millions of people who live in the Amazon clear-cut farming is a major mainstay for both daily income and daily meals, it's also one of the major drivers of forest loss in Amazonian regions. Over 80% of forest loss in the Amazon is due to ranching. 

How do we know? Science. The research is clear, showing what many people already suspected, for example that in the Brazilian Amazon key drivers of deforestation are pasture, cropland, and land speculation. Here in the province where we live in Peru we also have mining, illegal roads, illegal logging and mono-crops like palm oil and papaya to blame.





These above photos show the extent of clear-cutting happening between 2004 and 2018 on our neighbor's cattle ranch. Each photo utilizes satellite imagery. What will 2019 hold? We are protecting almost all boundaries, except to the south, which are lands owned by other people. This is vulnerable land, as usually it will be sold to the highest bidder. (image from google maps)



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    (image: Tui Anandi)



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What are we doing now? 

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Our past Indiegogo campaign, which was over 60% funded through public and private means  and this current gofundme campaign is to legally purchase and title as much land around the cattle field as possible. We have been able to purchase 32 hectares, and there are more than 150 hectares still at risk. We aim to create a green corridor and green barrier around the cattle clear-cut. We have already staked claim on the northern and western forests through government leased Brazil nut concessions, which legally protect the areas the trees inhabit, and now we are moving to protect the southern border and beyond. 

Join us and become a Patron of the Forest or purchase your own plot of land in the Las Piedras Rainforest! 


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How we are taking a stand!

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As an organization deeply committed to both forest conservation and humans living here, we do stand for our neighbors having income. There are different ways to accomplish that though, and clear-cut cattle farming in the Amazon is an unsustainable venture, especially the way that we are seeing it done now.

Our position is as follows:

1) We are always actively exploring new ways to communicate with our neighbors, which involve efforts of education, peace-keeping, and well-directed communication as tools to help see the view that the forest is the most important resource on this planet.

2) We share our empirical discoveries & perspectives through social media & the internet, so that others can connect to this globally affected movement of deforestation.

3) We continuously engage with our neighboring communities who are also experiencing the effects of logging, clear-cuts, and mining. We offer support through alliance, sustainable system introduction, and collaboration in developing new economical activities that steer them away from deforestation. We also help to connect brazil nut farmers to direct channels of distribution giving them a more favorable return on investment. 





Sunset across the cattle field. The solitary trees left here are Brazil nut trees, that are illegal to cut. However many were lost by wind and fire. They should, by law, have at least 50m of forest around them to maintain their productivity.  (image: drone capture Julio Araujo)




THE FACTS ARE IN!
...humans have to keep protecting primary forests, and doing all we can to preserve forest cover and quality, reclaim fragmented and degraded forests, and to keep the Amazon; the lungs of the planet, GREEN. 




AMAZON FOREST FACTS:

•The Amazon rainforest spans 670 million hectares

•Between 90-140 billion metric tons of carbon is stored in the Amazon forests

•34 million people live in the Amazon and depend on its resources

•Forest losses in the Amazon biome averaged 1.4 million hectares per year between 2001 and 2012, resulting in a total loss of 17.7 million hectares, mostly in Brazil, Peru and Bolivia

•If current trends continue, deforestation could double to 48 million hectares between 2010 and 2030, meaning that more than a quarter of the Amazon biome would be without trees.




We can say with a lot of confidence that climate science agrees, ecological science agrees, and forest-based indigenous societies agree that clear-cutting the rainforest in the Amazon is for sure something to be avoided if not stopped altogether.




Natalia Clavier observing the newly deforested  and burned cattle-field (image: Melanie Dizon)


All of us have a part to play, that is for certain. We are all the witness of climate change today and one of the principle causing factors is the scale of deforestation across the globe especially here in the Amazon. The rate of ecological problems as well as socio-economic factors; like poverty and basic lack of development in Amazonian regions, as well as the widespread violence against environmental activists across the world are human-centered issues that implore us to speak out. 

No one has the answers to these issues alone. Collective initiatives will allow us to introduce creative solutions around what otherwise will bring us closer to a state of global emergency.
Each of us has a voice. Each of us can do our part. Each of us must make a commitment. 

The work ahead for humanity is immense. And for us, it starts with what is in our hands, right here in the Amazon!

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You can support our effort to preserve forest quality, and create a green corridor; a green border around our cattle farming neighbor, for the health of this thriving ecosystem.


20% of the world's oxygen is produced in the Amazon. This is Las Piedras River, lower las piedras.


We can see both major deforestation happening here around us. But the forest here in our area, still prominent for it's natural beauty and ecological intactness also gives us a lot of reason to act. Below are three maps, sourced with data from Global Forest Watch (link below).


DEFORESTATION BETWEEN 2001-2017

This first map, with white and red, highlights deforestation between the years of 2001 and 2017. The forest we steward at Novalis is indicated by the area in and around the circle. Notice the deforestation at the cattle field (indicated by an arrow). 



INTACT FORESTS ARE HEALTHIER

This second map shows intact forest cover showing Novalis' jungle base-camp depicted as a black star. Where forest is intact, the forest is more able to adjust to change, and there is more unfragmented habitat for species of animals, insects, and plants.




THE AREA WE INTEND TO PROTECT

This third map is the area we intend to protect (a white box roughly drawn below the cattle field). This map also highlights a layer showing biomass loss, potentially indicating the spent nature of the soil. We know this area is to be an important protection area for its connection to the river.



It is a green corridor leading from the intact forest, and it is directly in our hands to protect it. Wildlife biologists have confirmed to us our sightings of Spider monkeys, jaguars, and tapir. We often see jaguar and puma tracks in the sand. The area also contains several ancient Brazil nut trees (Bertholletia excelsa), as well as ecologically important aguaje (Mauritia flexuosa) swamp.


    Fully manipulatable source data and base map: Global Forest Watch: https://bit.ly/2ujRaD2 




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"Creating a HABITAT FOR CHANGE 
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WHAT THIS FOREST NEEDS + HOW YOU CAN PARTICIPATE!
Now we break it down for you in more detail:

Novalis is aiming to legally protect all forest bordering the aforementioned clear-cut by purchasing it from other neighbors who want to sell. There are already works in progress, and we have already made financial and legal moves to secure much of the neighboring land. But we need more help.

We are offering land title in the Peruvian Amazon! You have the unique opportunity to support this initiative, and the option to receive legal title to land. We are selling forest lots between 300m2 (0.075 acres) and 600m2 (0.15 acres) that extend from the riverfront and further into the forest. These lots will be titled to your name which will require that you visit us in Peru to file the paperwork. Here you can experience these forests firsthand.

300m2 (0.075 acres) @ $895 USD
600m2 (0.15 acres) @ $1795 USD


You can also donate any amount, and be a "Patron of the Forest", where your financial contribution will aid us in maintaining our preservation initiatives.

By selling and supporting these smaller pieces of land we will be fundraising to preserve another 30-100 hectares immediately this year.
Ideally we can begin negotiations to extend our reach beyond this, and continue forming a protected barrier and green-belt that is linking the healthy intact forests located further from the river with the river itself: thus preventing the expansion of the cattle pasture, and loss of habitat.

All of the money we raise will be allocated to meet our goal. Any additional funds will go to our conservation and cultural projects. We summarize them below.



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What has Novalis accomplished to become a trustworthy organization worthy of your donations?
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Our projects of conservation extend into the surrounding territories and indigenous communities of the Amahuaca, Yine, Ese Eja & Quichua cultures, and into the Amazon forest. People from all over the world come to our center to engage in the diversity of programming and outreach that we provide here in the Peruvian Amazon. 

Children painting with natural plant dyes from the Identity reinforcing project "Pintando nuestra memoria" with indigenous Quichua children in Puerto Arturo. (Image: Melanie Dizon)


Novalis Community Member learning medicinal plant practices with Maestro Marino (indigenous Matsigenka elder). (image: Juan Zuniga)


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OUR OTHER ACHIEVEMENTS INCLUDE:

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Conservation
-Formal cease and desist orders given to three illegal, informal mining crews operating within our lands.
-The immobilization and seizure of wooden logs illegally obtained from the land. 
-Formal cease and desist orders given for illegal logging, where hundreds of hectares of primary forests was turned to land intended for farming activities.
-Prevention of illegal hunting by maintaining our presence in the forest, and being vigilant to trespassers. 
-Diagnosis of solid waste management issues in the Quichua community of Puerto Arturo.
-Selectively managing old-growth trees by running limbs to prevent loss of trees to windfall.
-Strategic land purchases to form green-belts to prevent future clearcut-logging and deforestation for cattle farming. 


Cultural and community-based
(many of these projects have associated videos, take some time to check them out, links are embedded in the text)

-Collaborating with Animawuu, a community centred toy making enterprise, aimed at up-cycling recycled waste wood into beautiful wooden forest-animal based toys. 
-Hosting and patron of a collective action in community art to revitalize and celebrate Quichua roots in Puerto Arturo, with the community in collaboration with others including //Warmayllu// Rolin Coquinche // Xapiri // 
-Working with locals inBoca Pariamanu amahuaca community to "promote sustainable cacao" production, use of local dyes, and alternative tourism.
-Hosting of master basket weaver Don Angel Canelos in collaboration with Xapiri to visually document the work and process of elder Don Angel's baskets. 
-Research and Development of baseline ethnography of the Quichua speaking Community in Puerto Arturo and the first grammatical guide of the Quichua variety of the indigenous, Quechua language. 
This language, and the relation of language to a family living in this community of Puerto Arturo,is documented in one of our short documentaries "The Lost. The Found" 
-Participation in community meetings in the Quichua community of Puerto Arturo. 
-The development of a short film, "The Brazil Nut Gatherer" which aims to show the role of native women in Brazil Nut production in the community of Boca Pariamanu.
-Legal advice and counselling to formalize the Producers Association of Brazil Nuts in the Basin of Bajo Piedras.



Sustainable Livelihood initiatives
Planning, planting and maintenance of a full hectare food forest.
Working with medicinal plants for well-being
Running nature-immersion programs for all ages and backgrounds, providing space for up to 20 people.
Minimizing our site-based impact through soil stabilization, waste reduction, waste-water treatment, and maintaining forest cover. We use windfall for new building projects, or work with wood partners who use ecological principles for harvesting. We are off the grid!



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 Shihuahuaco Tree / the King of the Jungle (image: Melanie Dizon)

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Our Future Initiatives and Some Final Words

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Novalis is a platform where people can come to experience and learn from the repository of knowledge that is the Amazon. It is also an opportunity for guests, researchers, creatives, and teachers to immerse into the diversity of the work that we as an organization take part in alongside our indigenous relations and the rainforest ecosystem, either as short term residents or visitors.

In 2019 we have received a number of volunteers and guests wanting to join our efforts. To meet the growing needs of our center, we are building more communal housing to continue hosting more visitors, volunteers and researchers. And will continue to expand our programming.

We are deepening our relationships with individual indigenous members by providing support, guidance and collaborative management to  implement sustainable solutions to the challenges they face from activities such as illegal mining, to having viable social enterprises, to cultural preservation, creative projects, and education. 

We are also working towards projects in the botanical world, such as creating a living library for education on Amazonian Plants, planting for the proliferation of valuable medicinal plants, and hosting botanical experts that see Novalis as a research platform.





Roberto Yui is our Shipibo collaborator and friend who comes to offer and impart his plant medicine traditions during our retreats. In this photo he is speaking about cultural preservation in Shipibo communities. He is an active agent for change in his home community of San Francisco in Pucallpa and also teaches to the indigenous youth there.  We are honored to be working with him. (image: Melanie Dizon)


Treehouse living at  Novalis (image: Melanie Dizon)




Caring for the earth and replanting food for the future (image: Jordan Hope-Miller)


Our unique organization is dedicated to making a meaningful and long-term impact on the land we steward and the adjacent communities that call the Amazon home since time immemorial. Our ability to continue this important work is contingent on gracious and inspired individuals like yourself, who want to see the Amazon, its habitats, and peoples continue to thrive. 


To learn more about our organization Novalis, please visit us online:

Our webpage:
https://www.wearenovalis.com 

Facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/WeAreNovalis 



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Our asking of you:
In the spirit of the work that we do, we are looking for collaborators and benefactors who want to share with and support us in our lasting endeavors.  There are many ways to aid us in this campaign, from funding to spreading the word about the initiatives we are taking in these relevant times.


...inspired?
Here are actions you can take right now
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We have several ways for you to take direct participation, and hope that our presence in the jungle will inspire you to take action.

Directly protect a parcel of land in the hectares we are working to protect. Be a patron, or actually have title on a land purchase.

Spread the word: share this campaign with like-minded family, friends and colleagues.

Help Sponsor our activities: Offer financial donations, any amount counts and is deeply appreciated. You can also make a donation on behalf of others.

Visit us! We have a beautiful center nestled deep in the jungle with three 7m-tall tree houses where we receive visitors for specialized itineraries to get to know know these forests and the native communities that we consider family.






From all of us here at Novalis,
the forest, its creatures large & small...
♥

THANK YOU!



*And a special thanks to all the individuals, friends, and supporters that helped to make this vision a living reality. We are yours in communion. 

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