Pandemic Forest Conservation and Community Support

Dear All,

Thank you for coming here, for your time, and your support.

100% of funds from this campaign will be used to help lessen the economic impact on the people we work with (50%) and to support forest conservation (50%). No part of this money will be used for Novalis daily costs like food or transportation

Funds will be used for assisting:
-Machiguenga elders Merino and Maura with their 14 person family. 
-Boca Pariamanu Indigenous leaders Jane and Artidoro Quiros, specifically with obtaining donations of food, medicine and clothing. 
and,
-Financial Support to prevent logging around the 2000 hectares of forest we steward at Novalis.
-Financial Support to other local charities we trust, like Animal Shelter. 


Please read on for more information about Novalis and the work we have been doing during the pandemic - as it is directly related to what we want to continue to do with the funding from this campaign. 

Thank you for your feedback on this campaign, too. 

(PHOTO: Novalis River Front on the Las Piedras River in Tambopata, Peru)


We Are Novalis , an organization working for Amazon Rainforest Conservation and Cultural Preservation based outside of Puerto Maldonado, in the Amazon Rainforest of Peru. I am Cassandra, co-founder of Novalis alongside my husband Juan and our friend Melanie.


We believe in People, and in the forest. Forest, and people: they belong together.


It is still too early to understand the balance and impact that the pandemic has had on our ecosystem. Here at Novalis if we can say anything worthwhile about this defining event for humanity, it is that our collective search for harmony and co-existence of humans and nature is now more urgent than ever.  We are trying to get this union right in the modern world.


It is well known that the Amazon continues to be one of the areas most affected by the pandemic in terms of health care access, the harmful direct effects of collapsing economies, and people’s abrupt shift and loss of livelihood putting pressure on the forest. We believe that the jungle is a vital part of the Earth, and we recognize ourselves as part of her. We allow ourselves react, and to face the challenges that still surrounds us.


So, we want to share with you the actions we took during the beginning of this pandemic, and especially during the most critical stages in our region of Tambopata.

The money from this goFundMe campaign will go directly to projects like these ones that we have completed in the last 6 months of the Pandemic in Peru. 


1. We were able to help the only Machiguenga family here in the region, composed of 14 people, located on the banks of the Madre de Dios River. This settlement is headed by the great and wise healer Merino, the same one who right now, requires more support for health issues. We have been buying medication for him in the last two weeks and buying his family's handi-crafts. If you want a unique way to help support Merino's family by buying their crafts, please check-out our online store on our website.
https://www.wearenovalis.com/novalis-store 


PHOTO: Machiguenga elders Merino with Mauro and their grand-child (and his pet Anuje), with Loyver, Juan and Yuri. 


(PHOTO: Machiguenga Maura and her daughter with Maura's grand-children.)

(PHOTO: Maura weaving a shoulder bag with Chambira palm-fibre and dyed with Sanipanga. These bags are for sale! Please contact us :) 




2. During the pandemic we also joined forced with Indigenous community organizers to give our aid directly through donations of cash, food, medicine and clothing in indigenous communities of Boca Pariamanu, belonging to the Amahuaca ethnic group; and La Victoria indigenous community, belonging to the Yine ethnic group and the Bajo Piedras community. 


(PHOTO: Hanging out with Kichwa elders Dona Aurora and Don Roberto in the community of Puerto Arturo - 2018.

(PHOTO: Artidoro and Jane Quiros, of the Community of Boca Pariamanu, with their son in their chocolate farm. We support these amazing leaders directly by bringing tourists, buying high quality Cacao from them, and securing donations for their community drives for food, medicine and clothing. )



3. As Peru was gravely affected by the pandemic, many other charities and organizations working with conservation were intensely affected, too – in our region especially animal rehabilitation centers were economically decimated because they had no visitor income. We offered financial support to Amazon Shelter, whose work is to rescue and safeguard wild animals. Our donation went towards food for their animals. 

If you would like to donate directly to Amazon Shelter, please let us know in your comment in the donation. We will deposit it directly to Magali @Amazon Shelter. You can check out their work here on Trip Advisor. 

https://www.tripadvisor.com.pe/Attraction_Review-g298441-d13504279-Reviews-Amazon_Shelter-Puerto_Maldonado_Madre_de_Dios_Region.html 

(PHOTO: A endangered Tapir is batheing tranquilly in the Las Piedras River, just up river from us. 




4. Finally, as you know, one of our main missions at Novalis is the preservation of forests. We want to let you know that our campaign to safeguard the Shihuahuaco trees - those majestic and gentle giants whose existence is threatened by logging - continues to bear fruit. During the pandemic with your donations, we were able to save two precious specimens of approximately 600 and 400 years-old. In addition, we managed to postpone the felling of 48 individuals, at least for one year more. We hope in the next year, we will be able to rescue more of them.

(PHOTO: Don Alberto shows us a Shihuahuaco that we helped to preserve during the Shihuahuaco Campaign 2019-2020. We were able to buy two live trees to prevent them from being logged). 

(PHOTO: Volunteers help to plant Shihuahuaco saplings in our reforestation efforts @Novalis in March 2020.)

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

THANK YOU!