Our Atlantic Rainforest Institution Mission
ATLANTIC RAINFOREST INSTITUTION ARFI
Trees help regulate the climate by absorbing atmospheric carbon dioxide „CO²“ – the main greenhouse gas. Burning tropical forests contributes 20% of the world’s greenhouse gas emissions, that is more then all cars, trucks, trains and planes combined!! Saving rainforests is the fastest and most effective way to stabilize global climate change. It is a critical part of the larger solution, and action is required NOW!
The Atlantic Rainforest is the most striking example of a conservation HOTSPOT – 93% of it’s original size were destroyed during the last 500 years - extremely rich in biodiversity and under continued threat!
The main goal of the Atlantic Rainforest Institution is to preserve and reforest the truly endangered and species-rich Atlantic Rainforest along Brazils Atlantic coastline. All intact rainforest sponsored is later transferred into a „Reserva Particular de Patrimonio National „RPPN“ (a natural reserve) that guarantees governmental protection for eternity!
Even tough heavily deforested, the biome still holds a very high biological diversification with a high level of endemism. The Atlantic Rainforest harbors more then 20'000 tree species. In Southern Bahia (where the ARFI headquater is located) there were following counts recorded in only one hectare (size of a football field): 270 species of mammals (90 endemic), 372 amphibious (260 endemic), 197 reptiles (60 endemic), 849 birds (188 endemic), 2120 butterflies (948 endemic) and a biodiversity world record of 456 trees.
ARFI is a non-governmental organization with trade register number - 2984 à Folha 0022 do Livro A-14 do Cartório de Títulos e Documentos da Comarca de Ilhéus - Bahia - Brazil. CNPJ - 08.631.232 /0001-50 (Cadastro de Pessoa Juridica). Date of Foundation: 5th of June 2005
At the time being we are establishing a REDD+ project that will bring in International scientists in the field of Integrated Farming practises and a team around Prof. Gerry Strobel regarding research on endophytes.
ARFI collaborates mainly with local NGO’s, biologists, farmers, etc. and is activ on the Costa de Cacau in Southern Bahia, Brazil. Our International ambassadors help raise awarness among young people on the planet.
ARFI
The people behind the ARFI love nature and are committed to preserve the Atlantic Rainforest in Southern Bahia, Brazil. The founders of the ARFI are also the founders of Jungle LTD, a small Swiss company, that launched SuddenRush Guarana SuddenRushGuarana.com in 2006. We strongly believe that we must be the change in the world we wish to see and launched SuddenRush Guarana with the sole interest to fund projects that help preserve the Atlantic Rainforest. Of course we do know that we must run a profitable business - but profit is not our main concern!
Our main concern is a healthy Atlantic Rainforest in collaboration with our healthy fair trade project. Everything and everybody involved in our project in of an equal importance. Because our knowledge of the local situation was rather small, we looked around for aware people that could support our ideas. At the end we teamed up with local and truly aware university professors, biologists and geologist and people with lot’s of experience in how to run a sustainable project, where all parties involved and most of all the Atlantic Rainforest profits.
The long term goal of the Atlantic Rainforest Institution (ARFI) is to create a 30 kilometer long ecological corridor, that leads from the banks of Rio Contas all the way to the „Serra do Conduru State Park“, where a study realized by the Botanical Garden of New York identified 456 different tree species in one hectare (100m x 100m) – this is considered a world record in biodiversity!
The original ARFI rainforest base was created in 1993. The land of our institution boarders the banks of Rio Contas to the north and holds natural freshwater springs, centenary trees like cedar and a huge variety of fauna and flora.
Let’s have a closer look at the stretch of land in between the ARFI rainforest base on Rio Contas and the Serra do Conduru State Park 30 kilometers to the Shouth: Still today we find wide areas of primary or secondary Atlantic Rainforest with and without cocoa plantations inside, owned by small, medium and big landowners. Little over twenty years ago the fungus „Vassoura de Bruxa“ was spread over the whole cocoa-cost by the wind and affected most plantations in Southern Bahia. Cocao doesn’t bring the necessary income anymore for local landowners, so former plantations are being sold for logging and farming, this currently supports the deforestation of the area.
VOLUNTARY STAY
Do you feel like you need a little timeout from our western and mostly hectic world?
Would you like to breath clean air for a couple of weeks?
Would you like eat some of the best tasting fruits you ever tried?
Would you like to make your own experience, instead of reading other people’s experience in magazines and newspapers every day?
Would you like to preserve the Atlantic Rainforest with your own two hands?
Are you ready to work for no money but for the good cause?
Are you willing to live life simple as the local farmers?
Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes,yes and yes - contact us Info@SuddenRushGuarana.com to set up your personal voluntary stay.
BIODIVERSITY
Biodiversity - short for biological diversity - is the number and types of organisms in an ecosystem, region or environment.
THE BIODIVERSITY OF THE RAINFOREST
The loss of tropical rainforests has a profound and devastating impact on our life!
Consider these facts:
- A single pond in Brazil can sustain a greater variety of fish than is found in all of Europe's rivers.
- A single rainforest reserve in Brazil is home to more species of birds than are found in the entire United States.
- One single tree in Peru was found to harbor forty-three different species of ants - a total that approximates the entire number of ant species in the British Isles.
- The number of species of fish in the Amazon exceeds the number found in the entire Atlantic Ocean.
Words by Harvard's Pulitzer Prize-winning biologist Edward O. Wilson: The worst thing that can happen is not energy depletion, economic collapses, limited nuclear war, or conquest by a totalitarian government. As terrible as these catastrophes would be for us, they can be repaired within a few generations. The one process ongoing in the 1980s that will take millions of years to correct is the loss of genetic- and species diversity by the destruction of natural habitats. This is the folly that our descendants are least likely to forgive us for.
Yet still the destruction continues. If deforestation continues at current rates, scientists estimate nearly 80 to 90 percent of tropical rainforest ecosystems will be destroyed by the year 2020. This destruction is the main force driving a species extinction rate unmatched in 65 million years.
The Atlantic Forest is not only a most diverse ecosystem, but also the habitat for many endemic plants and animals. Pau Brazil (engl Brazil wood, latin: caesalpinia echinata) that gave it’s name to the country of Brazil, origins from the Atlantic Forest and is in verge of extinction. ARFI planted hundreds of Pau Brazil and thousands of other precious wood seedlings on it’s properties and intends to reforest many more. The „Golden Lion Tamarin“ monkey is just one example of many truly endangered endemic species of the Atlantic Rainforest.
The Atlantic Rainforest is the most striking example of a conservation HOTSPOT – 93% of it’s original size were destroyed during the last 500 years. It is very rich in biodiversity and under continued threat! Just for your information: about 80% of the Amazon remains today. The worst, the Atlantic Rainforest is hardly known by anybody in the Western world – we all must change this!
The Atlantic Forest or „Mata Atlantica“ stretches along Brazil's Atlantic coast. It extends inland to eastern Paraguay and the province of Misiones in northeastern Argentina, and narrowly along the coast into Uruguay. Also included in this hotspot is the offshore archipelago of Fernando de Noronha and several other islands off the Brazilian coast.
The Atlantic Rainforest comprises 7 ecosystems with up to 5 altitudinal zones. Therefore, the biodiversity of the Atlantic Rainforest is particularly high. It comprises the second largest biosphere reserve on Earth. About 600 of Brazil's 900 conservation units are to be found in the Atlantic Rainforest.
The exceptional biodiversity of the ecosystems of the Atlantic Rainforest is related to its geological history, its tropical and subtropical position, severe climate changes in the past and substantial altitudinal differences from 0 to almost 3.000 m. The coastal mountain ranges „Serra do Mar“ and „Mantiqueira“ contain the highest peaks on the Atlantic side of the American continent. Additionally coastal rainforests are significantly richer in biodiversity than inland ones like.
The original size of the Atlantic Rainforest once covered over 1.23 million km2. Today a mere of 99 thousand km2 remain. That is less then 7%!
Even tough heavily deforested, the biome still holds a very high biological diversification with a high level of endemism. The Atlantic Rainforest harbor more then 20\'000 tree species. In Southern Bahia (where the ARFI base camp is located) there were following counts recorded in only one hectare (size of a football field): 270 species of mammals (90 endemic), 372 amphibious (260 endemic), 197 reptiles (60 endemic), 849 birds (188 endemic), 2120 butterflies (948 endemic) and a world record of 456 trees. Once a species is extinct, it is gone forever!
SUSTAINABLE GUARANA
One of our main targets is to transfer deforested land, that still boarders intact rainforest, into secondary rainforest by a new and sustainable way of planting Guarana. In this scenario ARFI provides land and Guarana seedlings for an all organic and fair trade production to local farmers.
As a creeper - Guarana grows in our new designed cultivation upwards a tree - in a eco-friendly symbiosis. Guarana can only be harvested by hand and the world market literally screams for the natural and healthy energy seed, because it only grows in the Amazon- and the Atlantic Rainforest. Since the demand is so big, the prices for Guarana are very high and herewith guarantee a very good income for local farmers.
After the first year of cultivating Guarana, the plant already creates 20% of the seeds, but it takes seven years to reach 100% of the crop. The local farmers then will harvest for only seven more years. 14 years after putting the seedlings in the soil, we will transfer the whole piece of land into a „RPPN“(natural reserve). Wind will spread seeds and some decades later we created a new area of secondary rainforest. This scenario can be repeated various times in order to restore rainforest for our future generations, while local families can still enjoy a good income. By only preserving rainforest we eliminate the chance for local people to survive in their habitat. Normally rainforest is chopped down to create new areas of cultivation – we change this picture and created sustainable Guarana cultivations in order to create more rainforest – think!
Guarana (paullinia cupana) is a creeping shrub and part of the Sapindaceae family, native to the Amazon and Brazils Atlantic Rainforest. The plant can grow up to 12 meters long, nestled around the massive trees of the equatorial rainforest, which provide nutrition as well as stimuli.
The secret of Guarana is it’s high caffeine content, which is the highest naturally occurring caffeine content in the world. But unlike traditional coffee bean caffeine, it is free of any adverse effects and longer lasting (4-6 hours) and not aggressive towards our system. Guarana also contains ether oils and saponines. For the indigenous of south America, Guarana used to be as highly valued as Gold was by the Europeans. Today Guarana is also known as “Brazils Ginseng” or „Elixir of Youth“.
Guaraná is reputed to be a stimulant and increase mental alertness, fight fatigue, and increase stamina and physical endurance.
In addition to its stimulant properties, guarana is also a popular ingredient in herbal weight loss pills. Evidence indicates that guarana may suppress appetite and increase fat-burning. After all Guarana is Brazil’s hangover cure No. 1!
