Veronika Perková, Journalist & Host of the podcast Nature Solutionaries sits down with Micaela Locke, REGUA’s Research and Communications Coordinator to talk about her family’s dedication to Brazil’s “other” rainforest.
When Micaela Locke, a young Brazilian conservationist, speaks about her work at Guapiaçu Nature Reserve, she is radiant. No wonder. It’s rare to come across such a nice conservation story. Her family’s property, which could have been turned into a condominium or a factory back in the 1990s, has instead become a vibrant 11,000-hectare nature reserve buzzing with wildlife.
In this interview, Micaela Locke talks about protecting biodiversity in the Atlantic Forest in Brazil and creating a corridor for wildlife by planting trees sourced from seeds the surrounding rainforest.
Welcome, Micaela! While the Amazon is the largest and best-known rainforest in Latin America, the Atlantic Forest rarely makes it into the headlines of international news. And yet, it’s incredibly important for global biodiversity conservation. Can you briefly describe why it is so unique?
The Atlantic Forest is among the biologically richest and most diverse forests in the world with high levels of fauna and flora, which is found nowhere else on the planet. Its mosaic of different ecosystems ranges from humid, dry and coastal forests to mangroves. The forest is home to around 20,000 species of plants and 2,100 species of birds, mammals, reptiles, amphibians and fish. Some of the region’s most iconic animals, such as pumas, ocelots, tapirs and woolly spider monkeys, live in the Atlantic Forest.
This incredible biodiversity is under threat because it’s estimated that less than 16% of the forest cover remains today. How can we best protect what’s left and prevent further degradation?
Thanks to the Atlantic Forest National Law created in 2006 and the creation of parks, illegal logging and poaching have decreased throughout the country. People know that if they cut a tree, they will be prosecuted. So I believe the best solution is to turn the remaining forests into parks, which is already happening across Brazil. In the state of Rio de Janeiro, around 30% of the original forest cover (1 million hectares) is already legally protected by the Atlantic Forest National Law.
REGUA protects over 11,000 hectares of the Atlantic Forest in the Guapiaçu watershed. How did you manage to create such a big protected area?
It all began with my great grandfather, who moved from Germany to Rio de Janeiro state in 1895. He established his business (a silk factory) in Petropolis and bought land in the Guapiaçu watershed. The third generation understood the relevance of protecting the remaining forest within the property and decided to create a private nature reserve in the late 1990’s.
What an interesting story! Since then REGUA has been protecting the forest and its biodiversity by expanding the nature reserve through land acquisition and partnership agreements, right?
Yes. In 2002, we increased the size of the reserve to 2,000 hectares. That’s where we created the offices, lodge and housing for visitors. Thanks to partners, such as SavingNature, we’ve been buying more land every year. We now own 8,000 hectares and additional 3,000 hectares through partnership agreements.
What is your goal? How much do you want to expand the reserve?
We want to double the size of REGUA in the Guapiaçu watershed. This area is important for three reasons: It safeguards a vital watershed for 2.5 million residents of eastern Metropolitan Rio de Janeiro city, builds habitat for biodiversity, and sequesters carbon dioxide to fight climate change.
Is it easy to buy land?
It has become easier over the years, because people trust REGUA’s conservation work. We often have people coming to our office to offer their properties for sale. We usually buy land on slopes not suitable for farming or eroded hills and grasslands degraded from cattle grazing and areas that were burned for crops in the past.
Planting Trees to Create Wildlife Corridors
Besides protecting standing forests, you’ve also been restoring forests that had previously been cleared for timber and agriculture. What is your tree-planting strategy?
The aim of our reforestation program is to create connectivity between isolated forest fragments. Basically, we are building corridors that will enable wildlife to move through and access to other areas.
How many trees have you planted so far?
Since 2002, we have planted 800,000 trees.
Quite a number! What type of trees are you planting?
Our team and volunteers collect seeds from about 250 native Atlantic Forest species year-round from the forest on the reserve and surroundings. Over the years, we’ve been increasing the production of saplings in our nursery. The nursery can now provide about 100,000 saplings per year.
That’s a lot! Do you have any special strategy for tree planting?
When we work on a reforestation site, we plant three categories of trees: pioneer, second growth and mature (climax). Each of these trees have a different function in the forest. The pioneer trees grow very fast, providing shade for the other trees. When the pioneer trees reach 10-15 years of age, they start breaking and die, creating organic matter and nutrients for the second growth trees. These trees grow slower and are important because they open the way for more demanding species. Two of the most majestic trees are the Jequitibá and Copaíba trees, which take up to 30 to 50 years to become mature and produce seeds. When all these trees grow in one forest, it can be considered a mature forest.
Once the saplings are planted, how do you care for them?
We have to return every three months to the restoration site to weed around the saplings and control the presence of the leaf cutting ants. This can take up to three or four years.
What are your reforestation goals for the upcoming years?
REGUA wishes to plant a million trees in the upcoming years within the Guapiaçu watershed. This can only be made possible through the generous support of partners like Saving Nature.
Getting Results
What animals use the corridor?
We have seen pumas, ocelots, margays and tapirs in the corridor. These animals need big areas to survive to search for food or explore the territory. But also birds, such as the Shrike-like cotinga, the Bellbird, the Blue-winged Parrotlet, and the White-necked Hawk, which used to be rare, are making a comeback. Even though our oldest restoration sites are 16 years old and it will take another 20-30 years for the forests to be mature, they are already buzzing with life.
A train engineer saved a helpless dog who found himself trapped on Massachusetts train tracks, local news reported. Thanks to the engineer’s sharp eye and fast response, the dog avoided being hit by a train headed straight for Lowell.
“This dog had broken his cable runner when he got loose from his home that is right next to the tracks and got tangled there,” Billerica and Tewksbury Animal Control wrote in a Facebook post.
Ignacio Barillas, an engineer with Keolis, saw the dog caught on the opposite tracks as his commuter train was heading away from Lowell. He quickly remembered that another commuter train was coming towards Lowell — on the same track the dog was on.
“The dog was stuck around one of the spikes in the rails, and there was no way the dog would have been able to get out of there on its own,” Barillas told Boston.com.
After stopping the train, Barillas communicated with the dispatcher, while the train conductor and assistant conductor ran over to rescue the dog. The dog was brought onto the train and given a free ride while the train continued its route.
Upon reaching the North Billerica Station, a Billerica and Tewksbury Animal Control officer took the dog into their care. The animal control office reported that he was happily reunited with his family.
Lady Freethinker commends Barilla’s quick thinking and compassionate response to the deadly situation, inspiring us all to act with kindness and courage.
Looking back on 55 years in a wheelchair, Joni reflects on the Lord’s faithfulness amid her adversity. She shares how trusting God through hardship has given her strength to not only persevere but live with hope and joy!
In some dystopian universe, it seems to be coming to life right in the heart of Chicago, Illinois, the DNC host city.
Planned Parenthood Great Riveres seemed to jump at the opportunity to do what they do best – offer abortions (on wheels) and apparently “high-in-demand” vasectomies to eager DNC goers. Sadly, it is not satire, as the New York Post reported:
“Attendees at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago will have the opportunity to get a free abortion, or vasectomy just blocks away from the event — and vasectomy appointments are filling up fast.
Planned Parenthood Great Rivers, which serves most of Missouri and part of southern Illinois, sends a mobile health center to the Windy City’s West Loop to offer reproductive services on Monday and Tuesday.”
Though not necessarily advertised as free, their appointment reservation form indicates that attendees can “pay on a sliding scale,” and as Planned Parenthood’s Chief Medical Officer Colleen McNicholas told the New York Post, “I think we should be doing what we can as health care providers to show what the impact of good policy and bad policy is.”
If her idea of good policy is abortion-on-demand for women while only asking for name, date of birth, and basic contact information, we’d beg to differ. Apparently, attendees can’t prevent pregnancy fast enough as waitlists for vasectomies grow, according to the same New York Post article. Americans for Contraception planned to bring an 18-foot-tall inflatable intrauterine device (IUD) named “Freeda Womb” as a startling centerpiece.
Yet, they insist they’re not the weird ones, the extremists, or the radicals. Forget even the fact that pro-Palestine protestors are coming in droves to Chicago, and local businesses are so afraid that they’re boarding their buildings. Or that protestors were walking around as Chemical Abortion Pills while frolicking the streets of Chicago. No, no – it’s pro-life, family-loving men and women who lean or are conservative. They’re the real weirdos, according to pro-abortion Democrats.
Is anyone really buying that?
No one at Students for Life of America (SFLA) is. We’ve covered before this strenuous effort from abortion supporters to normalize abortion as if it’s the same concept as going grocery shopping or getting ready to go out. Except it’s not. It’s the intentional, evil killing of the preborn. Using TikTok and other social media platforms to numb their audience to this atrocity confirms Isaiah 5:20, a piece of Biblical Scripture and sound wisdom:
“Woe unto them that call evil good, and good evil; that put darkness for light, and light for darkness; that put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter!”
Indeed, the DNC not only offers up the killing of the preborn as good but publicly hands out abortion services and vasectomies like they’re a nearby taco vendor. No, seriously. New York Post reports that, “Planned Parenthood offered free vasectomies and medicinal abortions in an oversized van outside the Democratic National Convention on Monday, giving men the chance to get snipped in as little as 20 minutes – and grab a taco on their way out.” (emphasis added)
The sweetness of new life is snuffed out by the bitter cry of the preborn soul being either starved to death through Chemical Abortion Pills or being torn limb by limb through surgical abortion.
This isn’t simply about playing the media narrative game by putting the “weird” title back onto abortion extreme Democrats. There is a moral obligation to cement the “evil” label onto the Democrats’ pro-abortion agenda, which is broadly encompassing pro-death.
Babylon Bee CEO Seth Dillon all but proved that point with his satire publication. First, he rightly asserted on X (formerly Twitter) that the Democrats are the pro-death party. Not long after, Babylon Bee posted a satirical headline and picture that caught attention and circulated as if it was real:
“DNC Dyes Chicago River Red To Celebrate Abortion”
Many people thought it was real and were appalled but were completely unsurprised. This is because all sides of the political aisle understand the Democrats’ naked position on abortion and either embrace or reject it. Or, somewhere in between, unfortunately.
They are pro-death and anti-family. Their platform depends on it.
And paired with their abortion agenda is a sterilization one. In their newly released DNC platform, they condemn Former President Donald Trump’s rightful condemnation of “gender-affirming care” for minors, which is another way of saying Trump is against mutilating and chemically castrating children. Which, if we might remind you, is something else Planned Parenthood is known for – and has proudly boasted about.
“The plan also backs medical sex changes for children, calling the group of so-called trans children ‘transgender youth,’” The Post Millennial reported. “The plan does not give age limits on when this care should begin.”
So, in a sense, the DNC is perfectly normal when it comes to fully embracing the evil of killing innocent and preborn children, as well as mutilating and chemically castrating young children who are confused, abused, or both.
Take one thing away from this: Democrats are no longer the party of classical liberalism, and they aren’t just pro-weird – they’re pro-death and anti-family. The pre-DNC shenanigans all but sealed the deal.
Starting Thursday, August 19, the Blessings in a Backpack Chicago Chapter will be making its TV debut with our very first commercials on WGN’s Morning News program! Tune in between 6–10 a.m. to catch a glimpse of our mission in action.
Thanks to the support of a pro bono industry consultant, our commercials will be airing until September 1, providing us with a unique opportunity to increase awareness of weekend hunger in our community and the vital work we do to feed children who might otherwise go hungry.
Watch the broadcast on WGN to see how we’re making a difference in our community. This is a fantastic chance to spread the word and inspire others to join our cause.
Please note: our commercials will only air on broadcast TV, so if you’re catching the news through streaming platforms or cable, you might miss out!
Thank you for your continued support, and we hope you enjoy the show!
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