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"Adopt a Tree" is a project within the Jose Rebelo do Xingu Environment Foundation. A foundation which encourages general awareness in favour of the environment. It aims at preserving fauna and flora using a very simple idea, but one which provides fantastic benefits to those who participate.
The project is a pioneering initiative in the preservation of the Amazonian forests. It stimulates institutions and the population at large to adopt trees, thus helping preserve the bio diversity of the region.
Today, the trees in the foundation's preservation areas are protected from deforestation having a direct influence on the preservation of the species within the forest.
It was conceived simply, as only the Amazonian Indians know how, fruit of the interaction between Indian and nature which begat him. It will be a new experience taking as its main input the virgin forest, with highly promising perspectives including the promulgation of similar organisations.
Among its general aims, the foundation maintains the flora in its natural state, conserving it and enriching it with the planting of new species: Studying the flora, knowing it better and using all the benefits of its rich local environment to benefit national society and the international community.
Our specific objectives are:
a. to maintain a forest reserve in its original state, and one which has suffered the minimum of human interference;
b. to identify through field research, all species within the local environment worked on by the project.
c. to plot by GPS, each individual tree larger than 0.5 cm in circumference, to a height of 1.5 metres, onto a detailed plan of its perfect location.
d. to encourage partnerships, national and international, for the conservation of the reserve by means of adoption of each plotted tree. A fee for protection/adoption/ conservation, is charged for each tree adopted.
e. to develop research into the area's bio-diversity, the results of which will be made available to the national and international scientific community;
f. to serve as a biological reserve and safe space for the animals confiscated by IBAMA (Instituto Brasileiro do Meio Ambiente e dos recursos Naturais Renováveis) in the region;
g. a centre of recuperation and integration of the devastated areas by means of planting new native species, which no longer exist in the area.
h. to prevent predatory actions and to adopt a minimum of human intervention;
i. to identify each individual tree with the name and nationality of its sponsor;
To attain these objectives, the area will be transformed into a Private Reserve of Environmental Heritage, in such a way that partnerships with the State are permitted at all levels of the Federation.
It is, therefore, a new model in the defence of nature. One which should generate an amalgamation of experience suitable to other, similar entities. We are sure the experience will be spread throughout the Amazon region. This would allow a bigger control of the protected area, avoiding and/or reducing "bio-piracy", all too common in our region, causing detriment to the national scientific centres.
This project has made it possible for the foundation to embark on new challenges, thus collaborating to avoid extraction practices, which are corrosive and endanger the future of mankind.
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