Help us secure this irreplaceable land before it is lost forever
Help us raise £197,260 for our partner Reserva Ecológica de Guapiaçu (REGUA) to save 180 ha (444 acres) of vitally important land in Brazil’s Guapiaçu valley and protect the wildlife of the Guapiaçu watershed.
A generous private donor has provided funds which will match donations up to £197,260. This means gifts to the appeal will be doubled in value, and a £25 donation from you could be matched to make a £50 contribution overall. By donating, your support will go twice as far towards our fundraising target.
By donating to this appeal you will:
● Enable our partner to expand the REGUA reserve in Brazil’s Guapiaçu valley by 180 ha (444 acres) by purchasing the Hermes property (see map).
● Help to connect vulnerable forest fragments.
● Enable the employment of a ranger for one year.
● Protect the homes of hundreds of threatened species, many of which are found only in Brazil.
● Help to safeguard the Guapiaçu watershed, an essential area that provides water for over 2 million people in nearby Rio de Janeiro.
The Atlantic Forest is a stunning biodiversity hotspot teeming with some of the rarest wildlife in the world, but centuries of deforestation have left it severely fragmented, and the remaining forest faces further destruction for human development. This landscape needs our immediate action to protect and connect the pieces that are left before it is too late.
(Image: A Critically Endangered Southern Muriqui Monkey. Credit: ©Rob Jansen/Shutterstock)
"REGUA is a world of itself – a world of peacefulness. You walk this land and suddenly there’s a view through the canopy of rolling mountain ridges and thriving forest. It gives you a fantastic feeling of nature’s power and a huge inner strength to continue fighting for its future. We need nature more and more every day, please help us care for it.”
– Nicholas Locke, REGUA President –
(Image: A view of the wetlands and Atlantic Forest at REGUA. Credit: ©Lee Dingain)
A view of the Atlantic Forest, REGUA. Credit: ©WLT/Dan Bradbury.
What's already been achieved
REGUA recently celebrated its 25th anniversary and has been in partnership with WLT for more than two decades. In that time, it has been extraordinary to witness what has been achieved as what began as a private estate has turned into a thriving reserve and a living laboratory for restoration, research, and education. Today, REGUA helps protect a connected mosaic of forest across a 40,000-ha (98,842 acres) watershed, including a core reserve of around 15,000 ha (37,000 acres). Over the years, our supporters have helped make all this possible.
A view of the Hermes property. Credit: ©REGUA
Preserving an ancient forest
Brazil’s Atlantic Forest, known locally as the Mata Atlântica, is a place of singularly unique and rich biodiversity, stretching from coastal mangroves up into cloud-shrouded mountains. However, after centuries of deforestation, less than 12% of the country’s original Atlantic Forest remains, and the fragments that are left are isolated from each other. The REGUA reserve holds the third largest remnant of Atlantic Forest in Brazil. Here, under REGUA’s protection, precious standing forest, vital water sources, and endangered species all have the space and safety needed to thrive. But more land must be protected if we are to safeguard this remarkable area for the future.
Your donations will help secure the Hermes property, 180 ha of primary and secondary forest It sits at the bottom of the Guapiaçu valley with a small stream running through the landscape, which originates from an already owned REGUA property further up the valley.
“The Hermes land is a very important buffer area, containing a mixture of secondary forests and an important river. Securing Hermes will save vital adjoining land and priceless biodiversity. We must take this chance to protect it.”
– Nicholas Locke, REGUA President –
A Brown-throated Sloth at REGUA. Credit: ©Lee Dingain
Protecting wildlife and the only home it has
The Atlantic Forest is a place of extraordinary diodiversity, with the number of species it provides a home for comparable to the Amazon Rainforest. The biodiversity of the REGUA reserve alone is truly remarkable, with its 470 bird species, 4% of the total bird population in the world reside here. Along with 73 species of amphibians, 430 species of butterfly, and 61 mammal species, the reserve is a wellspring of wildlife.
Safe within the reserve’s boundaries, the Critically Endangered Southern Muriqui (Brachyteles arachnoides) swings through the trees, while the Lowland Tapir (Tapirus terrestris) previously extinct in Rio State, shuffles through the undergrowth having been successfully reintroduced to REGUA several years ago. In the glistening streams, you will find the endemic Central Humming Frog (Chiasmocleis lacrimae) and the Brazilian Snake-necked Turtle (Hydromedusa maximiliani) quietly going about their business.
The reserve also buzzes with the wings of an astonishing 240 species of Dragonfly, more than are found anywhere else in the Atlantic Forest. All this precious wildlife has a home thanks to the protection REGUA offers, but we need your help to keep it safe.
Some of the species found at REGUA…
A beautiful waterfall at REGUA. Credit:©Lee Dingain.
Safeguarding a source of life and water
To local communities, REGUA is a champion of the scientific and conservation importance of the Atlantic Forest, and its outreach and education activities have made it into a “Biohub” within the community and a place for social inclusion and learning. Everyone from ecotourists to university students to local school children find a place at REGUA, and surveys have found several species never before recorded by science.
The reserve and the neighbouring property your donations will help to protect falls within the Guapiaçu watershed, a place where mountain streams flow into rivers and provide clean safe water vital for the security of more 2 million people in areas of Rio de Janeiro. This ecosystem is precious and irreplaceable, and we urgently need your help to keep the forest standing and protect it from threats so that people and wildlife can benefit from it long into the future.
