Friday 09. of January 2009

 

The Atlantic Rain Forest Institute

It is little understood how deforestation, particularly of Rain Forests, around the globe will create a snowballing effect in so many different areas. Species extinction, global CO2 levels, destroying bio-diversity, environmental degradation including soil, water, and erosion effects.

It has been said that the Rain Forests are the lungs of the earth, which makes the daily loss rate of a football field a second one of the most alarming environmental statistics out there. The site features a counter that indicates how many species have gone extinct during your visit and how many meters of Rain Forest has been destroyed.

Sudden Rush, founded by Chris Backman, has been working for years to increase awareness and address this issue in practical, on the ground methods for years. Presently, the Atlantic Rain Forest Institute’s web site is in beta mode with the full site going live on the 1st of March, however, already there it hosts a wide range of information.

The institute also employs a very unique method of working with individual, corporate and governmental donors, allowing people to “sponsor” a specific area of Rain Forest. Donors can sponsor as little or as much as they want and can actually check the progress of the re-forestation online via satellite imagery.

Conceptually simple, it is a brilliant catalyst bringing sponsorship, technology, ecological, local communities, individuals and businesses together all on the same page.   

Another cleaver concept is their Sustainable Guarana concept:

"One of our main targets is to transfer deforested land, that still boarders intact Rain Forest, into secondary Rain Rorest by a new and sustainable way of planting Guarana. In this scenario SRARFI provides land and Guarana seedlings for an all organic and fair trade production to local farmers."

They also have a CO2 offset program with SRAFI to check out...

We give it a Gold Star for forward thinking and practical implementation....