On Thursday, February 19, something special will take place at Filmhuis Oosterbeek: the start of a fundraiser for two new pieces of rainforest to be purchased

We welcome guest speaker Brigitte van den Berg, Member of the European Parliament for D66, rainforest enthusiast, and ambassador for Adopt Rainforest. Brigitte attended COP30 in Belém, Brazil. In her talk, she will share her experiences as a delegate at this climate summit.

After Brigitte’s story, we will screen our documentary Eufonia, a unique insight into the life of local guide Gerald. He takes us on a journey through his story and the Adopt Rainforest reserve. This will be followed by a Q&A with filmmaker Bram Sturm, who recently screened this documentary at the Rotterdam Wildlife Film Festival!

A wonderful program with a clear goal: on this date, our fundraiser will start for two new pieces of rainforest to be purchased, together covering 15 hectares of primary rainforest. The purchase will enable us to guarantee protection. The proceeds from this evening will therefore go towards this project, which Martin Havik will tell us more about.

Only 25 tickets are still available. Fill in the form below to register. You will receive confirmation by email.

Location: Filmhuis Oosterbeek (Weverstraat 85, 6862 DL Oosterbeek)
Start time: 19:30

Het bericht Film screening & Guest speaker Brigitte van den Berg verscheen eerst op Adopteer Regenwoud.

If I may describe 2023 it in two words, I would choose ‘energizing’ and ‘demanding’. Partly because ‘positive’ and ‘growth’ actually dominate every year and this was certainly the case again in 2023. In terms of donations, 2023 was another record year. For that, of course, great thanks to everyone who contributed. And the logic is simple: more donations means more positive impact in Costa Rica!

Positive impact

The positive impact is increased with several projects started and implemented in 2023:

• Dia del Arból, where all the students of the local elementary school visited us for lessons on nature conservation.
• The reforestation of about 25 hectares of pasture land in the reserve by manually planting 25,000 (!) trees with the support of Trees for All. For this project we were able to provide 5 men and 4 women from the neighboring indigenous tribe with a nice job.
• A diversity of smaller local projects with multi-year support from the Tui Care Foundation. This significantly improves social engagement and visibility and a large number of frog pools have been created for endangered frog species.
• Taking research to the next level in cooperation with Utrecht University. We are working hard to establish some 20 research plots throughout the reserve with the aim of being able to conduct good long-term structural research into biodiversity and ecosystems.

The developments of last year are nicely in line with the decision at the end of 2021 to focus a little less on the expansion of the reserve and more on securing and local support. Fortunately, we were also able to save 2.6 hectares of beautiful forest from a logging neighbor after all.

Local strengthening

In addition to these great projects, we have also worked very hard to strengthen the organization locally. More local staff and foundation directors have been recruited and trained, and permits and other legal matters have been arranged even better, also with a view to the future. Around the turn of the year, the entire research center underwent a renovation to make all facilities even safer and more accessible.

We have also been able to and had to learn a lot. The result of all the projects mentioned above is really genuinely fantastic, but it has also put a lot of pressure on the Costa Rican organization in particular. In retrospect, not so strange when you consider that all the ‘normal’ activities have also continued full speed ahead. And those ‘normal’ activities include the following: running a fully staffed research center including supervising the students, protecting a 240-hectare rainforest reserve, employing 10 permanent staff members, conducting ongoing research and processing the results, rescuing animals whenever possible, maintaining the foundation’s assets well, expanding and keeping networks, and managing the local foundation. This of course is already a real achievement to execute and supervise well and thoroughly every year. A deep respect and big thanks to Maarten and Hanneke, our local managers and student supervisors in Costa Rica, is in order. And of course also to Matthijs, the operational manager in the Netherlands who, in addition to his paid work, also does at least as much volunteer work for the foundation in order to support everything from the Netherlands as well as possible.

Dutch organization makes good progress

Most of what is mentioned above is about Costa Rica, formally an autonomous organization supported by Adopt Rainforest from the Netherlands, but in practice much closer together (thankfully). But also in the Netherlands, of course, plenty of great things happened! Thanks to a partner we now have our own can of soda on the market, we celebrated a very enthusiastic and well attended summer festival in Utrecht where we also kicked off a long-term formal partnership with Utrecht University, everyone has again put a lot of time, passion, knowledge, skill and effort into fundraising, the workshops for elementary school, the partnerships and our visibility on social media.

Thanks to your support

Our thanks go out to everyone who shares our passion and contributes to it in their own way. Small or large, the contribution counts. All donors, partners, volunteers, fans, ambassadors and everyone not mentioned here but involved: together we form the foundation, together we share and strengthen the passion, together we contribute to the realization of a beautiful and unique project in Costa Rica.

For 2024 we aim for beautiful and important further developments, including hopefully another expansion of the reserve to realize the connection with the Barbilla National Park. But with a little more peace and quiet than in 2023.

Pura Vida

Martin Havik

Chairman Foundation Adopt Rainforest

Het bericht 2023 – The year of projects and cooperation verscheen eerst op Adopteer Regenwoud.

Diet

In the wild, howler monkeys live to be 15 to 20 years old. The monkey’s diet consists mainly of leaves, which of course is not the best source of energy. Therefore, the monkey also spends large parts of the day while resting. Moreover, they should not eat too much from the same tree, as some leaves are slightly poisonous. So they are changing trees regularly. In addition to leaves, they also eat fruits, nuts and flowers. The monkeys’ sense of smell is very well developed, so well in fact that they can smell ripe fruit from 2km away. This is partly due to their round, wide-open nostrils. They rarely drink, as they get most of their moisture from food. Only when it is very dry they occasionally descend from their tree to search for water.

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Why the roar?

Their roar is an energy-saving way to communicate with other monkeys in the troop, as well as with competitors. In the morning and evening, they roar to mark their territory, and their roar is answered by other groups nearby. And although howler monkeys are strictly vegetarian, and generally not known to be aggressive, that roar can scare people quite a bit. Not surprising when you know that the sound can be heard up to 5 kilometers away. To roar so loudly, the monkeys have a hollowed-out hyoid bone near their vocal cords. A bone that all monkeys have, but that in howler monkeys is enlarged several times. It is mainly the males that you hear; the females also vocalize but are not as loud.

Troop animals

By the way, such a troop of howler monkeys can have up to 40 members, although about 15 is more average. The monkeys in a troop are usually not related to each other, because as soon as they reach sexual maturity they are expelled from the troop. The troop has a dominant male and several females with whom it mates. Despite not having a set mating season, most births are in the second half of December and in January. Pregnancy lasts six months, after which the baby remains close to mom for about 4 months. From about 10 weeks of age, the young begin to search for food on their own.

A riddle for science

By the way, did you know that there had been almost no apes in South America? All the native ape species of the Americas died out in the Eocene, some 35 million years ago. The ancestors of today’s New World came from North Africa. And given the distance and lack of fossils, it is unlikely that they made that trip by land, so now the hypothesis is that they crossed the ocean. Notswimming, of course, but clinging to driftwood, or on islands of torn-off pieces of land. At that time the sea level was even lower, so the journey would have taken “only” about 10-13 days. Too crazy to be true? Only future discoveries and science will be able to tell!

Foundation Adopt Rainforest has been working for more than 10 years to protect the habitat of these special howler monkeys. Would you also like to contribute to this effort? You can easily do so by adopting a piece of rainforest for these wonderful animals. You can do this for as little as €2.50 for a square meter. Adopt here

Het bericht The mantled howler monkey verscheen eerst op Adopteer Regenwoud.

By: Annemarie Silkens

Costa Rica is known for its amazing flora and fauna, especially in the rainforests and cloud forests. Costa Rica‘s plant world is very extensive and varied. Over 12,000 different plant species (of which more than 1200 species of orchids!) are found. Climate, soil conditions and altitude account for the great diversity. The area of rainforest has unfortunately been drastically reduced in recent decades, but through the Foundation Adopt Rainforest we are doing everything possible to protect and even expand the remaining rainforest.

Plant growth and flowers of the rainforest

The warm humid conditions of the tropical rainforest provide optimal conditions for plants throughout the year. This is why so many different species are found in the tropics. Sunlight on the forest floor of the tropical rainforest is so minimal that few plant species can thrive. This has resulted in the evolution of plants that can live on trees: Epiphytes. They can grow on tree trunks, branches, leaves and on top of other Epiphytes. Each tree is an ecosystem in itself on which grow many different plant species, such as bromeliads, orchids, cacti, arum-like plants, mosses, ferns and lichens.

Bromeliads

With more than 2,000 species, Bromeliads are very abundant. You sometimes find them on the ground, but mostly as Epiphytes on branches. The leaves of Bromeliads grow around the stems creating small cavities where rainwater accumulates. These small pools of water provide a safe environment for many invertebrates and amphibians, as well as other critters, such as snails, beetles, mosquito larvae, etc. When animals die in the water, they decompose and serve as fertilizer for their host plants. Because Bromeliads occur in many colors such as purple, blue, orange, red, yellow they are becoming more and more fashionable as ornamental plants. You alreayd know one: the pineapple, also a Bromeliad. If you have become so enthusiastic that you want to have a bromeliad in your home, take a look at one of our partners, the Bromeliad specialist in De Kwakel.

Orchids

No group of plants is as large as the orchid family. More than 20,000 species are known, and they grow mainly as epiphytes on trees. The many species come in all colors of the rainbow, including green. Orchids are popular because of their brilliant shapes and colors and the durability of the flowers.

Hot lips

The sexiest flower from Costa Rica is the psychotria elata. The fiery red flower resembles a beautiful set of lips and is sometimes called hot lips.

Climbing plants and lianas

In addition to the many beautiful flowers, the rainforest contains many climbing plants and lianas. Climbing plants grow upward along tree trunks at a rapid rate to reach daylight in the treetops. They attach themselves to trees with suction cups and climbing roots, or work their way up along their hosts while writhing with climbing vines. Lianas are thick woody climbers and some can grow to several hundred feet long. They wriggle upward like a thick rope around tree trunks and branches to get sunlight.

Let’s go bananas!

The banana plant is one of the oldest commercially grown houseplants, dating back to the 6th century! The first official banana plantation was found in Costa Rica but today this beautiful tropical plant is indispensable all over the world. Bananas are an important food source for large parts of the world but thus also a beautiful plant for your home! They come in many shapes and sizes.

Some care tips from our partner Nieuwkoop Europe BV.

1. While this sun-lover likes a light position, do not place it right in front of the window.

2. To mimic tropical conditions as much as possible, make sure the soil is moist (not too wet).

3. Provide a spacious pot to encourage healthy growth. Because to make that homegrown smoothie, the plant needs to shoot a few feet up in height.

Heliconias

Heliconias are beautiful colorful flowers with a multitude of colors, shapes, patterns and sizes, which is why they are starting to become increasingly popular as ornamental flowers. Some flowers have very special shapes that allow only certain species of hummingbirds and moths to reach their nectar glands. Heliconias bloom everywhere in Costa Rica: from deep in the rainforest to people’s front yards. The exceptionally beautiful flowers on this plant are actually bracts, in which small inconspicuous flowers are hidden.

Care of tropical plants

Tropical plants are not only found in the jungle or terrariums, but can also be kept in the home with the right care. This way you bring a piece of tropical rainforest into your home and create a beautiful, green and healthy oasis in your room. Because their origins are in the tropical rainforest, they are naturally accustomed to a lot of heat. They thrive in a climate that is relatively warm and humid. Did you know that the temperature in a tropical rainforest never goes below 16°C? During the day it even averages 29°C. The almost continuous cloud cover blocks the bright sun and barely allows the heat to escape. The light is also diffused by the dense vegetation. Therefore, there are few tropical plants that can tolerate bright and direct sunlight.

On the soil, where the plants naturally grow, the fertile layer is very thin. Organic waste is very quickly converted into nutrients by insects, fungi and bacteria and then directly absorbed by the trees and plants. Because there is no cold season in the rainforest, nutrients are absorbed throughout the year. The soil of the plants is therefore best continuously slightly moist and you can add nutrients regularly. A big fan and visitor to our project, Ilse from Mama Botanica has many more tips on caring for tropical plants. www.mamabotanica.nl

Did reading this piece also make you excited about the rich plant life in the rainforest? Then help protect and preserve this important ecosystem by adopting a piece of rainforest.

Adopt here

Het bericht How to bring the tropical rainforest into your home verscheen eerst op Adopteer Regenwoud.

Update First Aid

My first reaction when I heard that Iris wanted to do an internship in Costa Rica was enthusiasm, my second concern. Of course it’s a tremendously fun opportunity to do an internship in such a beautiful country, with so much nature and such great biodiversity. But as a concerned fat

her, I had some reservations….

So I took action right away. I contacted the Work with Nature Foundation (the internship provider) and listened to how the stay was arranged, and how they ensure the safety and health of the students.

One of the topics that came up was first aid training for the staff and guides. Coincidentally, I provide first aid training in addition to my work, and visiting my daughter gave me the opportunity to do so for the foundation!

Design of the training

To tailor the training to the risks, I wanted to know how the students live and work at the project in Costa Rica. Key issues were: high temperature and humidity, lots of rain and mud in the rainy season, poor terrain due to vegetation and differences in elevation, day and night observations and hikes, poisonous plants, insects and reptiles.

Based on this, I set up a training based on Red Cross first aid and sports first aid courses and the MARCH Protocol, a treatment program from the U.S. Army aimed at treating trauma.

First aid kit

It was agreed with the foundation that I would train the leaders and guides. I felt it was important to get them ready to act right away. To do this, together with the startup “First 15,” I provided them all with an individual first aid kit containing a simple instruction card, a tourniquet, nitrile gloves, a trauma dressing, a CPR mask and a thermal blanket.

First 15 helps people act properly in the first 15 minutes after an accident. They sponsored the training by donating a good number of kits and additional demonstration equipment. Furthermore, I donated the bags for the first aid kits from my own BV, as well as the CPR doll for the training and additional materials to fill the bags.

The Training

The training went well despite having to be translated into Spanish. The participants practiced successfully with the donated materials.

A few things struck me:

• In a Spanish-speaking country, Staying Alive is not the best song to convey a rhythm of 110/120 BPM. For CPR/heart massage, that is the recommended rhythm! So a tip is to use a song that fits within a country’s music culture. Google “CPR song” and you will get plenty of alternatives from which to choose.
• My experiences with the First 15 tourniquet have been very good. The First 15 tourniquet, with elastic Velcro and simple buckle, was quite a bit easier than other alternatives. The instruction “pull as hard as you can until you no longer feel a pulse in your wrist or ankle” was sufficient.
• During the evacuation drill, the guides showed themselves to be “Masters of the Machete.” In a few minutes they made a stretcher with which they could safely transport a victim.

All in all, a fun day with positive results and reactions of the participants to the training!

“Buy a piece of rainforest!” 

I had two reasons for writing this piece: the training and the new insights I gained about conservation through small-scale actions.

I used to see advertisements to buy a piece of rainforest and support conservation. I always thought, “Yeah , right”, “What difference is that going to make!”.

I can now say that I have seen with my own eyes that it works: The Adopt Rainforest Foundation has purchased so much rainforest in recent years that they have created a green corridor between the important Barbilla National Park and the beautiful Cabecar Indian Reservation. As a result, an uninterrupted strip of nature now exists for nature to use. This was the puzzle piece that nature needed to cross Costa Rica. Perhaps a relatively small initiative but with great impact.

Meanwhile, Iris has successfully completed her internship, I have experienced what real nature looks like, and the foundation’s staff goes out with a well-stocked first aid kit and the right knowledge. And I bought a piece of rainforest because I have seen that it works!

Robert Klingens, father of HAS Den Bosch student Iris.

Het bericht Student’s father gives first aid training in the rainforest of Costa Rica verscheen eerst op Adopteer Regenwoud.

From fauna to flora

In recent years, we have been able to host and supervise hundreds of students and volunteers from different educational levels and institutes. This mix of MBO, HBO and WO interns provides a varied learning environment for all participants and will continue to be a core value of our research project. Together we have learned a lot about the biodiversity in our reserve, observed rare and endangered species and even found undescribed species. In doing so, we have been especially looking for animals because they are relatively easy to name. Now we will work on plant diversity, and PhD students, professors and others specialists will also contribute to the knowledge of our reserve.

Influence of land use

The background of the study has everything to do with the genesis of our beautiful reserve. Man has had a great influence on nature in our project area for centuries. Deforestation, agriculture/livestock but also rainforest regeneration have created a mosaic of different habitats. So the rainforest we protect within the boundaries of the reserve is not all one and the same nature. For example, parts of the reserve used to serve as pasture or forestry plantation, while others have been covered by ancient forest for a very long time. Thanks to the studies we conducted in recent years, we know that the entire reserve fulfills an important function as a safe habitat for numerous (special) plant and animal species. With the new research, however, we are zooming in further and asking what past land use is currently affecting life in the various habitats.

Differences in tree species

Life in the rainforest obviously depends on the trees there in many ways, for example as a source of food, shelter, substrate for other plants and so on. Different tree species provide different services in this regard and make the presence of other plant and animal species possible or impossible. Moreover, tree species sequester carbon dioxide in different ways in trunks, branches and roots. Therefore, the number of trees and their species composition are a very important factor in rainforest biodiversity. We want to investigate whether there are differences between the habitats found in the reserve. Does rainforest that was pasture 40 years ago differ from rainforest where there was once a forestry plantation, for example. And how do they compare to an old, pristine rainforest?

Reservation in compartments

In the coming years we will divide the reserve into a large number of imaginary boxes. These boxes will be stored using GPS. Within these courses we will take measurements. In a first phase we will look at the thickness of the trees and their species composition in different courses. These data will tell us what influence land use decades later has on tree diversity and CO2 uptake. Moreover, by re-examining the courses annually, we will see how the forest continues to develop there. In addition, we can combine the knowledge we have gained about the animals with the knowledge of trees to reveal new relationships. In a later phase, we will also start surveying the rest of the vegetation (herbs, mosses, bromeliads, orchids, etc.) in these courses to get an even more complete picture. Research projects done on this scale and precision are scarce and of great value worldwide.

Input from researchers at Utrecht University

This ambitious research plan is only possible with the professional input of researchers from Utrecht University and from other institutes. However, the help of our students and volunteers remains indispensable. The knowledge we will gain will help Foundation Adopt Rainforest to understand the value of the reserve even better and possibly make more targeted choices for future rainforest acquisition or land use recommendations in the region. In addition, our data will serve a much broader purpose in the longer term, as regeneration and reforestation are of great importance globally in the fight against climate change, habitat fragmentation, and species and biodiversity conservation. Our project can serve as a show-case in the future and data can be extrapolated to large bids in the tropics so that conservationists can take effective action.

We can’t wait to get started with our students and volunteers on this monster job, which will take several years to complete, and hope that (potential) visitors are equally excited about the new research skills you can gain here. In addition, we remain active with ongoing research on tropical animals, so there is something for everyone.

Het bericht Long-term research project with Utrecht University verscheen eerst op Adopteer Regenwoud.

December is also for Adopt Rainforest a great time to look back and forward. I would like to start with expressing my great gratitude to all volunteers and donors for their commitment and contribution last year! All that support is what drives the foundation. We look back on a year with fantastic developments. Several dreams of the past have become reality. I would like to share with you the biggest milestones and plans for the future.

Costa Rica

First, the best news are from Costa Rica, after all that’s what it’s all about. The first howler monkey family has settled in the reserve! A few years ago, a male came to live there and just roared until a female arrived. So they had a baby in 2022! Read the amazing story about the howler monkey’s return here. In March we did a wonderful project with the local elementary school, where all the children from the village visited the research center for lessons about the rainforest. The oldest classes actually went into the reserve and planted trees. Watch the video of these special days here:

We had started the year by expanding the reserve with a 65-acre plot, the largest single purchase ever. Read the whole story behind this wonderful success here. Because this purchase caused the reserve to border a public road on all sides, we also hired 2 forest rangers to do patrols to further discourage illegal hunting and logging. After the awkward silence during corona, the research project has fortunately been full again for almost the entire year with students and volunteers, including for the first time two students from Costa Rica! Watch volunteer Madelief’s video here to get a good impression of the research project.

In the background we have been working with the help of good lawyers to drastically professionalize the organization. This was necessary because we are growing organically in all respects. After 5 years of building the organization and the research project in Costa Rica step by step, it was time to restructure a number of things with a clear vision of the future to ensure continuity in the long term. It feels good to also be able to take even better responsibility for the contribution of all donors in this way. To top it off, at the end of the year the first steps were taken to cooperate with Utrecht University for the expansion of our research.

The Dutch foundation

With all the developments in Costa Rica, the Dutch organization also needs to grow to provide the right support. Since September we therefore have our first employee. Matthijs Bol, founder of the foundation left the board and now works 3 days a week for the foundation. We can now answer questions from donors much faster and better and we are much better able as an organization to actively work with our volunteers to make the world aware of all the wonderful things we do, also for the benefit of fundraising! Since Matthijs started we have made tremendous progress on all fronts and we see this very clearly in a growth in donations. For example, one of our former dreams has come true: to tell the story of the foundation to Bush visitors with a stall for 3 days at Burger’s Zoo. But we also entered into a great partnership with Trees for All for the reforestation of 25 hectares of pasture land, the largest implementation project to date because no fewer than 27,500 trees have to go into the ground by 2023 plus maintenance in the years after. Read all about it in our article on reforestation. In the summer, after more than two years of online meetings, we fortunately had another very valuable live party in Utrecht where volunteers and donors were present. Matthijs, Maarten and myself gave presentations on the research project, reforestation projects and the development and plans of the foundation. Also back again are the live workshops at elementary school for our Rainforest for the Children project. Volunteers have fortunately risen again to carry out this wonderful mission and teach the children. Last but not least, we have once again managed to receive more donations than in previous years, even though at the time of writing we do not have final figures yet.

When I see the above I realize that “keeping short” has not quite worked out. And then the future plans are yet to come!

A new phase

In recent years we have had the focus of our activities on purchasing rainforest and realizing the research project. Relatively speaking, apart from creating jobs for a number of people, we have done little for or with the local population.

Now that the reserve is well over 200 acres in size we are one of the larger “landowners” in the area and with the research project we have also become a major employer. It has always been our vision that the whole project should be a locally supported project. We are of course continuously expanding the reserve and reforestation where necessary to achieve our ambition of 2,000 ha, but the focus of the next few years will be on increasing local involvement with the aim of making the project much more locally embedded. We will do this by doing many more projects with and for the people of San Miguel and the surrounding villages. In addition, due to the size of the reserve, much more active protection is needed, which we will achieve by deploying rangers. In concrete terms, this means that proportionally more money will go to these activities and slightly less to the purchase of new plots of land. This fits very nicely with the original plan we put on paper when the foundation was established. Active collaborations with local organizations (Barbilla National Park, Sinac, Minae, Punta de Lanza, etc) will also receive much more attention, all with the goal of getting the reserve and its immediate surroundings structurally well protected in the long term. The exact plans will follow in the annual report to be published in the first quarter of 2023.

We hope that you will continue to support us in these very wonderful developments and that you will join us if you are lucky enough to be able to come to Costa Rica one day!

Proud, grateful, satisfied and full of passion and energy, I myself will get back to work for foundation Adopt Rainforest!

Salud and Pura vida!

Martin Havik

President

Het bericht From dreams to reality! verscheen eerst op Adopteer Regenwoud.