With Rovio’s donation, and plenty of wild memes, Wild Green Future will support the conservation of the Brazil Nut Corridor in Peru.
Last year, Angry Birds was happy to join in the meme slinging fun of Wild Green Future’s charity battle. In this annual event, participants form “gangs” around their favorite organisms and battle it out with other gangs for who can raise the most money for an important ecological initiative. Wild Green Future partners with Alliance for a Sustainable Amazon (ASA), which operates various conservation programs in the Amazon rainforest. The beneficiary from last year’s battle was the so-called “mountain chicken” which as it turns out is not a chicken at all, but in fact an endangered frog.
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This year, Wild Green Future and ASA turn to the Brazil Nut Corridor, an area in Peru where Brazil nut trees grow in abundance, and are an important part of the local economy. Read a bit about the Brazil Nut Corridor and what ASA is doing to support the region from Wild Green Future:
Found throughout the Amazon rainforest and especially common in southern Peru, Brazil nut trees make up one half of an unusual partnership. Brazil nut trees need functioning rainforest for successful productivity. Unlike many food plants, they are very difficult to farm in a monocrop system. In an expansive area of rainforest known as the Brazil Nut Corridor, the Peruvian government protects large tracts of forest known as “concessions”. The families that collect Brazil nuts on these tracts are called concessionaires, and each has exclusive harvesting rights to their individual concessions. This area also acts as a bridge between several major national reserves and conservation parks, providing critical connections for wildlife in the face of rapid deforestation.
As long as the Brazil nut harvest remains financially sustainable, the government will continue to protect this region of intact rainforest. However, in many areas, older trees are aging out, and not enough younger trees are growing to replace them. Our partner organization, the Alliance for a Sustainable Amazon, is working in collaboration with the Brazil nut concessionaires to help grow and plant new Brazil nut trees in the forest, ensuring a future for both the Brazil nut harvest and the broader ecosystem. Every year, more families come forward to join the program, expanding its reach with each growing season.
With donations from Angry Birds and participants in this year’s charity battle, the Alliance for a Sustainable Amazon will expand on their work with Brazil nut concessionaires, providing training, planning assistance, and seedlings to new participating families, and checking in with previous participants to measure the success of their efforts and lend further support. By partnering with the people who make their living from and manage the Brazil nut corridor, we can help ensure a brighter future for this biodiverse region of the Amazon rainforest.
The charity battle is on until 11:59 PM EST on February 17. Interested in donating? Learn more here!