LAC Chapter
- 4 days ago
- 2 min read
Onçafari: Guardians of Brazil's Biodiversity
Brazil’s biodiversity is threatened, but local conservation organisation Onçafari is fighting to protect it. This non-profit organisation works to protect the country’s rich ecosystems by acquiring critical land, reintroducing species, and promoting environmental awareness.
Without influencing decisions and changing important legislation, the battle to protect Brazil’s forests, wetlands, and rainforests from industries like mining and agriculture may be hard to win. Yet Onçafari works hard to protect the country’s biodiversity through various projects in four key biomes: the Pantanal, the Amazon, the Atlantic Rainforest, and the Cerrado.
João Vasconcellos de Almeida, Onçafari’s Conservation and Operations director, says current legislation does not protect nature. Beyond supporting agriculture, deforestation remains a problem with most of the agriculture and mining sectors focusing on producing commodities. One of Onçafari’s missions is to create a network of protected areas to sustain entire ecosystems and their diverse flora and fauna.
They do this by creating wildlife corridors in the Amazon and Pantanal. By acquiring land under threat, they create corridors for animals to move safely between protected areas without the risk of encountering humans or traffickers. These ecological corridors already span over 100 000 hectares. Onçafari also understand the importance of the communities surrounding these protected areas and corridors and work closely with them. Training community members to patrol these areas has helped to keep the active wildlife traffickers out of the area.
Onçafari’s approach extends beyond land acquisition. The organisation is also at the forefront of protecting endangered species, with successful programmes focused on jaguars, which often get targeted for their fur and teeth, and other native animals. They were also the first organisation to reintroduce jaguars back into the wild. Vasconcellos de Almeida highlights their role in relocating a male jaguar to Argentina, which helped reintroduce the species to Iberá National Park after decades of extinction. He added: “the beauty of our project in Iberá is that we could establish a new jaguar population there, after decades with any jaguars living in this national park.”
Recognising the importance of environmental education, Onçafari’s has an outreach program, using media platforms like BBC and National Geographic to raise awareness and inspire action. They also collaborate with local groups to help communities understand the need to preserve their natural heritage.
Onçafari’s work is not without challenges. “Civil society is doing what the government should be doing by protecting what is left”, explains Vasconcellos de Almeida. Wildfires, illegal wildlife trafficking, logging and a lack of comprehensive legislation continue to threaten the ecosystem.
By safeguarding critical habitats, rehabilitating endangered species, and fostering environmental awareness, Onçafari is paving the way for a more sustainable future.
United for Wildlife, through its Latin American Chapter, proudly supports Onçafari’s work. Learn more: https://oncafari.org/en/
We originally published this article in the second edition of ThisWildEarth. Read our publications here.
ThisWildEarth
Comments