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Reforestation and Atlantic Rainforest Institute Building....
22.05.10
Another beautiful morning at the lovely Bahia beach town of Itacare. The Breathe Festival is continuing today with a reforestation program of 510 seedings at the local school Escola Bosque da Passagem. A symbolic gesture after 510 years of portugese culture in the Bahia region. This school borders the Atlantic rainforest and is a perfect location to help educate the local children and attendants of the Breathe Festival. This private school is a program of several “godfathers” paying the monthly school fee. Amongst them is Chris Bachmann, founder of ARFI, the Atlantic Rainforest Institution. “Education is key to help the local children here to learn more about what is going on in the environment they live in. The earlier we can help them to understand, the more our conservation efforts will be successful.”
The children and students will join Chris Bachmann and Nicolas Mueller, President of the Breathe Foundation to plant trees. Nicolas Mueller, professional snowboarder, explains the efforts of ARFI, the Atlantic Rainforest Institution: “Only 7% of the original size of the rainforest are remaining and the ARFI Institute is protecting a corridor along the coast. Planting trees in this area together here with friends and everybody from the Breathe Festival is really cool.” AFRI, with support from the Breathe Foundation, The Association for Conservation and Swatch are constructing an Institution House at the school for the dual purpose of making it available to students during the day, farmers instructional seminars during the night and administration of the AFARI reforestation project.
Breathe participants inspected the progress of the construction, contributing several hours to the building which has been designed with coconut fiber roof and using recycled bottles as bricks in the wall.
The Breathe Festival guides are then leading the group through the Rainforest, across 200 year old Cedars, through the Cocoa plantation areas to “Artjungle”, an very remote eco farm with appartement rentals in traditional wood huts and a breathtaking view overlooking river Rio de Contas and the ocean shorelines. The Breathe Festival attendants will get introduction in Kiln art, ceramic art burned in the traditional “Kiln oven”. Ceramic art is considered on of the oldest artforms in the world.
Joseph Schoninger, Consultant to Breathe Foundation: “Artjungle is a magic place within the Atlantic Rainforest with a truly self sustainable concept. Visitors or tourists can stay here and enjoy the vast variety of fruits and vegetables, such as Passion fruits, Acerola, Mangostao, Acai and Caja which are typical for the southern Bahia region and do belong to the most healthy fruits on our planet.”
Here you can check out some pics from the trip through the jungle
For more information please contact Drew Stevenson at drew (at) breathefoundation.org.
