Santurario da Natureza Familia Walker
Walker Family Nature Sanctuary Priaquara PR Brazil
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Mudar para Português Santuário da Natureza Família Walker
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Rain Forest Recuperation  Project In Brazilia's Southern Atlantic Coastal Rainforest.
Gary and Rogerio putting up the sign for the RainForest recuperation Project at the Walker Family Nature Sanctuary in Piraquara, PR, Brazil
Ever thought about volunteering
to save a

Tropical Rainforest?

The Atlantic Coastal Rainforest of Southern Brazil (Mata Atlântica) is facing enormous challenges as the planet struggles to adapt to overpopulation and urban expansion and recent political leadership changes seem to lean toward loosening up on logging restrictions in preserved areas to favor agricultural and cattle ranching initiatives.

The Walker Family Nature Sanctuary (Santuário da Natureza Família Walker) in Piraquara, PR, Brazil, is much like most of the rural vestiges of this area's rainforest land in recuperation... victim of traditional disorganized bureaucratic sluggishness, poachers, clandestine real estate deals, unlawful logging, hunting and trapping, political interests and manipulations, crime, corruption, greed and arrogance.

Help us save what's left of one of the planet's most diverse collections of flora and fauna still in existence.

Join Atlantic Rainforest Volunteer Program at Walker Famioy Nature Sanctuary in Southern Brazil's Atlantic Coast Cloud  Forest

Download Application Form Here.

Morning glory at SWlker family nature Sanctuary

Conservation and Preservation.

FOCUS!

NOW!

The level of strength and survival of each and every species of plant, animal and mineral form on this planet is directly related to the level of harmony attained among these cohabitants.

We, at the Walker Family Nature Sanctuary, believe that out-of-pocket preservationists and conservationists who own and occupy tropical forest properties all over the world could benefit from considering a configuration which would include the installation of educational and scientific research activities on their properties in order to attract the recognition and support of larger responsible institutions who have the desire, force and where-with-all to guarantee the preservation and conservation of these properties for generations to come.

We also believe that a sustainable conservation movement to preserve the planet's tropical forests can be strengthened by a force that lies within the hearts of many ...waiting to express: the desire to help by Volunteering!

Cloud Forest Pre-historicTree Ferns

 

There is so much YOU can contribute to

Rainforest Preservation and Conservation Activities

All Over the World.

Your Time - Your Skill - Your Talent
Your Motivation - Your knowledge - Your Projects
Your Imagination

Join Atlantic Rainforest Volunteer Program at Walker Famioy Nature Sanctuary in Southern Brazil's Atlantic Coast Cloud  Forest

Download Application Form Here.

Walker Family Nature Sanctuary Volunteer Program



Join Atlantic Rainforest Volunteer Program at Walker Famioy Nature Sanctuary in Southern Brazil's Atlantic Coast Cloud  Forest

Download Application Form Here.

Walker Family Nature Sanctuary Piraquara Brazil

The Walker Family Nature Sanctuary (Santuário da Natureza Família Walker) is located on a property called Salto e Melança (pronounced: "Sauto eh Melahnssa"). This is the name on our deed.*

Today this region is still (after over 300 years) one of the principle sources of drinking water for Curitiba, PR, Brazil, and its neighboring municipalities.

It is a planetary treasure located within the remaining 7% of Brazil's Atlantic Coastal Rainforest (Mata Atlântica).

All of the original forest on this property and in the region as a whole was cut for planting and pasture land. But, large groves of the native Paraná Pine (Araucária angustifolia) still exist displaying their majestic presence; raising their branches over the forest... sweeping the clouds and whirling mist.

The water which runs through the Walker Family Nature Sanctuary property bubbles up from springs in the middle of the forest. Gravity brings it down the mountain to the houses on the property where it is filtered through ceramic before drinking. It is an incredible privilege for a human being in this day and time to be able to drink from a tap of pure spring water 24/7.

Santuário da Natureza Família Walker Piraquara Brazil

The original Atlantic Coastal Rainforest covered over 1,100,000 km2 in Brazil alone. It stretched from the state of Rio Grande do Norte in northern Brazil, to Rio Grande do Sul in the south and extended over the Uruguayan, Paraguayan and Argentinean borders.

Today the Atlantic Coastal Rainforest of Brazil has been reduced to less than 7% of its original size and has been completely destroyed in many areas. This drastic reduction was due to gold mining and sugar cane and coffee growing activities throughout Brazil's economic history, which resulted in the concentration of over 60% of Brazil's current population in some of its largest cities and industrial centers (responsible today for 70% of Brazil’s gross national product) right in the middle of these forested areas.

These tropical forested regions currently ensure the drinking water for more than 100 million people and are Brazil's largest storehouse of
fertile soil.

Despite its history of destruction and devastation, the Atlantic Coastal Rainforest is still considered the largest and one of the most important repositories of bio diversity on planet Earth and is one of the most important biomes in the world.

Walker Family Nature Sanctuary Piraquara Brazil

It is home to a myriad of ecosystems each characterized by its own climatic conditions and geographical configurations. Four-hundred and fifty-four tree-producing plant species were recently recorded on a single hectare of forest land in the southern region of the state of Bahia and four-hundred and seventy-six species in a sample the same size in the highlands of the state of Espírito Santo.

55% of the tree species and 40% of non-tree species present in the Atlantic Coastal Rainforest of Brazil are endemic ...they are only found in this area.

Impressive specimens of once plentiful tree species (such as the giant jequitibá-rosa, which reach heights of 40 meters and 4 meters round) are still found in what is left of this biome. Grand old members of the pinheiro-do-paraná, cedro, figueira, ipê, braúna, pau-brasil families are still thriving even in the areas which are at higher elevations like Serra do Mar (1,100 meters high) and Itatiaia (1,600 meters high), where there is constant fog and lower temperatures.

39% of the mammal species, and, most of Brazil's endangered animal species live in its Atlantic Coastal Rainforest and are endemic to this area. Members of species populations like the golden lion marmoset, the Brazilian river otter, jaguars, armadillos, small blue macaws, opossums, anteaters, sloths, tapirs, deer, cotias, quatis and others are dwindling faster and faster.

Help us find ways for YOU to help!

Giant Moth Gently Handled Walker Family Nature Sanctuary

Join Atlantic Rainforest Volunteer Program at Walker Famioy Nature Sanctuary in Southern Brazil's Atlantic Coast Cloud  Forest

Download Application Form Here.

*
Salto
refers to waterfall. Where? We never found it!

Melança (we thought) might refer to the mushy, slippery soil, produced when the rain, mist and dew from the mountains above seep into the forest floor and flows downward. When this pure filtered water surfaces again in the lower foothills, it forms springs, which at times overflow to create crystalline creeks, streams and rivers or just sits making bubbly silt ponds on the forest floor. Recently we were offered another explanation. Seems the name "melança" comes form the word "mel" which means honey. So melança might refer to the intense bee keeping activity in the area years ago when the forest was cut down for agricultural endeavors.

 

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You can contribute to the preservation of this property by staying with us at the Walker Family Nature Sanctuary (Santuário da Natureza Família Walker) in one of our lovely bungalows.

Click on the pictures below to see more details.

or, when you stay with us at one of our apartments in downtown Curitiba when you need to go into town.

Click on the pictures below to see more details.

 

These are some of the people and organizations who support us emotionally and strategically and provide us with information we need to ever improve our efforts.

SPVS - Sociedade de Pesquisa em Vida Selvagem e Educação Ambiental

Apave Non-Profit Trying to save urban rain forest remnants in Curitiba and Metropolitan Area

Airumâ Private Nature Preserve, Curitiba, PR, Brazil

Origami Cogumelos Shitaki

Sitio Dona Helena Comidas Caseira Naturais, Passeios, Trilhas, Turismo Rural, Piraquara, PR, Manansiais da Serra

 

 

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How It All Began

Gary, Renata e Gary at Casa Renata 1992 Walker Family Nature Sanctuary

Gary Walker, Renata Notari and Robson Walker trying to make this shack livable in 1992. It was the only structure on the property at that time.

A small group of acquaintances acquired Salto e Melança in 1991 with the initial intention of extending the boundaries of the state park adjacent to it on two sides; a private sector endeavor to conserve this land and protect it from being parceled up and sold to the highest bidder.

The basic strategy, at that point, was to sit on the land and hope for the best.  

No one was making much more than a subsistence income at the time, but, we thought that being owners would do the job. Good intentions, but, so naive.

Those were great times and we had great dreams.

Our families were smaller then and the economy was …well, different. Salto e Melança was so far away from the encroaching urban sprawl at that time; roads were often impassable.

Walker Family Nature Sanctuary Piraquara Brazil

Today, the world has changed.

Today, local government and developers are paving access roads, having already seen the potential for real estate exploitation. Some of these individuals and companies even pretend to be interested in the environment...well, at least as far as this kind of language is a better selling point.

The original constellation pivoted on its axis.

The ownership configuration of Salto e Melança changed not so many years after the initial project was defined. Some of the initial owners sold to members of the Walker family and others just abandoned the project because families grew, economies weakened and subsistence goals became more complicated.

Walker Family Nature SanctuaryPiraquara Brazil

Throughout the years, the members of the Walker family have kept everything going by residing on the property, paying for its maintenance, slowly building, expanding, improving and preparing for the day when they could make the property self-sustaining, get it properly documented and turn it into a permanently protected area for which Brazilian law provides.

From the beginning, the Walker family felt they needed to make things happen on the property in order to guarantee its protection and preservation. Initial planning included the idea that partnerships were to be formed and self-sustaining projects developed, which would ideally have an educational component for the purpose of generating information and hands-on experience for visitors, volunteers and researchers from Brazil, South America and the rest of the world.

Walker Family Nature Sanctuary Piraquara Brazil

Recently, the Walker family has reconfigured the family's old residence into a multi-use unit in order to house the Walker Family Nature Sanctuary's newly founded "Atlantic Rainforest" Volunteer Program developed in conjunction with APAVE (The Association of Protectors of Greater Curitiba's Green Areas)

 

The family has also invested in the development of visitor and volunteer activities on the property, which include walking trails for strolling in the richly complex forest air, sometimes known as forest therapy or Shinrin-yoku (森林浴), which literally means forest bathing. The Walkers have also compiled a list of daily chores and short-term and long-term projects, which they feel would benefit the progressive development of a full and secure preservation project.

Walker Family Nature Sanctuary Piraquara Brazil

Trails

The oldest trail for Forest Therapy or Shinrin-yoku, (about a forty-minute walk), crosses the front of the property parallel to the road and passes by an old camping space in the woods on the other end of the property about a half kilometer down the trail. Walking down the road on the way back gives one insight into the movement and rhythm of life in this increasingly dynamic region.

There are two other trails which go to the natural springs from which the property's drinking water flows.

The property lines are also kept clean and can be used as an advanced hiking trail (about a seven-hour trek).

Walker Family Nature Sanctuary Piraquara Brazil

University researchers studying: 1) the natural takeover of unattended land by local species; 2) bird populations and migration paths; 3) reforesting and re-populating techniques and opportunities and 4) medicinal plant agriculture in a forested environment are consequently creating more trails which can, as of now, be explored by visitors on guided educational excursions to these advances into the precious entrails of this glorious expression of nature.

Walker Family Nature Sanctuary Piraquara Brazil

The Walker family officially decided to put greater effort into securing this land about eight years ago.

The Walkers started becoming concerned.

What if the property heirs are not interested in preservation?

What if they start needing money and sell to people who want to raise cows, grow corn or create subdivisions?

 

This project needs your help in order to eliminate the possibility of future development and to secure the future of this property against the whims of future generations.

Help find ways for YOU to help!

Walker Family Nature Sanctuary Piraquara Brazil

 


Walker Family Nature Sanctuary Piraquara Brazil

View of Serra de Melança on an early morning walk on a sunny day.


The relationship between the Walker Family Nature Sanctuary and the property itself.

The family residences (old and new), a couple of sheds, a kennel, an AIRBNB bungalow for five, another for eight and another house in the woods waiting for a purpose are on the Salto e Melança Property owned by the Walker family, but they do not pertain to the Walker Family Nature Sanctuary project except when loaned out to accommodate visits, courses, research activities and residential opportunities for musicians, artists and writers.

Walker Family Nature Sanctuary Piraquara Brazil

Interesting regional dynamics.

One of the main configuration changes was the relocation of a tribe of Guaraní to land adjacent to the Walker family property that happened about sixteen years ago. This tribe was made up of stragglers from other groups who were in a state of collapse and were now seeking distance and shelter from conflicts with other tribes and looking for a new place of residence in order to strengthen their community and carry on their traditions.

Some Guaraní are nomadic and some maintain permanent villages to support those who desire to move around less and to provide shelter for traveling members from other areas. Guaraní communities are found all over southern and south-western Brazil, Uruguay and Argentina.

Walker Family Nature Sanctuary Piraquara Brazil

The Walker family has been having a mostly nonverbal conversation with individuals from the tribe and its leaders ever since they arrived. Initial contact with the tribal members was confrontational as tribal members invaded the Walker family property to hunt and cut down trees. Two activities high detrimental to the recuperation of this forest and extremely illegal.

As indigenous peoples in Brazil are separated from the rest of the population by law and there is an official organ of the government which that "takes care" of them, it is difficult to get through the shell of a tradition of separation and dependence and have a meaningful beneficial relationship with these groups.

But, through conversation (although, few and far between), the Walker family has been able to arrive more and more closely to a place of mutual respect and the Walker Family Nature Sanctuary project tries to include the members of this group in their activities by promoting their events, commercial products and culture via social media from time to time.

Walker Family Nature Sanctuary Piraquara Brazil

 

More dynamics.

Being just outside a state park, this area has already been designated officially as an “Environmentally Protected Area”. However, in practice, this is just a legal term, which means "owners have to be more creative about doing whatever they want".

Real estate speculation is taking its toll day after day as people try to escape the fervor of city life and move to or have weekend homes in more remote areas. These people are often from privileged classes but, not always enlightened or concerned about preservation or conservation. Their fears often lead them to make walls and cut the underbrush of the forest. As streams are often places to sit and enjoy, they tend to clean the underbrush in these areas which is particularly harmful to the environment and entirely prohibited by law.

Walker Family Nature Sanctuary Piraquara Brazil

Government agencies (some of the most burdened and bureaucratic in the world), when they are not present and monitoring what is happening in these areas (which is almost always), they often allow things to happen for political reasons and self interest.

We have seen many things happening in the last twenty-five years, which have lead us to believe that the private sector must quietly come in and secure this land by creating activity, which favors its preservation.

I am not talking just about Salto e Melança and the Walker Family Nature Sanctuary. There are thousands of acres of property around us, which need to be secured.

Traditionally, the community of landowners came in as squatters, water company workers and their relatives. Most have never registered their properties for fear of paying for the process and for higher taxes afterwards. In reality, however, taxation on rural property is still very low in Brazil.  

Walker Family Nature Sanctuary Piraquara Brazil

Unscrupulous lawyers and their cohorts unfairly trade large pieces of land for their limited services, which drag on and on because of the case overloaded judicial system and the complicated process of proving "squattership".

Here, squatter laws allow squatters on land which is not productive. Preserved land can easily be construed as abandoned land by an overly burdened uninformed judge or politicians needing votes.

This is why, planned, organized, productive activity would strongly favor preservation efforts, at least in the beginning.

Local conservation-minded people need to get better at finding environmental solutions...

or risk losing everything.

Walker Family Nature Sanctuary Piraquara Brazil

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The "Melança Mountains" Community and the Walker Family Nature Sanctuary project are making progress.

Slowly, a few local landowners in the Melança Mountains community have brought in surveyors to measure their properties on their own. Some have gotten legal guidance and funding to start the process towards the legal registration of these properties. An overloaded court system and an uninformed, overwhelmed and partially disinterested local government often, however, holds all this up.

This slowing down of this process ignores and frustrates the opportunities that property owners would have once they acquire legal, definitive documentation for their properties.

Walker Family Nature Sanctuary Piraquara Brazil

Active, competent environmental institutions providing resources, funds, guidelines and technical support already exist on the federal and state levels in Brazil, as well as, in the international community, waiting for property owners to qualify for their services.

The Walker Family Nature Sanctuary and APAVE Núcleo Piraquara, through their persistent involvement in political meetings, conference attendance and the forming of partnerships with other strong environmental associations and entities have recently obtained help from the public sector in 2018 through the then Secretary of Environment of the State of Paraná, Antônio Carlos Bonetti.

Bonetti heard our plea that people who are helping the government preserve its water resources should have the same support as the agriculture and meat production communities who benefit immeasurably from these preservation efforts. He understood that frustrating the access of property owners to resources that would help them participate more effectively in the economic growth of the State of Paraná was counter productive. He articulated the inclusion of one-hundred property owners around the oldest, most well-preserved lake in our region into a program whose goal is to award legal documentation to owners who can prove their rights. The measurement of one-hundred properties in the first phase of this program should be completed by June 2019.

There are other phases of the program which must be negotiated and completed before the final phase of taking everything to the local judge for ratification and the granting of proper documentation. The Walker Family Nature Sanctuary and its partner APAVE will continue accompanying this process and persist in its efforts to awaken the public sector to this most important reality.

Among its other activities, the Walker Family Nature Sanctuary is creating a stronger voice of influence in the mayor's and governor's offices. It is a long process and involves parallel efforts of many individuals from many aspects of our local community coming forth, starting to talk to each other and beginning to understand and deal effectively with the dynamics, problems and politics involved.

The Walker Family Nature Sanctuary is associating with strong conservationist not-for-profit groups (NGO's) and associations who can guide and support with legal advice and common-sense hands-on experience.

Through these efforts, the Walker family Nature Sanctuary now receives funding through its partner organizations by paying a small administration fee. This is a huge step forward.

Join Atlantic Rainforest Volunteer Program at Walker Famioy Nature Sanctuary in Southern Brazil's Atlantic Coast Cloud  Forest

Download Application Form Here.

What we need now!


We need consultants to look at the configuration of properties, the talents and desires of the owners and help define a plan, which would best serve the local, national and international community.

We need partners, who have eco-sustainable projects, that could be inserted into the humidity and coolness of a southerly-situated coastal rainforest. These projects need to be staffed for success and generate resources. Ideally, they would include an educational component, as well, which would inform and support local residents and visitors from Brazil and the rest of the world.

We need individuals and institutions, who would invest in and man: research installations, like, labs, classrooms, meeting rooms, workshop space, etc.: sustainable residency and instructional programs in the areas of art, music and commercially viable/eco-sustainable craftsmanship: eco-sustainable agricultural projects appropriate to the forest environment, such as, permaculture, managed foraging, bee-keeping, animal husbandry, greenhouse activities, seedling production, exotic and native species production, seed preservation and sales, hydroponics, etc.; sustainable community relations projects and community education programs.

We need individuals and institutions who build alternative housing and who would come and offer on-hand workshops on the property leaving behind, as a result, units representative of various concepts of sustainable construction, which could immediately be used to house eco-tourists and the curious, thereby, generating a financially-sustainable structure for the project as a whole.

We need individuals and institutions who would create exchange programs or provide onsite instruction in various aspects of eco-tourism, rainforest preservation, animal habitat preservation, administration, etc. for the local members of the community, thereby, creating a need for preservation in the pockets and hearts of those who have unconsciously favored the preservation of this land for centuries… including the indigenous community, and, the skills to go forward favoring the local community and their children.

We need individuals and institutions who would come in and map the property, create and maintain trails, identify, photograph, create displays and label the flora and fauna habitats onsite.

We need individuals and institutions that would set up and staff proper facilities for the reintegration of forest animals, victims of contraband and captured by local authorities.

These are some of the ideas we at the Walker Family Nature Sanctuary think about. Maybe you have some of your own. We would love to talk to you about your ideas. We are open to take this project in any direction which would preserve this forest, protect this water.

 

Participate.

Let’s make this happen!

 

 

Join Atlantic Rainforest Volunteer Program at Walker Famioy Nature Sanctuary in Southern Brazil's Atlantic Coast Cloud  Forest

Download Application Form Here.

   
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