Buy rainforest - Save rainforest

Flows - everything is interconnected

Whether somewhere in Germany, Mexico or Brazil, we can do something to make this world a better place!

The Rio Negro and the Amazon meet at Manaus in Brazil. The Amazon is surrounded by rainforests, the largest in the world. They store carbon, indispensable in the climate crisis. They are home to at least 10% of the world's biodiversity.



The forest is cut down, burned and cleared to be used for agriculture, livestock breeding and grazing. The topsoil is washed away by the fields, nutrients reach the Amazon. The current flows 6,400 km to the ocean, draining half the continent into the Atlantic.



The nutrient load causes algae growth to explode in the Caribbean and the Atlantic Ocean. An invasion of the Sargassum algae, the algae belt, stretches over more than 8,000 kilometres.



Decomposing Sargassum algae consume oxygen in the sea and cause death zones. Life in the sea suffers as a result. Sargassum algae are also washed up on the beaches of Mexico and cover the nesting sites of turtles, which can no longer lay eggs there. No eggs, no baby turtles.

Rotting algae release toxins and nutrients. This destroys coral reefs and kills the sea grass. The effects of deforestation are felt over thousands of kilometres from the Amazon to the Yucatán peninsula in Mexico.

The creation of buffer zones along the major river systems makes an important contribution to reducing the nutrient load and thus the eutrophication of the ocean.

Eutrophication through deforestation is a problem that has received too little attention worldwide. We now see that this is another consequence of rapid global change and we have no time to waste. In addition to combating the destruction of the Amazon rainforest by global industries and greed, we need at least buffer zones along rivers to protect river systems.

If we protect at least 60,000 ha per year, that is only one percent of what is lost in the same period. But it could make a big difference to the eutrophication of the river system and the ocean. This doesn't require any new organisations, many renowned regulatory forest groups are doing an exemplary job here, but we have to do much more. One square meter per bottle is nothing.

To implement this part of the project, we are researching suitable supporting organisations in Brazil and neighbouring countries.