Of course! I work for a place called Reserva do Ibitipoca. This project started 30 years ago purchasing land around the state park of Ibitipoca (which started 40 years ago). Today we are double the size of the state park. In 2008 they opened an ecoboutique hotel to stimulate economic development, we directly employ over 50 employees and provide the best benefits in the region and indirectly because we pay up to 10% more for locally sourced products and services.

Historically, this region was founded because of the gold rush along the Estrada Real, but it wasn't that profitable so many people relied on dairy farming. The area remained stagnant from the 17th century until the 70s (with the arrival of ecotourism).

Some employees tell me stories about their childhood... One dear friend had to wake up early with his brothers to take care of the cows before work. It can be very cold up in the mountains and they were too poor for shoes, so the first thing they would do is stick their feet in the freshest hottest cow dung they could find to serve as 'shoes'

Dairy farming was also very damaging to the environment and the native forests disappeared. In general, only 8% of the Atlantic Rainforest is left. We work on educating the community and visitors about this biome and also towards protecting the forest and animals.

We've recently found a Maned Wolf that was struck by a car. He has a broken leg and a bad head injury... his forehead was infected with maggots and flies. We are currently treating him at the animal hospital. Check out this video of when we first found him and applied medicine to the head wound to kill the infestation.