Challenge 8: Deforestation and biodiversity

Deforestation is devastating the Earth's forests and jungles on a massive scale. This causes immense damage to soil quality. Tropical rainforests and tropical forests could disappear completely within a hundred years if the current rate of deforestation continues. The most dramatic impact is the loss of habitat for millions of species. Seventy percent of the animals and plants inhabit the Earth's forests and many cannot survive the deforestation that destroys their environment. Deforestation is also a factor that affects the planet's climate, causing irregularities in temperatures and the ozone layer. Forest soils are moist; without the protection of tree cover they dry out quickly. Deforestation alerts on indigenous lands in the Brazilian Amazon increased by 64%. Without trees to fulfill that role, many jungles and forests can turn into arid deserts of barren land. 

• The need for farmers to support their families.
• Slash-and-burn agriculture to clear land.
• Urban growth.
• Wood marketing.
• Construction of new, more remote roads.
• Forest fires.
• Intensive grazing.
• Acceleration of climate change.

• Cooperation among small farmers. 
• Improve the distribution between fields and forests. 
• Create urban green spaces. 
• Recycle materials to replace wood. 
• New technologies to improve fire management. 
• Reduce meat consumption. 
• Promote spaces for environmental regeneration. 

FOUNDING TEAM: Clemente Pérez, Mario Guendelman and Tomás Guendelman

INNOVATION: Technology that protects and preserves glaciers.

WEBSITE: glaciercoolers.cl

Glacier Coolers is a startup that preserves white glaciers and snowfields in order to mitigate the environmental impacts caused by global warming, drought, and dust deposition in high mountain areas. They install white geotextile cover systems mounted on modular structures on the surface of glaciers/ice sheets, reducing melting by approximately 65%, thus allowing for greater accumulation of water resources in high mountains.

FOUNDING TEAM: Susan Graham and Matthew Ritchie

INNOVATION: Fleet of drones equipped with seeds that flies over and reforests forests.

WEBSITE: dendra.io