Amazon Guard

People who preserve region of the greatest on Earth biodiversity are living in vulnerable conditions without access to education, medical care, running water, electricity, sewerage or even toilets. Half of their agro extractivism production is being lost.

A photovoltaic solar energy powered boats operating in the Amazon Estuary will replace the highly polluting, dangerous and expensive in maintenance gasoline engine boats raising the quality of living of those who feed the city by bringing sustainable energy, health care, education, internet and improving food production.

Solution can be applied in any riverside community and most of therainforests are located near the equator where there is the strongest solar radiation.

Indirectly it will affect the rest of the world and global human population, because protected forests will continue to regulate the world's oxygen, carbon and water cycles and stabilize the climate on our planet for us and generations to come.

CHALLENGES

1. Currently used in Amazon Biome diesel engine boats are polluting the environment, making noise well above the healthy limits, they are demanding expensive maintenance and are creating danger of common in young girls scalping accidents (when the hair gets inside of the engine).

2. People which preserve regions of the greatest on Earth biodiversity are living in vulnerable conditions without running water, electricity, sewerage or even toilets and without access to health care and education.

3. Agro extractivists  today are wasting half of their production because of the long distance to the merchant, difficulties in storage and disrupted value chain. 

This problems affect most of the world's tropical forest inhabitants. Only in Amazon Rainforest is living nearly 40 million people - most of them in the cities and they are depending on the production of the riverside communities. Working on development of the communities in need means to match the gap between city and rural population and to improve the quality of living for both.

OVERVIEW
Proposed solution is based on the experience from multiple visits to the Amazon traditional indigenous and spiritual communities - people living for many generations in the forest. Leaders of these communities, government representatives and social workers are actively involved in the development of this project. Testing the prototype during the first quarter of 2022 will allow us to make improvements and implement solar energy powered boats at a bigger scale.

LOCATION AND CONTEXT 
The prototype will be run to serve the population on the world's biggest river island - Marajó, in a Brazilian state of Pará and on a few other islands in the Amazon Estuary and around the Charapucu State Park. Place with the greatest biodiversity on Earth and where new species are still waiting to be discovered and at the same time a region that has the lowest Human Development Index ( HDI) in Brazil.

Municipality of Afuá has a population of 39,000 inhabitants (mostly living in rural area), an area of 837 thousand hectares (IBGE, 2018) and 99% of its forests are preserved (Inpe, 2017). 

Rivers here have the function of roads and highways. Surprisingly they don't have any source and are connecting together in a form of labyrinth of thousands of canals.

So called várzea is a periodically flooded Amazonian Rainforest, where Atlantic Ocean's waters mix with the Amazon River and it's tides are rising and falling daily by 3 meters in a rhythm of the moon cycles.

People live in simple stilt houses built by the rivers banks, in the middle of the native, wild jungle, in a distance between half day to one day away by  boat from the nearest town.

Local communities existence depends on fishing and on the standing forest production: nuts and fruits harvesting.

IMPACT
Three first built solar energy powered boats will attend over 500 Amazon tradicional families of agroextrativists (approx. 3000 people) and help to protect over 100.000 hectares of native forest and 30.000 hectares of agroforest (together 300.000 acres or 20 times size of Manhattan). 

Indirectly it will affect the rest of the world and global human population, because protected Amazon Forest will continue to regulate the world's oxygen, carbon and water cycles and stabilize the climate on our planet for us and generations to come.

OVERVIEW
Proposed solution is based on the experience from multiple visits to the Amazon traditional indigenous and spiritual communities - people living for many generations in the forest. Leaders of these communities, government representatives and social workers are actively involved in the development of this project. Testing the prototype during the first quarter of 2022 will allow us to make improvements and implement solar energy powered boats at a bigger scale.

LOCATION AND CONTEXT 
The prototype will be run to serve the population on the world's biggest river island - Marajó, in a Brazilian state of Pará and on a few other islands in the Amazon Estuary and around the Charapucu State Park. Place with the greatest biodiversity on Earth and where new species are still waiting to be discovered and at the same time a region that has the lowest Human Development Index ( HDI) in Brazil.

Municipality of Afuá has a population of 39,000 inhabitants (mostly living in rural area), an area of 837 thousand hectares (IBGE, 2018) and 99% of its forests are preserved (Inpe, 2017). 

Rivers here have the function of roads and highways. Surprisingly they don't have any source and are connecting together in a form of labyrinth of thousands of canals.

So called várzea is a periodically flooded Amazonian Rainforest, where Atlantic Ocean's waters mix with the Amazon River and it's tides are rising and falling daily by 3 meters in a rhythm of the moon cycles.

People live' by the rivers banks, in the middle of the native, wild jungle, in a distance between half day to one day away by boat from the nearest town.

Local communities}existence depends on fishing and on the standing forest production: nuts and fruits harvesting.

IMPACT
Three first built solar energy powered boats will attend over 500 Amazon tradicional families of agroextrativists (aprox. 3000 people) and help to protect over 100.000 hectares of native forest and 30.000 hectares of agroforest (together 300.000 acres or 20 times size of Manhattan). 

Indirectly it will affect the rest of the world and global human population, because protected Amazon Forest will continue regulate the world's oxygen, carbon and water cycles and stabilize the climate on our planet for us and generations to come.

The riverside communities around the world are those who protect the richest in biodiversity areas. They usually live in vulnerable conditions which puts in risk their existence and the existence of remaining forests with thousands of species of plants and animals.

Development of new way of transportation based on solar photovoltaic energy will raise this communities social economic conditions and will guarantee financial independence by supporting traditional activities based on the standing forest (fishing, nuts and fruits harvesting) and creating new sources of income based on bioeconomy, eco tourism and scientific research.

The problems of riverside communities were identified during multiple visits to different parts of the Amazon since 2016. Solution came up in the beginning of this year, during two visits to the world's biggest river island - Marajó, in Brazilian state of Pará and a few other islands in the Amazon Estuary and around the Charapucu State Park. It is an unexplored place with the greatest biodiversity on Earth and where new species are still waiting to be discovered.

We are ready now to move forward the concept stage of development, build the prototype and test it in real life conditions with the traditional Amazon communities.

Popularization of solar energy powered boats will revolutionize the way of transportation for the riverside communities and around the world. It's for the first time in history when the technology for this purpose becomes available for the wider public in terms of scale and price.

This solution will also bring sustainable energy to many families and for many it will be the first time when they have light at home. It will allow to flourish a new businesses based on bioeconomy principles and to keep the forest growing and rivers clean. It will help to match the education gap between city inhabitants and the ones living in the countryside. Will raise the quality of living for both, as the city depends on what is being produced on the farm, will also raise the quality of food and decrease the waste and also decrease the prices.

Thanks to this innovation electric boats have a great chance to become a standard for the riverside communities much sooner than electric cars in the developed world. It is because of the fact that it is easier to build a simple infrastructure to support new technology than to upgrade the existing complex infrastructure of the car industry.

The current number of people you’re serving: 0

The number you’ll be serving in one year: 3000

The number you’ll be serving in five years: 3 million 

This solution directly addresses the communities living in the rainforest - people who depend on it and who protect it. Indirectly it will affect the rest of the world and all the people that today the rainforest serves with its oxygen, food and drinking water production and also all the people affected by climate change.

In the current stage of development we measure progress by the number of people involved and supporting the project - human resources and by the available investment capital - financial resources.

Our initiative is in accordance with most of the 17 Sustainable Development Goals adopted by UN.

Currently part time: coordinator, environmental consultant, three engineers.

We are a group of people concerned about the environment and passionate about the technology that have got together to cause a global impact through local change.

Zbigniew Kozak since 2016 is frequently visiting traditional Amazon communities learning about the most urgent needs and challenges that communities are facing and is collaborating with representatives of the local government entities to find the best solutions.

He coordinates a group of naval and photovoltaic energy engineers with 30 years of experience in aluminum boat construction and it's own shipyard.

We are looking to integrate the know-how about the new technology, getting international audiences and specialists involved and educating, training and activating human resources available locally.

I am applying to Solve to join a powerful network of impact-minded leaders in order to:

• match our team with Members, funders, and experts to advance the work,
• get access to additional funding
• get personalized support from Solve staff and Members of Solve’s community,
• build the partnerships needed to accelerate our work, validate impact and business model, and scale the solution.

We would like to partner with the technology providers: manufacturers and distributors of photovoltaic panels, batteries, electric engines, water jet propulsion systems to optimize the technology for the riverside communities needs and develop long term relation creating demand for their products.

We are looking for the support to better measure the possible impact of our solution on the local Amazon population as well as worldwide.

In this concept stage of the project our team needs especially the financial support, so the people already involved can dedicate their talent and skills exclusively to the project development.

We would like to partner with the technology providers: manufacturers and distributors of photovoltaic panels, batteries, electric engines, water jet propulsion systems to optimize the technology for the riverside communities needs and develop long term relation creating demand for their products.

Solar energy powered boat has multiple applications and often the refugees problems are similar to the problems that are facing the riverside communities.

Our solution can be used as a temporary shelter for refugees or even create smart, safe, and sustainable floating communities.

The Andan Prize for Innovation in Refugee Inclusion will be used to build a prototype and prepare ground to popularize this solution worldwide.

Solar energy powered boats can be used as a temporary shelter for refugees or even create smart, safe, and sustainable floating communities, focused on making the STEM education more accessible and equitable.

The GM Prize will be used to build a prototype and prepare ground to popularize this solution worldwide.

Currently used by the riverside communities diesel engine boats are not only polluting the environment and making noise well above the healthy limits but are also creating danger of common in young girls scalping accidents, when the hair gets inside of the engine. Solar energy powered boat with an electric engine will forever stop this tragedy from happening.

The Innovation for Women Prize will be used to build a prototype and prepare ground to popularize this solution worldwide.

The solar energy powered boat could be used for research on the current state of fish population in the river and after some adaptation also on the sea and ocean.

The Prize will be used to build a prototype and prepare ground to popularize this solution worldwide.

Rainforest is the best carbon storage and the communities that preserve this region of the greatest on Earth biodiversity are living in vulnerable conditions. Solar energy powered boats will raise the living conditions of these communities. 

The ServiceNow Prize will be used to build a prototype and prepare ground to popularize this solution worldwide.

Amazon Rainforest has the greatest on Earth biodiversity where in the DNA of all the species is encoded millions of years of evolution. It stabilizes the climate on the planet. The solar energy powered boat operating in this region will be equipped with devices that with the support of AI help us to better understand this biome where stil many species are waiting to be discovered.

The AI for Humanity Prize will be used to build a prototype and prepare ground to popularize this solution worldwide.

Solar energy powered boats will raise the living conditions of riverside communities bringing sustainable technology, internet, education, health care and helping to preserve the environment.

The GSR Prize will be used to build a prototype and prepare ground to popularize this solution worldwide.