Intelligent Living
Sebastiao Salgado reforestation
EnvironmentNatureSustainability

Couple Plants 2.7 Million Trees To Restore Brazilian Forest Home To Endangered Species

A couple of people can literally make a whole forest of a difference! That’s what renowned Brazilian photographer Sebastião Salgado and his wife Lélia Deluiz Wanick Salgado have proven. With the help of many, they planted 2.7 million trees over the span of two decades, completely restoring an entire forest that had been wiped out by deforestation.

Sebastião Salgado and his wife Lélia Deluiz Wanick Salgado
Sebastião Salgado and his wife Lélia Deluiz Wanick Salgado

It all began back in 1994 when Sebastião Salgado took over family land in the state of Minas Gerais after finishing a traumatizing assignment reporting on the genocide in Rwanda. Already devastated from the assignment, you can imagine how horrible he felt when, upon returning to his homeland, he found all the trees cut down and the wildlife gone rather than the tropical paradise that he remembered as a child. Then his wife came up with the brilliant idea of replanting the forest.

Salgado said:

“The land was as sick as I was – everything was destroyed. Only about 0.5% of the land was covered in trees. Then my wife had a fabulous idea to replant this forest. And when we began to do that, then all the insects and birds and fish returned and, thanks to this increase of the trees I, too, was reborn – this was the most important moment.”

Changes in the area throughout the reforestation projectTo make their dream come true, Salgado and his family recruited partners, raised funds and, in April 1998, they founded the Instituto Terra. Since then, they have completely transformed the environment back into its original condition, thriving with fauna and wildlife!

In addition to providing Salgado with creative inspiration, the process has provided him with one of the answers to climate change, trees. He said:

“Perhaps we have a solution. There is a single being which can transform CO2 to oxygen, which is the tree. We need to replant the forest. You need forest with native trees, and you need to gather the seeds in the same region you plant them or the serpents and the termites won’t come. And if you plant forests that don’t belong, the animals don’t come there and the forest is silent. We need to listen to the words of the people on the land. Nature is the earth and it is other beings and if we don’t have some kind of spiritual return to our planet, I fear that we will be compromised.”

From day 1, The Instituto Terra committed itself to the recovery of the 1,502 acres of forest in the Bulcão Farm in Aimorés, Minas Gerais. They renamed the farmland the Private Natural Heritage Reserve (PNHR). The first mass planting was carried out in December 1999. After that, it became an annual occurrence with the support of important associates. Over 290 species of trees were planted, thus recreating a forest of arboreal and shrub species native to the Atlantic Forest.

The Return Of Everything

Wildflife returned to the forest landAmong the many benefits, achievements, and positive effects that came from the reforestation include:

  • It was possible to stop soil erosion.
  • The 8 natural springs that the forest hosted have come back and are flowing are the rate of 20 liters (5.3 gals) per minute; even in times of drought, they flow.
  • 172 bird species have returned, of which 6 are already in the danger of becoming extinct.
  • 33 species of mammals have returned, with two of them being vulnerable and about to be extinct worldwide.
  • 293 species of plants have returned.
  • 15 species of reptiles have returned.
  • 15 species of amphibians have returned.

A Beacon

The Salgados’ aim was to have the Instituto Terra serve as a beacon to awaken environmental awareness of the need to restore and conserve forest land. They recognized that education and research as key components of this strategy, so in February 2002 they created the Center for Environmental Education and Restoration (CERA).

Through CERA, new technologies are shared, shining a fresh light on existing models of development. The ultimate aim is to engage new participants in the battle to achieve sustainable development. The center was such a success that by December 2012, over 700 educational projects had been developed, embracing 65,000 people in more than 170 municipalities of the Valley of the River Doce, covering both the states of Espírito Santo and Minas Gerais. Some projects have even reached as far as the states of Bahia and Rio de Janeiro.

ReforestationThe Instituto Terra is nearing completion of recovery with just 10% of the PNHR remains to be restored. But when they finish, it won’t be the end! Their mission continues with the goal of increasing the numbers of native Atlantic Forest species and genomes in the region beyond their land.

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