Forests4Water Brazil: Community Climate Action

Good morning, dear donors, from the rainy rainforest!

 And while so many friends and colleagues are meeting in Glasgow and in hubs around the world to work on the pressing issues of climate change, we here at Iracambi are doing our part by planting trees!

And we're doing it with your support. Thank you! 

This letter comes with a couple of maps to show you areas in which we are a) monitoring and maintaining seedlings planted in 2020 and b) preparing the area, digging the holes and planting some of this year's crop of healthy seedlings.

These properties are located in the area known as Graminha da Montanha, a highly strategic area very close to the border of the Serra do Brigadeiro State Park. So we're not only restoring the forest to protect the water resources in this important watershed, but we're also extending habitat for biodiversity.

You'll often hear of projects where people claim to be planting thousands of trees at very low cost. And you may wonder why our trees cost more. We're currently planting at a cost of $3.55 per tree, and, as production and planting increase, we hope to make economies of scale. BUT. Here´s a difference. Our trees are planted, monitored and maintained. Which is a lot of work. And we now have a survival rate of 89%

As you've probably gathered if you've been following our adventures, planting in new areas can be challenging, particularly when they include steep mountain sides. Thick vegetation needs to be cleared with a strimmer, holes need to be dug, seedlings need to be tranported to the planting sites, and all this before the seedlings are planted and fertilized.  

Both areas where we are planting currently are delineated by yellow polygons (areas planted in 2020 and currently under maintenance) and white polygons showing the areas currently under restoration. These two areas comprise 6 hectares, 1.75 planted last year, and 4.25 under restoration right now where we've almost finished planting a total of 4,000 seedlings.

Most of the seedlings come from our forest nursery, but this year for the first time we're including some seedlings produced in on-farm nurseries - another initative that we set up in 2020 and which is being very successful in persuading landowners to understand the complex and exciting process of forest restoration, as well as bringing them an alternative income source. We have over fifty different tree  species, carefully selected in accordance with topography, soils and exposure to sun/shade.  

So, while we're sadly not attending COP in person, we´re not copping out! 

with love and appreciation from Luiz, Alfredo and the forestry team   

Hello, dear donors,

And greetings from Iracambi in the Brazilian rainforest where I want to give you the lowdown on what's involved in tree planting.

Please allow me to introduce myself. My name is Luiza, and I'm one of the intrepid band of tree planting volunteers at Iracambi. We are well into planting the first 1500 tree seedlings of this season. And since our goal is 20,000 before the end of this year and another 35,000 in 2022, there´s no time to waste! The rains arrived around ten days ago, and it's been raining steadily ever since - which is great for baby trees, even if it does mean muddy boots for tree planters.

So you may be wondering how I ended up at the end of a dirt road from nowhere, planting trees with the Iracambi team. All I can say is that I've always been fascinated by forests. I was raised on the outskirts of São Paulo city, and even though it's an urban area, my part of town was really close to the Serra do Mar State Park, which is a huge area of Atlantic Rainforest (315,000 hectares.) Both my parents were biologists, so I guess that had something to do with my decision to study biology...

So, when I heard that Iracambi was looking for volunteers to help out with the tree planting program, I knew this was where I should be. And now for a quick overview of a day in the life of a tree planter.

6.30 am and it´s been raining steadily all night. I jump out of bed, pull on my jeans and boots and head for the kitchen. It's coffee time. (It's always coffee time in Brazil, but there´s something special about the first cup of the day.) I join my fellow team members and we pile into the Land Rover and head up to today´s planting site. The tree seedlings have already been delivered, the holes have been dug, and now all we need to do is get those trees into the ground.

We'll be working in several different areas, and the mixture of tree species has already been decided, in accordance with the soils, the topography and the existing vegetation. One area is on a steep mountain slope above a spring, and here's where we´ll be planting in the water catchment area, to increase the vegetation cover and prevent runoff from the rains. Other areas are under partly regenerating forest cover, and here we´ll focus on species that are tolerant to shade. In each area we´ll plant a mixture of fast growing pioneer species and slower growing succession and climax species, and, since Iracambi has already been reforesting this plot for the past couple of years, we'll also check out the progress of the trees we planted in 2020 and 2019.

It rains steadily all day, but somehow I don't mind. I love to feel the rain on my face, and I love to think how happy the young trees must be. I love to visualize the new forest growing and flourishing, and I´m happy to be getting my hands dirty as I work. 

But, as the afternoon wears on, I´m also dreaming of a hot shower and some clean clothes and a good dinner..... 

And tomorrow I´ll be ready to go out again. I can´t think of anything I'd rather be doing!

And on behalf of my fellow tree planters, we'd like to send a big thank you for supporting our program.  Thanks to you, we´re getting it done. 

with love from Luiza and the Iracambi tree planting team

PS I forgot to say I`ve just been accepted into a graduate program in the local federal university. Ít's only one hour away from Iracambi, so I´ll be able to keep an eye on those trees I planted