Forests4Water Brazil: Community Climate Action

Dear wonderful donors!

In one of last year’s reports, we told you folks that we've been doing a lot of work around Iracambi to start the year in good shape! And, fortunately, WE MADE IT!

Taking advantage of the wet season to plant is one of the most important things that we can do, and we must say that this year it rained A LOT, which was good for our baby trees. But, as for us humans, we were stranded in our headquarters, trapped for hours, when the rain flooded the bridge between Iracambi and our neighbors.

We also got soaked through during planting, with our hands all covered in mud which never seemed to dry. Not to mention the times the jeep got stuck and couldn't get up to the planting sites with the baby trees because of all the mud.

But suddenly, out of nowhere, the sun came out, and brightened our days.

On the days that followed we could see that the sun was shining, obviously to help us achieve our goal, which was about to be reached. And we managed to hit the target of planting 20,000 seedlings out of a total of 55,000 by the end of the 2023 planting season!!!

Yes, that's exactly what you just read: thanks to the hard work of our team and volunteers and especially thanks to the support of YOU, our incredible donors, (which enables us to keep going), we are now one step closer towards saving our forest.

For sure, we still have a long way to go, but we wanted to celebrate with you all! We also wanted to give you just a sneak peek at what else is happening at Iracambi, including welcoming some of our fellow environmentalists from The Nature Conservancy for a meeting to set up a partnership this year. Check out the photos below...

So, stay tuned, `cause who knows what may happen next?

With rainforest love and many thanks from the Iracambi team

Dear [first name]  

We hope you are doing well? Here, to make you smile, is this week's installment of the Adventures of the Iracambi Tree Planters.

And there wouldn´t be any adventures if it weren´t for the support of wonderful donors like you. So thank you, thank you! 

So today we want to give a shoutout to our four footed friends, who come to the rescue when we need help with transportation.  Local kids prefer motorbikes to horses, but when push comes to shove, four feet are better than two wheels, right? 

We´ve been having some crazy weather this end – short sharp rains (which lead to flooding) wind gusts, high humidity and burning hot sun. (Old timers say that when the sun is burning hot it’s going to rain – and they’re usually right!)

All the more reason for keeping up with the planting – particularly on the steep slopes under brachiaria grass which is great pasture for cattle but has such a dense root mat that the rain washes off, chokes the rivers and damages the bridges. Check out the picture. We’ve heard of water under the bridge – how about this for water over the bridge?

But, mud and rain apart, there’s lots of good news this week. One of our partners is challenging us to do trial planting on 35 hectares – using different techniques: direct planting, natural regeneration, enrichment planting (in areas that are already regenerating) and agroforestry planting (mixing tree and food species.) We've already got a lot of experience in each of these, but it will be super helpful to collect some solid data on the different techniques.  

We’re also part of a great group of practitioners and finance people looking into the best ways of blended financing for ecorestoration, as well as networking. It's always encouraging to touch base and trade tips with others facing the same challenges. 

 And there’s an increasing demand from local farmers for our help with reforesting their land.

Exciting times down in the rainforest, and thank you for making this all possible! 

Stay tuned for the next adventure, and please look after yourself!

with love from the Iracambi Foresters