Help us help Nature restore the Pterocarpus Forest

Our timing for the tree planting campaign perhaps couldn’t have been worse.

On March 15th Puerto Rico became one of the first jurisdictions to go into a near-total lockdown to avoid the spread of the Corona virus, with the governor ordering most businesses on the island to shut down and imposing a curfew from 7pm to 5am.

The Forest, the offices and all of the businesses with which we had dealings were closed, a situation that continued for three months. Our Board has been unable to meet physically as well; communication has been online but no formal meetings have been conducted.

Since a gradual reopening began on June 15th, the Forest has reopened, and visitors have come back. However, employees of contractors on the grounds of Palmas del Mar, where the Forest is located, recently came down with Covid, leading to increased security measures to avoid the spread at Palmas, particularly with respect to contract work.

In terms of revenues, we had hoped to have raised enough funds by now to make the purchase and planting of new trees cost-effective. Covid and the shortfall in revenues for the project, have placed the project effectively and temporarily “on hold”.

As Puerto Rico rebounds from Covid (although, like many states, we’ve seen a veery worrisome recent uptick in cases and hospitalizations), we expect a return to normalcy to eventually take place. However, fundraising to keep our GlobalGiving project on track in these times is more challenging than ever and will require new, primarily virtual initiatives and a reconfigured case for support. We will be working on that, remotely and in person, in the next few weeks.