Planting trees to save the planet!

Dear donors and friends across the world,

Greetings from a very rainy rainforest and we hope that you’re all looking after yourselves? I think we all richly deserve a virtual cappuccino or glass of wine from time to time, right? Not to mention something for which to be grateful.  

And, talking about gratitude, read on, dear donors!  

From our end, we have two exciting news items, for which we are profoundly grateful. Let’s start with the miracle.

It showed upon one of those days when we were grappling with muddy roads, balky vehicles, fallen trees, sporadic power outages, and the internet on the blink. Yes, there are days like that. Even in this beautiful part of the world, there are days when we wonder, just for a minute, whether rainforests are overrated!

And then – the miracle. A substantial donation to the project. Thank you, thank you, wonderful donor – you know who you are. And believe me, you totally transformed our week!

Now for the second item of news. Thanks to all of the wonderful donors across the world we now have a solid base to expand our forestry program in 2021-22.  We can't thank you enough - we are truly humbled by your generosity, and we really can see how we go farther together...

So, as the rain comes pouring down, we’re pulling on our boots and pressing on. We had a hot spell in January which was hard on some of the newly planted trees, but it’s amazing how quickly they perk up when the rain comes back. We’re completing this season’s planting, (and delighted to have a handful of local volunteers to help out.) We’re collecting planting and site data for our records, making new seedlings, and adding the final touches to our planning and budgeting for the 2021-22 planting season.

And, before we close, here are some photos from our recent planting sites. 

Look after yourselves, guys. It really does look like better times are coming...

big rainforest love, and thank you for everything that you do. We'll talk soon, 

Deivid and the Iracambi Tree Planters 

Links:

• Iracambi site

Dear donors and friends across the world,

First of all, we hope you are doing well, and that you're excited about 2021 and the better times that are definitely coming if we can just hang in there. Yes, we know that things are tough in the short run, but 2021 is clearly bringing us all new hope on many fronts, including climate action! 

In our last letter we talked about the UN Decade of Ecosystem Restoration and we gave you a sneak peek at Iracambi’s contribution towards it: we’re going to plant more trees. A lot more trees.

So here’s the deal. Right now we’re finishing up this season’s planting. We’re lucky enough to have some volunteers onsite who have come from different parts of Brazil to help, so our team is out there in the field completing the planting of the last 1000 seedlings.

And, thanks to your magnificent support, we’re also deep into planning for the 2021-22 season.

A quick recap. We’re locating land to reforest, seedlings to plant, and manpower.

First things first. We have more than enough land to plant. Hooray, hooray! We’ve also located subsidiary sources of seedlings, but we really want to increase the capacity in our own nursery. That will involve hiring more staff, enlarging the nursery area (happily we have lots of space) and completing our detailed budgeting and planning.  

So that’s where we are right now. And here’s where we need to give a big shoutout to two very special people. The first is our forestry mentor who inspired us to take a huge leap forward by committing to an ambitious, achievable goal that excites us! Like all good mentors, he’s helping us think though exactly how to get from where we are to where we want to be, in the simplest way possible.

The second very special person is a long-time friend and colleague with considerable experience in large scale reforestry. He walked us through every part of the process, soup to nuts, and generously shared innumerable practical tips on the best ways of getting those trees into the ground and maintaining them until they are thoroughly well established.

One of the exciting things that we’ve learned is the truth of the old African saying “If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together.” And our community is increasing exponentially. It really does seem that when you take a well reasoned decision to do more and better, the people and the resources show up. So we're welcoming, celebrating and collaborating with our partners everywhere: team members, mentors, practitioners, volunteers, students, schoolkids, community members, and, of course, YOU, dear donors!

Please look after yourselves wherever you are, and once again, here's a big thank you for all your very generous support. Together we're going farther and faster towards our exciting goal of restoring the beautiful Atlantic Forest. Stay tuned for further developments! 

with much love,

Deivid and the Iracambi Planting Team  

Links:

• The UN Decade of Ecosystem Restoration