1000 trees a year 1000 acres of rainforest forever

There are few spectacles as visibly transformative as the rainy season in the Amazon. In our home in Tambopata, Peru, intense rains can change the course of rivers and alter landscapes literally overnight. These last few months have brought the most potent rainy season in the last half a century to our area, and the feeling of transformation is still palpable. The highest river rise in 50 years has changed the face of Tambopata, part of the extraordinary cycle of life and death that is ongoing in the rainforest.

But currently there are other winds of transformation in our area as well. Illegal gold miners in our Madre de Dios region have taken to the streets of the department's capital of Puerto Maldonado, demanding the government make laws more lenient and permissive to their mercury-heavy and ecologically heavy-handed gold mining. The current laws are poorly enforced, and are somewhat cursory in their ecological protections. As I write, our city is paralyzed by a miners' strike that has closed schools and access routes and shut down all commerce. In the uncertain scales of environmental justice balance the needs of thousands of working men and women in the mining zones, and the ecological integrity of one of the most bio-diverse regions on Earth.

For us at Camino Verde, there is a remarkable feeling of calm through these storms. Our business is planting trees and conserving forests, and happily things are business as usual at our center. One of the most effective and efficient teams of reforestation and agroforestry workers in our region is actively restoring degraded ecosystems and helping keep the green lung of our planet green.

Even so, the river rise meant that several hundred of our trees were killed by these rare water levels. A lesson well learned-- to replant the affected areas with water-loving trees, but we need your help to do that. We are seeking support from our donors now in order to bounce back from our losses, small in comparison to so many of the farmers in our region who lost whole fields of crops to the river. Please help us in this work alongside our region´s farmers, to plant trees resilient to the wildly varying conditions of our region.

Despite the intensity of this time of year for reasons ecological and social, as ever I'm filled with a sense of gratitude for the life of the forests of the Amazon. Recently I had a chance to greet a unique visitor to our reforestation center, a scarlet macaw who came to land outside our kitchen and was even willing to grab onto my hand. The astonishing gifts of life are with us always.

Warm greetings from Tambopata,