Forests4Water Brazil: Community Climate Action

Dear donors,

Ahoy ahoy! We hope you are doing well! 

Here we are doing fine  after  a relaxing Mardi Gras in the forest  - working towards our new goal for this year! But first, we have to thank you for your generous ongoing support to Forests4Water Brazil: Community Climate Action!

Since we’re getting closer to the end of the wet season, we have to calm down and prepare ourselves for the next planting season. But for that, we have a lot of work to do, when it comes to collecting  and growing seeds, turning them into seedlings and doing the maintenance of the reforested areas, to take care of  our baby trees! 

You may even think that our goal couldn’t be higher than planting  20.000 trees.. But, you`d be  wrong, because, in the 2022/2023 season, we’re planning to plant more 35.000 seedlings!

We count on you to spread the word and help us achieve our crazy goal! And we´ll keep you posted. 

With warm hugs from the rainforest team.

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

Dear wonderful donors across the world,  

We hope you are doing well, and that you share our joy in the fact that it's raining nicely and the planting team is working hard to get this season´s trees into the ground!

We've been planting as fast as we can, as well as checking on the trees we planted a few months back. As you can see, if we don´t keep on top of things, there´s a real danger that our baby trees will get suffocated by the healthy growth of grass on all sides. 

This week's good news is that we are hosting a professional photographer on site who is out in the field capturing images of life at Iracambi. We've also recently welcomed a new communications director - Juliana - and she is busily transforming our data and pictures into stories. And we just came off one of our bimonthly zoom meetings with Iracambi International mentors from across the world, where we discussed the importance of good data collection, good reporting and good stories. So everything is coming together on the reporting front, in parallel to the hard work of the planting team. 

Oh and did we tell you that we are partnering with a company in the US that is building a climate data model and plans to use our data and experiences as they refine their model? 

Exciting times down in the rainforest, and thank you for making this all possible. As one of our mentors today said "We need to think big. Aim high and we'll get there." 

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

with love and thanks from Luiz and the foresters (as well as all the members of the Iracambi team) 

Dear donors, 

We hope you are doing well, and can share our joy at the return of our foreign students after nearly twenty months! 

As you may remember, our program of students and volunteers welcomes people from across the world to get involved at the intersection between biodiversity conservation and sustainability.

And that basically adds up to two main themes - forest restoration and education for sustainability. 

The return of our foreign students coincided with the middle of the rainy season - a great time for working in the nursery and going into the field to roll up their sleeves and plant some trees. 

Over these past weeks, we were able to plant on several local farms, always wth the objective of restoring forest cover and protecting springs and streams. Some sites are planted, some are monitored and maintained, and in some cases we replant  in the case of losses. 

We`re working hard to complete our target of planting 20,000 trees this rainy season, and the rain is really helping us. In fact we`ve had several days when it`s been altogether too wet to plant - the roads turn to mud, the rivers rise, and we have to work in the nursery or in the office instead of planting! But we are super flexible, and heavy rain days give us the opportunity to upload our data and plan out our forestry activities for 2022. 

So thank you, thank you for your support. Together we`re restoring the forest - and that benefits everyone!

with much love, and we`ll talk soon,

Luiz and the Iracambi Foresters