Forests4Water Brazil: Community Climate Action

Well, lovely donors, 

You're not going to believe this but I had jjust finished writing this quarterly report to you when some gremlin got into the site or my fingers or somewhere and seized up the site and my report VANISHED into thin air! 

But down in the forest we are made of stern stuff, so here it comes again. 

And the main thing we want to do is give you guys a big shoutout for your amazing support over the last quarter, which has averaged almost $500 a month. You are the best! 

You support comes at the perfect moment, because we're in the thick of the planting season. And as we've probably told you, work in forest restoration goes on year round. Sure, there are quieter times and busier times and this has certainly been one of the busier times. 

It's not unexpected - after all we are in the midst of rainy season, and that's when we normally do the planting. But before we tell you of our adventures, let's give you a quick rundown of some of the activities that your generous donations are supporting. 

• Finding, cleaning and preparing the seeds (from the forest)
• Identifying and sorting them 
• Making compost to enrich the soil (forest soils are not very fertile) 
• Planting the seeds in the seed bed and waiting for them to germinate: 3 - 6 weeks
• Transplanting them into plastic sacks
• Watering, weeding and dosing with organic fertilizer as required
• When coffee harvest is over (July, August) visiting participating farms to locate priority areas for reforestation 
• Taking soil and water samples and selecting the best mix of species depending on the farm topography
• Visting the farms before planting to check that the area is fenced and weeded and everything is in place 
• Digging the holes and applying organic fertilizer 
• Mobilizing as many volunteers as possible to help with the planting 
• Returning to the farms to monitor the growth of the young forests

This year things weren't entirely straightforward - and the title of this project may have given you a hint. Due to very heavy rains we had to cope with flooding, landslides and impassable dirt roads which slowed us down a lot. So we're currently 60% of the way towards making our goal of 7,000 trees planted, and we'll keep going as and how we can. Next year we're raising our target to 10,000 trees.

There's one good thing about extreme weather events. They focus the mind wonderfully. And every tree that you help us plant and maintain will help stabilize the soils, increase rainwater infiltration and avoid runoff and play an important role in flood control. 

Thank you, dear donors, for your support. Please stay with us as together we restore the forests on which we all depend. Please consider, if you can, becoming a regular donor. Please share our project link with your friends and colleagues and ask them to join you in supporting the work we are doing together.  

muddy but happy hugs from the rainforest, 

Arielle and the Forests4Water team

Links:

• Iracambi site
• Planting the trees for Iracambi