By Mary Grady | Director, Business Development
The Mata no Peito Initiative has raised over $40,000 in donations from partners to fund projects that protect and replant forests in Brazil and demonstrate community engagement and enhanced livelihoods.
Winrock is grateful for the generous support to date from 155 individual donations via Global Giving as well as from committed corporate and nonprofit partners including Sustain:Green, the U.S. Tennis Congress, (USTC), the 2013 Environmental and Clean Energy Presidential Inaugural Ball, software development company iObit, Nissan, London Carbon Markets and Hub Culture.
Mata no Peito partners have collectively removed 19.55 million pounds of CO2 from the atmosphere via purchase and retirement of carbon credits to offset their own carbon footprints – equivalent to taking 1,830 cars off the road for a year.
We are excited to announce an award of grant funds to Brazilian NGO Ecologica Institute (“Instituto Ecologica”) for reforestation and riparian restoration of 20 springs in the Taquarussu Grande Creek watershed, which provides water for nearly 70% of the population of the capital city of Palmas, Tocantins. Water supply from the creek has been reduced by 85% in recent years due to deforestation driven by cattle ranching and agriculture.
The Mata no Peito-funded reforestation project will increase the long-term water supply for Palmas as well as improve the water and soil quality in the Taquarussu watershed while restoring wildlife habitat, reducing greenhouse gas emissions and avoiding the deposit of pollutants, which contaminates springs. The project will also provide jobs and raw material for income sources for local communities, such as jewelry, jellies, honey and other products promoted by Ecologica Institute in the region.
Ecologica Institute will begin work in October 2015 to establish the tree nursery and will embark upon reforestation activities in through the spring of 2016. We will report on project developments on www.matanopeito.org. Thank you for your partnership in support of this important initiative.
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