By Kerry Smith | Freelance writer for LRFF
Mariano Monge, his wife Alba, and their children perform an incredible service: They maintain 14 hectares of tropical rainforest, protecting it from the rampant deforestation we're all too familiar with. That's 1,506,947 square feet of our precarious environmental future sustained for the benefit of us all.
The Monges' difficult, exhausting, and immensely valuable work is conducted in the dual shadows of grief for a lost child and sibling and the constant threat of hardship. The San Luis Forest is their livelihood. It would be easier to sell the land to developers, but the Monges understand and cherish the value of their rainforest, not only to themselves but to the entire world.
It's possible to lighten their load, carried partly on our behalf. Perhaps we owe them more than mere gratitude, more than simple acknowledgement, more than our best wishes.
Perhaps we owe them tangible support.
One family and 14 hectares of rainforest flourishing, 210 tonnes of CO2 per year sequestered, a multitude of precious plant and animal species preserved, part of our environmental future protected--all for just a little over $700.
Sounds like pretty good return on investment, doesn't it?
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