Born from a dream: Instituto Terra
When Lélia Wanick and Sebastião Salgado inherited the family ranch, the Atlantic Forest Sebastião remembered from childhood had been cut down for cattle grazing. To this day, by planting trees, we have restored the biodiversity of the Atlantic Forest and promoted Sustainable Rural Development in the Rio Doce Basin.
This is the story of Instituto Terra.
In 1998, they founded Instituto Terra and started planting native seedlings to restore the forest. The new forest is now home to an abundance of plants and animals.
Instituto Terra is a non-profit civil organization founded in April 1998. It is focused on environmental restoration and sustainable rural development in the Vale do Rio Doce. The region was originally covered by the Atlantic Forest and encompasses municipalities in Minas Gerais and Espírito Santo, bathed by the Rio Doce Hydrographic Basin.
With help from local students and communities, they planted the first native seedlings.
Since then, over 3 million trees from 293 species have been planted.
Today, Instituto Terra teaches people how to bring forests, watersheds, and rural communities back to life.
This former cattle pasture is now a federally recognized nature reserve: a sanctuary for biodiversity, with over 2,000 restored springs and thriving wildlife.
The return of ants, ocelots, butterflies, and birds, including endangered species, signals a full-circle recovery of the food chain and ecosystem.
For anyone strolling along the trails of the Private Reserve of Natural Heritage Bulcão Farm today gets to hear the loud and courageous birdsong. It's hard to picture the degradation in the late 80s.
Animals soon started making their way back. The first monitoring of the fauna was finalized in 2006, seven years after the start of reforestation, identified the return of
172 bird species (six of which were threatened with extinction);
33 species of mammals (two of which are endangered in the world, and three others are endangered in Brazil);
15 species of amphibians and
16 species of reptiles.
Stories like Instituto Terra give us tremendous hope. Restor has hundreds of nature conservation projects that you can read about and support. If you like what you read, support Restor’s global efforts to protect and restore nature for the benefit of people, biodiversity, and climate.
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A heartfelt note: Sebastião Salgado passed away just days ago, but his legacy lives on in every tree, spring, and creature that returned to this land.
