We set out from the town of Extrema, in Brazil’s Minas Gerais state, in a four-wheel-drive vehicle at 9 a.m. on a Monday. Driving beneath a mountainous vista and blue skies, Benedito Arlindo Cortez, our host, stops to chat with everyone we meet; he pulls the car over to talk to someone, then puts it […]
Brazil: Reforestation to replenish water supplies
The Atlantic Forest runs along the Brazilian coast down as far as Paraguay and Argentina. One of the most biodiverse ecosystems on earth, just 20% of the tropical forest remains. The rest has been cleared, largely to make way for agriculture.
The forest is important not only for the wildlife there but for supplying water and energy to millions of Brazilians, particularly those living in and around the cities of Sao Paulo and Rio de Janeiro.
Sisters Ana Paula und Flávia Balderi know the problem all too well. They founded the environmental organization Copaíba as teenagers 20 years ago. Named after an oil resin, derived from the trunk of several native South American trees, Copaíba has been trying to help restore the forest by planting trees.