Sometimes things don’t go the way we expect, and at times we have to go out of our comfort zone to make it how we want it to be. Brazilian photojournalist Sebastião Ribeiro Salgado returned to his family’s land in Brazil, and was expecting to find lush greenery and cultivated fields. But unfortunately, he found ruins instead. He and his wife, Lelia Deluiz Wanick Salgado, decided to take action, and the results were amazing. Within 20 years, the couple have been planting and restoring a 1,750 acre forest, and transforming it into a thriving oasis, that made many endangered animals return. It definitely was no easy task, which makes it even more incredible.
The area in Minas Geraisland was the very land Salgado grew up on. It used to be his family’s ranch, Bulcao Far, and was a lovely subtropical rainforest that eventually suffered neglect and exploitation of the natural resources. This Brazilian did not want to remember the place he grew up on as a ruined area, and devised a plan with his wife to heal the area by replanting.
“Here there was once much water and many fish. And today? You see the earth barren and dry.There is nothing left. It’s all over,” Sebastiao said in 1998 before the vast undertaking. Well, 20 years later, nothing short of a miracle transformed the ruined Bulcao Farms into a thriving, lush and vibrant land. In totality, about 2.7 million trees were planted! That is about 350 trees a day, for 20 years.The life of the area invited many animals to return. 30 species of mammals, 15 species of reptiles, and 168 species of birds have returned, many of which are classified as endangered. “ In 1990 we acquired the land that had belonged to my parents. We decided to replant the forest. Our project lies in the heart of the Atlantic Forest…We have managed to plant over a million saplings,” Salgado proudly explained.
The area is now a Private Natural Heritage Reserve which has had a huge impact on the climate and ecosystem. The project has rejuvenated several dried-up springs in drought prone areas. Truly an amazing endeavor, a way for man to give back to mother nature. Hopefully there will be more people like the Salgados. Every bit of help is needed by Mother Earth, don’t you agree?
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True Activist / Report a typo
