Restoring the once mighty Atlantic Forest

A Brazilian proverb says that “love is repaid with love” (amor com amor se paga). Where trees are concerned, everyone benefits. They capture carbon dioxide (CO2) that otherwise contributes to climate change and are home to most of Earth’s terrestrial biodiversity – which is vital to life on our planet.

And how do we repay the trees? Often with quite the opposite of love: our forests that cover nearly one-third of the planet’s land area are disappearing through deforestation, replaced by crops and plantations and urban development. Yet, restoring these forests can repair nature’s damaged biodiversity, helping the planet and us, too.

That’s the thinking behind an ambitious restoration project in Brazil. Together with non-profit Instituto Terra, Zurich Insurance Group is sponsoring the plantation of 1 million native trees to restore a biodiverse habitat on 700 hectares of land (2.7 square miles) in the Brazilian state of Minas Gerais. It’s allowing us to repay – with a little love – the trees that do a whole lot of good for everybody.

The Zurich Forest project in Brazil will take eight years to complete. It is part of a plan to regrow a small portion of what used to be one of the largest single wooded places on Earth: the mighty Mata Atlântica, or Atlantic Forest, which once stretched for 3,000 kilometers (1,900 miles) along most of Brazil’s coast.

When the Europeans arrived some 500 years ago, the Atlantic Forest covered about 120 million hectares (470,000 square miles) – about twice the size of Texas. But deforestation soon took its toll.

The forest’s Brazilwood trees were among the first to face destruction. These were prized to make a red dye. Deforestation continued as coffee and sugar cane plantations were established, and crops like soy were planted. Cattle grazed in pastures created through slash-and-burn destruction. The forest also endured the brunt of Brazil’s population growth and urban development with the megacities Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo located on what used to be parts of the Atlantic Forest.

The giant forest became a ghost. By some estimates, only 11 to 16 percent of the original Atlantic Forest still remains. But despite its diminished state – it is just a small fraction of the size of the Amazon rainforest – the Atlantic Forest still harbors a rich range of biological diversity similar to that of the Amazon. The Atlantic Forest contains an estimated 20,000 plant species, including the pau-brasil tree which gives the country its name; this is more plant species than the whole of North America (17,000) or Europe (12,500). It’s why the Atlantic Forest is considered a global conservation priority.

The Zurich Forest project in Brazil is just one part of an ambitious plan begun by two determined individuals. Renowned Brazilian photographer Sebastião Salgado, and his wife Lélia, who trained as an architect, didn’t at first plan to regrow a forest.

A professional photographer with a degree in economics, Sebastião took up a camera almost by accident. After the young couple moved to Paris from Brazil in the late 1960s, it was Lélia who bought their first camera. But it was Sebastião who was hooked. The former economist began taking pictures and selling them to newspapers. Through his lens, one can perhaps imagine the world as an impassioned economist might see it. Characteristically in black and white, his photos present landscapes and people as whole systems. They have been described as biblical in scale. They might even be considered precursors to the forest project, which really, according to Sebastião Salgado, is all about “ecosystems.”

Birth of the forest fanatics

Their dream of a renewed forest grew out of a sense of loss after the couple inherited Sebastião’s parent’s farm in Brazil. “My father had a great farm. I grew up in a paradise,” he told Zurich’s management in 2019 at a meeting where he was introduced to the company’s leaders. But when he and Lélia returned in the 1990s, the hills surrounding Bulcão Farm were barren, resembling more a circle of hell than any paradise. The farm’s land, set mainly in the Doce River valley, was pronounced “dead” by one soil expert. But Sebastião the photojournalist had returned home sickened by what he’d seen in places of human disaster, such as Rwanda and the Balkans. He needed renewal. Lélia suggested that by re-growing the forest, Salgado could heal himself. So began the career of Sebastião and Lélia – the forest aficionados.

The project was daunting. To realize their vision and manage the enormous challenges, the couple founded Instituto Terra in 1998. Part of the key lies in funding. Sebastião even auctioned a special-edition camera awarded him by a camera company to raise money to plant trees. The project has grown in the meantime thanks to support from the community, public sources and private donations. Standing on stage before Zurich’s management, Salgado shared a photo of the green canopy that now covers the once-barren hillsides of the old farm. At this point, many managers in the audience smiled. And some applauded.

Carsten Schildknecht, CEO Zurich Germany, was one of the Zurich executives in the audience that day. “I felt very moved and was super convinced,” he recalls. Schildknecht was so impressed that he decided there and then that Zurich Germany, with its 4,500 employees, would be a leader in a cooperation with Instituto Terra. “If we approach this with optimism, if we believe that even small actions can make a difference, then step by step, we are indeed creating this brighter future together,” he says.

“I’m very proud to support Instituto Terra and their project,” adds Edson Franco, CEO Zurich Brazil, who was also enthralled by Salgado’s presentation. “It aligns with our purpose and this unique venture will help to recuperate and protect the Atlantic Forest, remarkably rich in biodiversity and endemic species, many threatened with extinction.”

So far Instituto Terra has planted 2.5 million trees. The Zurich Forest project will add a further million. With most of the land now designated one of Brazil’s Private Natural Heritage Reserves, native animals are also returning, and along with them a truly biodiverse environment. The area is home to 172 different bird species, of which six are endangered, 15 species of amphibians, 16 species of reptiles and 33 species of mammals, with seven at risk of extinction. That includes jaguars which were in danger of dying out due to destruction of their habitat.

A tree for each Zurich employee

In the Zurich Forest of Brazil, a tree will be planted for each of Zurich’s 55,000 employees, with the remainder dedicated to customers, stakeholders or special events. Thus, forests can be stories about sadness and loss, but also, if they are regrown, about redemption and hope.

Salgado knows how hard it is to bring back nature. “Like raising a kid,” is how he describes it. It requires knowledge and time. The first trees are “the pioneers,” the first generation, which enables the second generation and if all goes well, a third generation of trees.

If all goes well, the trees Zurich is helping to plant now could last for 500 or even 1,000 years. Humans need to think long-term too, particularly when it comes to the future of the planet. Another Brazilian proverb neatly sums it up: “For those who know how to wait for an opportunity, everything comes at its own time and volition” (a quem sabe esperar ensejo, tudo vem a seu tempo e desejo). In this case, the long wait is ending. The trees are returning.