The First Step
Having decided to create the Instituto Terra in
1998, its founders – Lélia Deluiz Wanick Salgado and Sebastião Salgado – sought
recognition of the property as a Private Nature Heritage Reserve (PNHR). That same year, the Bulcão Farm
received the first ever environmental license granted to a Natural Heritage
Reserve of Humanity in a devastated and damaged region - an
area where not a single stretch of forest could be preserved, a place where
work had to start from scratch.
The Blueprint for Restoration
This was elaborated in 1998 by
the renowned forestry engineer, Renato de Jesus, who at the time was
responsible for the reforestation projects of the Brazilian company, VALE. The project’s initial objectives remain the
Instituto Terra’s guiding principles to this day: reforestation, education and
research.
The First Investor
The Brazilian Fund for
Biodiversity (FUNBIO) proposed a system of joint financing: it offered to match
every dollar invested by any other interested party. In other words, it pledged
to cover fifty percent of the initial budget – and it started by providing
$500,000 – so long as the Salgados came up with a similar amount. NATURA, a Brazilian cosmetics firm, and the
regional government of Asturias in Spain donated funds to set the project in
motion. Additional financing was provided by the Lannan Foundation, the Tides
Foundation and other organizations and individuals in the United States.
The First Seedlings
In the first years of planting, which
began in 1999, the Natural Reserve of VALE supplied the seedlings. This partnership lasted until 2002, when
planting began with some of the seedlings now produced in the Institute’s own
conservatory.
The First Planting
The first planting at the Bulcão
Farm was carried out by pupils from the schools of Aimorés, Minas Gerais. This awakened the interest of the local
inhabitants and marked the beginning of a close relationship with the
community.
The First Nursery
With space to grow 80,000
seedlings per year, our first nursery was donated by “SOS Mata Atlántica” and
by the Brazilian branch of Conservation International. In 2002, the Ministry
for the Environment financed the extension of the nursery to give it an annual
capacity of 400,000 seedlings. And in 2008, the Fund for Recuperation,
Protection and Sustainable Development of the Water Basins of the State of
Minas Gerais, FHIDRO, funded the further enlargement of the conservatory into
one able to produce one million seedlings a year.