Episode 21: Rebuilding a Forest
In Brazil’s Atlantic Forest, Mauricio Ruiz has turned his love for nature into action by working with the community to reforest a critical stretch of the nation’s most endangered forest, and by using drones to help him reach his goal of planting 15 million trees.
Mauricio created the Institute for Environmental Preservation, ITPA, when he was just 14 to fight back against rampant deforestation. With government and private funding and a law in place that protects the remaining forest, Mauricio shows us what 25 years of civilian-led action looks like. Locals are paid to extinguish illegally set fires and operate a nursery that grows 100,000 trees a year. They raise 58 native species critical for biodiversity and convince private landowners to reforest their land.
Mauricio knows scaling-up will be the only way to combat continued forest loss and has set an ambitious new goal to plant 15 million trees. Fortunately, he’s partnered with a technology company, MORFO, that has the experience and tools needed to accomplish it: agricultural drones. If the approach works, Mauricio can cut costs and time by planting 50 times faster than by hand, and still rely on citizen work to prepare and monitor newly forested ground.
