This Christmas Santa has passed by Civitatis with his sack full… of trees! Via the platform Saving the Amazon, Civitatis has seeded a whole forest of 300 trees for the company, in the middle of the Colombian rainforest. And in that way, we’re once more showing our commitment to our natural environment.
To start 2021 on the right foot, our CEO and Founder, Alberto Gutiérrez, has surprised the team with an original (and eco-friendly) gift: a tree for everyone! Thanks to the collaboration with Saving the Amazon, each employee has their own tree in the Amazon rainforest, thus helping to combat deforestation. And we love our little tree!
Did you know that the Amazon contains 20% of the fresh water and 31% of tropical forests on the planet? And that it occupies 7,000,000 square kilometres of South America? Throughout 2019, a series of forest fires devastated thousands of hectares of Amazon rainforest in various parts of Brazil, Bolivia and Peru. And although COVID-19 has monopolized all the front pages in 2020, the situation in the Amazon remains the same.
According to the National Institute for Space Investigation, last year 93,356 fires were detected in the Amazon in the first 10 months, more than the 89,176 registered in 2019. Only in the month of August the INPE satellites detected an average of 1,900 fires per day, a figure similar to that of 2019.
These fires usually occur during the dry months, in areas where slash and burn agriculture dominates. Most of these fellings are undertaken by multinationals looking to create areas for livestock and other agricultural activities.
Saving the Amazon
The Saving the Amazon Foundation has been working with indigenous communities in Colombia and Brazil since 2012, with the aim of kick starting environmental recovery of the Amazon rainforest. This work is vital for the protection of the tropical forest and its fauna, increasingly in danger due to this deforestation. They also help indigenous communities to preserve their home, and way of life, as these tribes survive on the food and resources they obtain from the jungle.
How to Buy a Tree in the Rainforest
Via www.savinghteamazon.org, any person or company can adopt a tree or entire forest, and help combat deforestation in the Amazon. And many companies like Civitatis have wanted to reinforce their commitment to the environment and have joined the initiative, giving their employees trees. In this way, companies are able to offset their carbon footprint, and take steps towards accepting their responsibility for the environment.
More than 75,000 trees have already been planted, and 30 indigenous communities continue to thrive thanks to this project. The adopted tree is planted by indigenous communities, and is geolocated and marked with a biodegradable tag with the name of the person. The indigenous locals will take care of it in the early years, until it becomes a tree that can fend for itself. During that period, photographs are sent so you can see the growth of the tree. And you receive a diploma that certifies you as a member of the project for the restoration and protection of the Amazon and a contributor to the economic and social development of indigenous communities.
And if you want to plant your tree in person, you can too! Save the Amazon organizes collective planting so that groups have the opportunity to plant their own tree with the help of community members. Can you think of a better excuse to travel to South America?
Once there, you visit other parts of the Amazon jungle and practice sustainable tourism without impact on the environment with our activities in Colombia, Brazil or Peru. Civitatis can help you discover the Amazon and come into contact with the largest living monument in the world. What about a Puerto Narino trip from Leticia in Colombia? Or sleeping overnight in the jungle in Puerto Nariño? And how about a visit to an Ashaninka community in Puerto Inca, Peru? There are so many things that can be done to contribute to the development of sustainable tourism and reduce your environmental impact.
Projects like Saving the Amazon help us to join in the fight against climate change. Buying trees in the Amazon Rainforest is one of the many initiatives that have emerged to combat climate change, but it would be necessary to plant a trillion trees in the Amazon rainforest to offset the ecological footprint produced by the world as a whole. Think about how many trees could be planted if every company or person in the world followed the example of Civitatis. Would you adopt one?
