Reforestation

Instituto Terra has successfully reforested over half of its 1,505 acre reserve since 1999 and has stabilized its nursery since 2001.  Each tree planted at the Institute is grown by seed in the Institute’s nursery. On average, the Institute plants a minimum of 100 different species of trees per hectare that are native to the Atlantic Forest. The Institute’s long term mission in the next fifty years is to promote its reforestation efforts across Brazil’s Atlantic Forest and plant 50 million trees in partnership with local landowners and cooperatives to generate income through sustainable use of the land and forest resources.

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The Advanced Center

In 2005, Instituto Terra created the Advanced Center as a 2-year residency school for students to live and study at the Institute to obtain a college level certificate in environmental recovery and self-sustainable rural development. Each year, the Institute selects 10 students from local agro-tech schools within the states of Minas Gerais and Espirito Santo. These students often come from farming families with no opportunity for advanced education. The students live and study for two years at the Institute at no cost to their families. In December 2007, the Advanced Center graduated its first class!

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Project Terrinhas

Instituto Terra partners with all of the 16 public and private schools to offer the Terrinhas “Little Earth’s” program. For one week each month 375 students representing every grade level come to Instituto Terra to learn about the environment, animals and birds that have returned to the land, and ways each child can help protect the earth. These children go back and teach their classmates and families everything they have learned. The Instituto Terra provides the ONLY environmental education within the local school systems.

The Terrinhas are little detectives studying the environment and its animals; the importance of protecting our resources, recycling, conserving water, not littering; and how the activities at the Institute fight the global climate crisis.