Letter from the Director

Dear Friend of the Atlantic Forest,

I want to thank you. Thanks to your investment in The Nature Conservancy’s Plant a Billion Trees campaign, together with our partners we’ve been able to plant and restore more than a million trees in Brazil’s Atlantic Forest this year!

I’m excited to share with you this update about how your donation is helping. Since launching this ambitious reforestation campaign in April 2008, we’ve raised enough to plant and regenerate more than 1.5 million native trees across Brazil’s Atlantic Forest with more than 1.5 million native trees and establish partnerships with local groups who are working with us to replicate our restoration work.

Home to 60 percent of Brazil’s threatened animal species, protecting the Atlantic Forest is crucial for the survival of the golden lion tamarin, as well as tens of thousands of other animals and plants. In fact, the Atlantic Forest is home to 21 species of primate -- many of which can be found nowhere else on Earth.

Five hundred years ago, the Atlantic Forest of Brazil covered approximately 330 million acres (about twice the size of Texas), but today more than 93 percent of this forest has been cleared and what remains is highly fragmented. Although it is just a small fraction of the size of the great Amazon rainforest, the Atlantic Forest still harbors of a range of biological diversity similar to that of the Amazon.

Because the last remnants of the Atlantic Forest lie scattered and sandwiched between growing cities like São Paulo and the Atlantic Ocean, it faces far more imminent danger than the Amazon. Urban sprawl, infrastructure development, agriculture and ranching, pollution and growing demands on natural resources pose increasing threats to this tropical forest every day.

Plant a Billion Trees

In April of 2008, the Conservancy launched an ambitious campaign to restore one billion native trees to Brazil's highly endangered Atlantic Forest, of which just 7 percent remains. Conservancy supporters spent the year donating one dollar at a time to help us achieve this worthy goal, and the Conservancy and partners have helped regenerate the Atlantic Forest with more than one million trees so far.

Each and every dollar you have invested has made a difference as we help restore the world’s most endangered tropical forest.

Once again, I would like to thank you for your support of this critical program. You should be proud of the trees that your support has planted.

Obrigado (Thank you),

Miguel Calmon
Director of the Atlantic Forest Conservation Program

p.s. You can also send beautiful Atlantic Forest e-cards, perfect for any occasion! You can schedule them now to go out any day you choose.

Return to the Thank You Letter landing page
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Butterflies. Photo © Scott Warren 2007.

Plant native trees in Brazil and help protect animal and plant life of every imaginable kind under the lush, green canopy of Brazil's Atlantic Forest.