TASCHEN’S CARBON PLEDGE

Genesis is a landmark TASCHEN publication that celebrates the beauty of nature and encourages us all to serve as its guardians. For this reason, we are delighted to announce a fresh collaboration with Lélia Wanick Salgado and Sebastião Salgado and the Instituto Terra, the remarkable environmental project that they have established in their home country, Brazil.

Terms of delivery

As a result of our new ecological partnership, TASCHEN, the world’s largest publisher of art books, will become carbon neutral. The Instituto Terra was founded in 1998 at Aimorés in the state of Minas Gerais on land belonging to the Salgado family. Once a cattle ranch carved out of the Atlantic Forest, this property had become arid and infertile, with dried-up rivers and little more than shrubbery for vegetation. Lélia and Sebastião Salgado decided to reforest the entire area with the species that once flourished there. Since then, an almost miraculous transformation has taken place.

Framing

Through a scientifically planned program of raising and planting saplings, the slopes and lowland of the Instituto Terra are now covered with two million new trees of more than 300 different species, among them the Pau-Brasil tree (which gave Brazil its name), the Jacarandá Caviuna (or Brazilian Rosewood), and the Jatobá (also known as the Brazilian Cherry). This reforestation has resulted in the rebirth of a tropical microclimate, bringing increased rainfall and replenishing parched streams and creeks with water. The new trees have also secured the topsoil so that the rain from heavy storms is now absorbed, eliminating erosion and sharply reducing the danger of flash floods. Trees play a crucial role in balancing global levels of carbon dioxide and oxygen. While humans breathe in oxygen and expel carbon dioxide, trees work to do the opposite: They release life-giving oxygen into the environment and help absorb the excess carbon dioxide we produce. And because they do this mostly while they are growing, the impact of the new forest at Aimorés is even more significant.

Payment

With its new covering of forest offering both food and protection to a wide variety of fauna, the Instituto Terra’s land has attracted over 170 species of birds back to the area, including native species of tawny owls, thrushes, finches, and parrots. Scores of animals, some listed as endangered, and many of which had not been seen in decades, have also returned, among them capybaras, anteaters, monkeys, raccoons, ocelots, and pumas. Snakes, beetles, spiders, ants, and other insects complete the new ecosystem. Today, our modern commercial and domestic economies have become the world’s largest producers of excess carbon dioxide. This stays trapped in the atmosphere and leads to what is known as the greenhouse effect. It is this phenomenon that most scientists believe is responsible for global warming and the subsequent worldwide climate change.

Damaged goods

The Instituto Terra has also embarked on an ambitious educational campaign, involving schoolchildren, teachers, leaders of cooperative farms, and local environmental officials. Teams of young volunteers frequently participate in planting young trees, while the institute’s outreach program provides advice to farmers, miners, and other people working in the forest region. In fact, the Instituto Terra has become a model for what can be done to rescue a deteriorated landscape: Its initiative is exemplary in the fight against large-scale deforestation in many regions across the world, from the Amazon to Indonesia.