Reforestation in Peru

Part of an initiative to plant a million trees by 2020

The LATA Foundation is planting 8,000 trees in Peru this year and we are actively appealing to supporters, travel companies and organizations dealing with Peru to help us plant more.

Each sapling costs $1 (61p) so a contribution of £3 will purchase 5 trees or £15 will purchase 25. It will only take 40 donations of £15 to provide a thousand trees. 

 

Donate by text: To plant 5 trees text PLNT05 £3  to 70070. 

This service works with all UK mobile phone providers. Please see our donations page for further details.

 

Further information:

The project is run by local NGO, ECOAN (Asociacion Ecosistemas Andinos), and the total number of trees planted to date is now 176,000 (correct as at 17 January 2012). Of these, 20,500 have been provided by the LATA Foundation.

This year's tree-planting season got off to a good start with 10,000 trees planted on Saturday 10th December and a further 13,000 on Sunday 11th. These were funded by Amazonas Explorer, a travel company based in Peru which has long been a member of the Latin America Travel Association. Paul Cripps of Amazonas Explorer informs us that his company provided around 50 volunteers (office staff, guides, drivers and porters) and around 200 people participated from the communities of Pampacorral and Quishuarani.

"It is a whole family affair, " says Paul. "The men dig the holes, the women plant the trees and the kids pick up the plastics bags. It’s amazing that in literally 4 or 5 hours we plant that quantity of trees but it does get done. "

"Both communities have their own nurseries so we bought the seedlings directly from them, we paid them to plant the trees and we gave them lunch as well – so something like 95% of the money we spend goes back to the community."

The region has suffered deforestation due to the demand for firewood both from local communities and for tourist campfires. The project provides habitat for endangered species of flora and fauna and will eventually produce essential and sustainable resources for energy supplies.

The saplings are a native Andean birch. The tree-planting programme is designed to counteract the environmental pressures of tourist activity and to support local communities. The success rate is currently over 95%.

A further 5,000 trees were planted on 15 December and 8,000 on the 16th. This was followed by a staggering 22,000 saplings planted on 22 December and 12,000 on the 28th.  So in December alone they planted an amazing total of 70,000 trees.

ECOAN have planted 33,000 trees in January including 8,000 funded by the LATA Foundation. These were planted on 19 January in the Cancha Cancha region of the Sacred Valley of the Incas. It took 210 people just under 5 hours and it was raining all day!

We are particularly grateful to The Adventure Company for inviting their passengers to contribute towards reforestation. Their contributions were then matched by the company and raised over £2000.   

Versión en Espaňol: Reforestación en Perú

To see Ali McClymont's report about the project, filmed by Louise Martindale, please click here: Reforestation Film

 

Using our contacts in the travel industry we have been actively appealing for hotels, restaurants and ground operators  in Cuzco and the Sacred Valley to give this project their support.

Contributions:

If you would like to make a donation or set up a monthly direct debit to support our work, please click onto our Donations pages or go to www.justgiving.com/lata.  

Date project approved: 01 August 2009