After realizing that an entire rainforest previously housing 500+ endangered species had been cut down, resulting in all the wildlife vanishing from the area, a couple decided to replant it.

Well known Brazilian photographer, Sebastião Salgado had returned to Minas Gerais in 1994, expecting to be welcomed back to the paradise he remembered from his childhood, but instead he was met with a horrifying sight, the land he once knew was now a barren wasteland with roughly 0.5% of the land remaining covered in trees.

The Guardian reported that Salgado had met with a group of religious leaders to discuss climate change after returning from an already traumatic event, experiencing the genocide in Rwanda first hand and that he’d come home to discover the ‘remains’ of the forest.

“The land was as sick as I was, everything was destroyed. Only about 0.5 per cent of the land was covered in trees.” Salgado says.

“Then my wife had a fabulous idea to replant this forest. And when we began to do that, then all the insects and birds and fish returned and, thanks to this increase of the trees I, too, was reborn, this was the most important moment.”

Salgado and his family since set up the Instituto Terra and have successfully planted more than two million trees, offering a home to the 500+ endangered species which once roamed freely in the area, bringing life to the forest.

The photographer says he has found the answer to climate change, including the bonus of creative inspiration.

“Perhaps we have a solution. There is a single being which can transform CO2 to oxygen, which is the tree. We need to replant the forest.”

“You need forest with native trees, and you need to gather the seeds in the same region you plant them or the serpents and the termites won’t come.”

“And if you plant forests that don’t belong, the animals don’t come there and the forest is silent.”

“We need to listen to the words of the people on the land. Nature is the earth and it is other beings and if we don’t have some kind of spiritual return to our planet, I fear that we will be compromised.” Says Salgado.

We are part of Nature, we are following the same laws, we evolved from those same laws. We should see that everything is one in this world.

If there is one thing we need to remind ourselves of, it is that deep within us we will always be connected with Nature.

If we neglect this fact and mindlessly follow our egotistical desires, we are just going against our selves.

We need to start listening to Nature’s wisdom and realign our ways of living with it, globally, not because it needs us but because we need it.

Here is an image that shows the incredible result of their project:

Inspired by https://educateinspirechange.org/nature/couple-replant-entire-forest-to-give-homes-to-500-endangered-species/;