Now that’s dedication! Sebastião Salgado and his wife decided to bring life back to Minas Gerais, a rainforest that was completely dried out when he returned home to Brazil in 1994. After acquiring the land, the couple spent the next 20 years replanting the forest that died due to deforestation and uncontrolled exploitation of its natural resources, as IFLScience details:
“The land was as sick as I was – everything was destroyed,” Salgado told the Guardian. “Only about 0.5% of the land was covered in trees. 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.”
The couple set up Instituto Terra with the noble goal of restoring the 17,000-acre property to its natural state. The organization they set up and ran recruited partners and volunteers, and together they set about planting 4 million saplings.
Taking care of the plants – all carefully sourced and native to the area – they were able to restore the forest, which flourished over the next 20 years.
It wasn't easy. The land was dry, and the rains didn't return until 1999. They first had to restore nitrogen to the soil, planting legumes, before they could plant seedlings. Even then, after the first planting, most of the plants died in the ground.
“We made the holes too tight,” Salgado told the Smithsonian. “For weeks I was sick – sick to see this disaster.”
Image via IFLScience