If you are a landholder with a large parcel of land to reforest, then the crew from ReForest Now are keen to hear from you.
With the help of donors from Australia and around the world, the locally-based not-for-profit organisation say they have planted 105, 000 rainforest trees and are keen to get to one million.
CEO and co-founder, Maximo Bottaro, and Vice President, Josh Fry-Hall, told The Echo they work at the lowest rates possible to restore rainforest and operate with complete transparency.
‘Every tree, every donor, every day of planting, is accounted for’, they say.
‘Our website demonstrates absolute transparency, to the level that each tree is accounted for by the day and location it is planted, and exactly who each tree was for’.
‘We also list publicly all past reports to donors and grants, and we list our CEO’s income, as all not-for-profits really should’.
With fellow co-founder, Michael Martin, the pair say, ‘We planted our first tree in January, 2019’.
‘Two years and two months later, we’ve now planted a total 105, 000 rainforest trees.
‘A third of those we’ve planted this year, so we’re ramping up capacity quickly, with 15 internal staff, three external – and we are wanting to employ many more’.
‘100,000 trees is nice, but it’s just a start, and we won’t be smiling until that figure is in millions’, say the pair.
‘We’re in regular contact and technique sharing with 24 groups across Africa, South America and Asia, some of whom are living in abject poverty, growing their trees barefoot on tarps on the ground, digging the holes with hand tools. And they are planting millions of trees per year. They have nothing, and they’re giving everything.
‘The sense of humanity and the passion they invoke take any of our weak excuses away, and ask us to dig deeper’.
Local landholders who want to reforest their large properties are encouraged to contact the team.
They say, ‘The absolute minimum is one hectare, but we’re wanting some five to 20 ha sites in Mullumbimby, closer to the township’.
‘While lots of reforestation and regen has been done in the Shire, Mullumbimby’s surrounds are still conspicuously well shaven, and we’d like to improve that’.
For more info visit www.reforestnow.org.au.
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