Arvato donates 1,000 trees for the Brazilian rainforest

One thousand trees donated by Arvato have been planted to reforest a highly endangered forest region in Brazil. The donation is Arvato's way of thanking its employees for their participation in a campaign carried out last year on Bertelsmann’s “be green Day.”

According to WWF, there are four billion hectares of forest left worldwide. Each year, 13 million hectares disappear as a result of logging, environmental pollution and forest fires. That is equivalent to a surface area of some 35 soccer fields per minute. The consequences for the environment are dire, as forests are extremely important for global water and nutrient cycles, the climate and preservation of biological diversity.

In order to highlight this important function, the UNO declared 2011 the “Year of Forests.” A variety of campaigns across Bertelsmann also focused on the topic. One of them is the “Arvato Forest”: as a way of thanking employees for their participation in the “Together we can achieve more” campaign, Arvato in Brazil donated 1,000 trees and planted them with the help of Iniciativa Verde, a Brazilian non-government organization that works to protect the climate. The Arvato forest is located in one of the country's most highly endangered forest regions, the Mata Atlântica Biom. Only approximately seven percent of the original 1.3 million km² of forest there still remains.

The trees are Pau-Brasil or Brazilwood, the national tree of Brazil, which gave the country its name and was originally widespread there. During the first few centuries of colonization, large forested regions were destroyed by exploitation. Today, the Pau-Brasil tree is a protected species. The trees are being used to replant a forest area on the banks of the Feijão River. This river supplies the São Carlos region with water and plays an important role in ensuring biodiversity in the federal state of São Paulo and the Mata Atlântica Biom.