The Atlantic Rainforest in Brazil is already 93% gone, but it can be restored.

Alana Lea, Author of Trees of Transformation, talks to OPM about the tragic plight of the Atlantic Rain Forest and solutions that can be implemented to allow sustainable reforestation of this very important eco system.

Alana Lea Audio Interview

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A few years back I helped co-found and was on the member board of Humanity Unites Brilliance (HUB)

This was a wonderful organization built on the concept of sustainable giving. Non-profits, who have to compete (beg) for funds, send a percentage of the donations out to the field and then go back to compete for more. An unsustainable process at best.

HUB was a short success for reasons I will not go into here. It did, however attract some of the top philanthropists and thought leaders of our time like Lynn Twist, Barbra Marx Hubbard, Jean Houston, Jack Canfield, Dr. Michael Beckwith and many other wonderful people.

Alana Lea was one of those incredible people. Alana is a true and caring giver. She was never shy about lending her talents or time for a great cause or just to help.

I want to thank Alana for taking the time to sit down with me, as she is truely a busy person, to explain what is going on in the Atlantic Rain Forest and how we might be able to help her organization help the people, the forest and ultimately the world, by reforesting this most important world resource – JW

The Atlantic Rainforest

From Wikipedia

The Atlantic Forest (Portuguese: Mata Atlântica) is a region of tropical and subtropical moist forest, tropical dry forest, tropical savanna, semi-deciduous forest and mangrove forests which extends along the Atlantic coast of Brazil from Rio Grande do Norte state in the north to Rio Grande do Sul state in the south, and inland as far as Paraguay and the Misiones Province of Argentina.

The Atlantic Forest is characterized by a high species diversity and endemism.^[1] It was the first environment that the Portuguese conquerors encountered over 500 years ago when it was thought to have had an area of 1 to 1.5 million km2 and stretching an unknown distance inland.^[2]

Currently, the Atlantic Forest spans over 4000km2 along the coast of Brazil and in a small part of Paraguay and Argentina.^[3]^[4] In Argentina, it is known as Selva Atlántica.

The Atlantic Forest is now designated a World Biosphere Reserve, which contains a large number of highly endangered species. The enormous biodiversity of the Atlantic Forest results in part from the wide range of latitude it covers, its variations in altitude, its diverse climatic regimes as well as the geological and climatic history of the whole region.^[4]

The Atlantic Forest is isolated from is neighboring large South American forests: The Amazon Region and the Andean Forest. The open vegetation of the Caatinga and the Cerrado separate it from the Amazon, and the dry vegetation of the central depressions of the Chaco separate it from the Andean Forest. This isolation has resulted in an evolution of numerous endemic species, such as lion tamarins, woolly spider monkey, and marmosets.^[4]

Alana Lea

Born in the midst of the most diverse and endangered rainforest in Brazil, Alana was given purpose. But it took a lifetime to discover how being a horticulturalist, a Smithsonian botanical artist, an entrepreneur, a traveler and a public speaker could serve her purpose of rainforest renewal. She has become a real life Lorax.

Author of Trees of Transformation

Trees of Transformation is the first in a series of wake up storybooks about the people who are taking a stand for Nature in the midst of corporate giants.

One of those people is Alana Lea, who became an advocate for the Atlantic Forest in Brazil where she was born –– now 93% gone. Her concerns about deforestation, climate change and global warming transformed her into a full time activist.

Discover what she learned as a social entrepreneur, on a mission of organic reforestation, competing with international non-profit greenwash. You’ll meet the people who inspire her, and deepen her determination to find solutions, as well as what gives her hope.

This is the story of an on the ground ecological/environmental activist, inviting you to discover, innovate, partner and find solutions with her, creating the future we all want for our children.

Alana Lea is a Change Agent.

She’s a founding member of the Women Speakers Association, a facilitator of Pachamama Alliance Symposiums – Awakening the Dreamer, and US Ambassador for the global reforestation NGO – WeForest.

She is social artist.

Accomplished in botanical art with work in the Smithsonian,
publications, a line of eco-textiles features her designs of the rainforest. She has also created Peace Through Art events for more than 20 years, known for her service to the Peace Alliance.

She is a social entrepreneur.

As founder of Rainforest ECO, she’s raised both awareness and money for reforestation in her homeland, Brazil. She represents the Nativas Nursery Association of organic tree growers in Sao Paulo state, offering their trees to the global public through a tree gifting site – www.iGiveTrees.com.

Together, they have replanted 4,194 trees in the Atlantic Rainforest since 2011.