Instituto Terra

A non-profit civil society, the Instituto Terra works in the recovery of degraded Atlantic Forest areas and recovering water sources from the region known as the Rio Doce Water Basin, one of the most environmentally impacted from Southeast Brazil.

Founded in April 1998, as a initiative from Lélia Deluiz Wanick Salgado and Sebastião Salgado, had its starting point the reforesting of an area of 608,69 hectares known as the Private Reserve of Natural Heritage Bulcão Farm.

Besides taking on the challenging commitment of planting a forest where before not even plant weeds would grow, the Instituto Terra today is helping reforest thousands of hectares in its surroundings and promoting environmental education to encourage the region's sustainable development.

The Program Olhos D’Água extends this action and targets protecting over 300 thousand Rio Doce River springs, therefore effectively "planting water".