When the rain forest around their home was destroyed, a Brazilian photographer and his wife took matters into their own hands and slowly reforested the area, planting over two million trees throughout the course of many years.
“The land was sick – everything was destroyed. 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,” Salgado told The Guardian back in 2015.
Once the project really started to pick up steam and show promise, the couple founded Instituto Terra, an organization through which they hired other members who care about the environment just as much as they do.
20 years later, the area is nearly unrecognizable because there are so many trees and so much wildlife.
