Source: Topanga Messenger
Kids For Environmental and Social Action (KFESA), a non-profit organization founded and run by kids, will present a fundraising concert at the Topanga Community House (TCH) on March 6, 2 p.m., to benefit entrepreneur Alana Lea and her environmental venture, Rainforest ECO, a project to replant the Atlantic Rainforest (Mata Atlantica) in Brazil.
The Mata Atlantica is the most diverse rainforest in the world, even more so than the Amazon rainforest, from which it is completely separate. It is smaller and less well known outside of Brazil. In its pristine state it stretched from the northeastern tip of Brazil down the entire coast, into Paraguay and Argentina. Now there are only isolated pockets left, 7% in total. The rest has been slashed, burned and destroyed, mainly for cattle ranching, soy and sugar plantations.
Lea decided to move beyond trying to conserve what's left of the rainforest to actually replanting it. Rainforest ECO started a reforestation project called Rainforest ECObank, a cooperative initiative between the Rainforest ECO, USA and the Nativas Viveiros Association of growers in Brazil, a social/environmental business alliance, with the shared goal of reforesting Mata Atlantica. It completed its first gifting of 1,000 trees in 2010.
Proceeds from the KFESA concert will go towards buying and planting 25,000 trees that will reforest about 15 hectares (42.5 acres) when planted during the rainy season in April 2011.
The trees will be donated by an individual who currently harvests seeds for nurseries and who will maintain them for two years at a cost of $250,000. The long-term goal is to begin a carbon credit process to bring in revenue for the people who plant and maintain the trees to further their reforestation efforts. The project will be documented using video and Google Earth.
KFESA was founded in 2004 by Cole Gann, Jack Sehres and Keith Krueger with the goal of bringing awareness and action to the problems of the world.
All proceeds from the concert will directly benefit the Rainforest ECObank project. To learn more or make a donation, visit: rainforestecobank.com. Lea will attend the concert and will be available to answer questions regarding the project.