Brazilian couple Sebastião Salgado and Lelia Deluiz Vanik have planted more than two million trees over20 years to “resurrect the subtropical paradise” that existed on their husband's family's property when he was a child.
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Post Editor: Victoria Zherdenovska, the editor-in-chief of the Trust but Verify project.
Sebastião Salgado is a talented photographer who has won many major world photojournalism awards. He was born in the Brazilian municipality of Aimores, Minas Gerais. However, for a long time he worked in Africa and in France.
In 1998, the man returned to Brazil. Upon his return, he saw that the lush forests with rich wildlife from his childhood had in the intervening time been destroyed and turned into a desert.
Salgado was shocked and devastated. But his wife, pianist Lelia Delouise Vanik, encouraged her husband to grow the forest anew.
Photos taken in 2001 show acres of brown desolation. And in 2019, a similar aerial photo shows lush trees of 290 different species. It became an invitation for insects, birds, and other animals to start returning to the land once the trees started growing again.
The comparison of the “before” and “after” shots is impressive!
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Editor's Comment
How different people inhabit our world! Some barbarically destroy life by burning down entire cities, while others revitalize it by planting millions of trees. Could these be two different civilizations?
Cover photo: spouses Lelia Delouise Vanik and Sebastian Salgado, by taschen.com, source: Tengri life
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