Forests for Our Future

Gisele Bündchen
UNEP Goodwill Ambassador
Gisele Bündchen, the world’s highest paid supermodel, is recognized for her long-standing and passionate commitment to the environment. While growing up in Brazil, Gisele witnessed the beauty of nature, as well as the destruction of forests and its affect on the surrounding communities. In 2008, she launched Projeto Água Limpa (Clean Water Project) which aims at implementing sustainable environmental management and promoting recovery of riparian vegetation and the micro basins of the region.
My passion for the environment is rooted in my Brazilian upbringing. I am blessed to have lived in a small village and grown up in a family that embraced the importance of nature and community coexisting in harmony. These childhood lessons are the basis for my journey into becoming an environmental advocate. However, the birth of my son has made clear the kind of legacy that I would like to pass on to my children and their generation. They deserve the same chance we have had to enjoy and celebrate this beautiful planet.
I founded The Agua Limpa project with my father and my family in the State of Rio Grande do Sul, Southern Brazil, my childhood home. The project aims to restore the quality of drinking water supplied to the city. To achieve the preservation of water, as well as the recovery of riparian forest, the project has to provide local communities with information on the importance of soil conservation and fighting pollution. Knowledge is power and we all have learned a lesson that if we look after the forest, it will look after us.
In addition, I support Florestas do Futuro, an important reforestation project with similar goals to Agua Limpa, but on a grander scale. Florestas do Futuro is a project run by a Brazilian non-profit organization fighting for the protection of the Atlantic Forest. The 330 million acre Atlantic forest harbors a range of biological diversity similar to that of the Amazon. It accounts for 5 percent of the vertebrates on Earth. This includes almost 200 bird species that are unique to the forest and 60 percent of all of Brazil’s threatened animal species.
93 percent of the Atlantic forest has been cleared, placing it on the path to ecological disaster. The deforestation directly threatens around 2,200 species of birds, mammals, reptiles and amphibians. The continuing threats to this delicate ecosystem include; illegal extraction of valuable timber species; land conversion to pasture, agriculture, forest plantations, expansion of urban areas and suburban development.
These ecological pressures not only endanger the Atlantic forest’s biological diversity but they also threaten the forest’s traditional rural communities. The native community’s livelihoods are directly linked to the conservation and sustainable use of the forest’s natural resources.
Through well-coordinated programs of reforestation and recovery of native species, Florestas do Futuro is seeking to reverse these negative trends to ensure the forest supports a diverse range of plant and animal life forever.
Agua Limpa and Florestas do Futuro are working to ensure that our children will have the opportunity to marvel at nature in the same way that I did as a young girl growing up in Brazil. I cannot think of any better gift to offer to our children.
Gisele Bundchen