The NORDESTA Reforestation & Education association was founded in Geneva on the 15th of May 1985. Its objective is to preserve Brazil’s tropical forests and to improve the lives of its isolated populations.

Our two fields of activity are environment and education:

Environment

• Saving primitive forests, planting native trees, and reforesting damaged areas.
• Planting tree passages linking fragments of forests together.
• Creating nurseries that will produce trees and create local jobs.
• Protecting springs, installing cisterns and water tanks that will collect rainwater and allow an access to water for all.
• Educating local populations on the importance of tropical forests which offer water and rich soils.
• Implanting Agenda 21 in the Brazilian communes working with us.
• Organizing seminars and workshops on ecology for local teachers so that they can act as multiplying agents.
• Working to preserve biodiversity in classrooms and on the ground.
• Promoting the installation of solar panels for schools and vocational training workshops.
• Encouraging research on every renewable energy available.
• Helping agricultural communities fight against forest fires and other hazards by finding new ways of helping them survive in harmony with the forest.
• Developing the rearing of native bees called “melipona” in order to guarantee the pollination and preservation of virgin forests.

Education

• Constructing schools and libraries.
• Creating vocational training workshops that will instruct young people in fields such as carpentry, ceramics, drawing, gardening, sewing, and screen process printing.
• Supporting the schooling of girls thanks to our "The Way to School for Girls" project launched in 2001 that allocates grants to mothers who promise to send their girls to school.
• Equipping local centres that offer accommodation, attention, food, and education to street kids.
• Participating in President Lula da Silva’s "No Hunger" program with the creation of other programs such as "Vegetable Gardens at School", "Apiculture", "Popular Bakeries" or "Equipment for small farmers".

Projects supported by Nordesta match the following criteria:

• Priority is given to projects initiated by the local population.
• Beneficiaries must commit themselves entirely to the realization of their project.
• The project must acquire financial independence in the long run.
• Among the beneficiaries, very poor children and single-parent families are favored.
• Each project must generate "Multiplying Agents" who will help its consolidation and expansion.
• The projects are part of a sustainable development perspective which links the human being to his natural habitat.
• The communes working with us must set up or reinforce their local Agenda 21.