Instituto Terra: where a desert became Mata Atlântica again.

Status: one-off support in 2025. The Instituto Terra is not an ongoing project of ours, but one we admire.

In 1998, the photographer Sebastião Salgado and his wife Lélia Wanick Salgado began something in the Brazilian state of Minas Gerais that seemed impossible at the time: turning the exhausted, almost desert-like land of the family farm back into Atlantic rainforest. Today their Instituto Terra has reforested more than 2'347 hectares of Mata Atlântica — and with the forest came back the springs, the animals, the balance.

One encounter, 7'000 trees

In early 2025, Francesco Illy and Sebastião Salgado met again after many years — on a flight from Mexico City to Paris. The encounter became a decision: in 2025 we funded the planting of 3.1 hectares with around 7'000 trees at the Instituto Terra — endemic species, in the greatest possible diversity.

Sebastião Salgado died in May 2025. Lélia and their sons carry on the work — and with every tree we funded there, a piece of what he left to the world.

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Our reforestation projects are an integral part of our responsibility. With every purchase, you contribute to them.

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