Discovering the Mata Atlantica in the Michelin reserve, a smart ‘Planet’ project

The next morning, after breakfast with again a new fresh fruit juice, Graviola this time, Paulo and Juliana take us to the other part of the area.

Juliana is a biologist who works for Michelin. She is responsible for the maintenance and protection of the natue reserve that Michelin has set up here. A great example of Planet, in the People, Planet, Profit philosophy.

Juliana starts, proudly: “Out of the 9,000 hectares, the total size of the area, 5,000 hectares is a nature reserve and is dedicated to the Mata Atlantica. First of all this means that no new rubber trees are planted here and no trees are cut. Second, next to the maintaining of what is left of the Mata Atlantica, Michelin has set the goal of reforesting the area as well. What is left of the Mata in this area, are fragments. By creating so-called corridors, the fragments can be re-connected and the ecosystems can be restored. Birds, mammals and other animals will start reproducing again since the area they have available to move around, will be big enough.”

Wow, what a huge area, we are driving a long time, only trees, forest, more trees. The roads in the whole Michelin area are dirt road, nothing is asphalted, which is a good thing, to generate as little impact as possible on nature.

After some time, we stop for lunch, not just at any place, at the top of the world, what a magnificent view.

Lunch is served under a roof of palm leaves, after we have first taken a short rest in a hammock, life is nice! It starts raining which gives the environment a special glow. And we are still sitting and enjoying the view and of course our lunch. Some vultchers and birds related to the eagle are circling in front of us, probably waiting to see if we leave some lunch for them….

After lunch we continue our discovery of the Mata Atlantica to find the largest tree in the area. A walk through the forest leads us there, it is indeed a big tree, it takes 10 people to get around the tree.

Then Juliana shows us a tree that is quite big and she tells us proudly that this is one of the first trees that she planted, only four years ago. “The circumstances for trees are perfect here, a lot of sun, rain and of course love and care by us make the trees grow fast!”

Our next stop is at the nursery, where Juliana and her team grow native trees until they are big enough, around 40-50 cm in height, to survive in the forest.

Tomorrow we will go to a part of the forest together with Andre, one of her colleagues, to plant some trees in the Mata Atlantica of Michelin. That means that we extend our CoolTravel Forest to the Michelin reserve in the Mata Atlantica, cool!

The last stop of today is the waterfall of Pancada Grande, in the north part of the reserve. After a lot of driving through the whole reserve, we deserved some relaxing in and at the waterfall. Because it rained a lot last night, there are huge amounts of water coming down the waterfall, spectacular, reminds me of Foz do Iguacu…only a bit smaller….The waterfall is open to public, but fortunately not a lot of people know this. So we have the whole waterfall to ourselves, say thanks to Juliana and Paulo for all the explanations, “please pick us up right before sunset!” Finally we can enjoy the water and digest all the stories we have been told today. Wanna see our waterfall experience?

Tags: Anouk, Anouk Pappers, bahia,Brands, brazil, Cool, CoolBrands, CoolTravel, Juliana Laufer, Maarten Schafer, Mata Atlantica, Mata Atlantica by Michelin, Michelin, Pappers, Paulo-Roberto Bonfim, People planet profit Michelin, reforestation,Sustainability, Transmedia Storytelling, Travel, borrachia natural, car tires, CoolSustainability,natural rubber,Sustainable car driving,Sustainable rubber,Sustainable rubber plantations, sustainable tires, tires, people planet profit Michelin, Michelin sustainability

More stories: http://www.cooltravel.org, http://www.coolbrands.org

http://www.michelin.com.br

Advertisement