SloWays plants more trees in Italy thanks to Foresta Italia!

SloWays plants more trees in Italy thanks to Foresta Italia!

On June 21st, Francesca, Marco and Matteo headed to the woods of Val Pusteria, in the Northern Trentino Alto Adige region, for an important mission: contributing to the national reforestation campaign Foresta Italia by Rete Clima, in partnership with Coldiretti and Pefc Italia. We have planted the first of many trees that will fill the devastating void left by the passage of storm Vaia and other natural disasters.

 
Our work with Rete Clima first began when we were looking for a partner to help us offset the CO2 produced during our travels. Since it’s obviously not  possible to cancel the CO2 already emitted, we compensante the amount produced by supporting environmental projects that mitigate the effect of emissions on the environment: every year we calculate the amount of carbon dioxide produced through a special program, based on the number of customers and the trips they have made with us - and pay an economic contribution that goes to support projects of regeneration and protection of the territory.  

In the past two years, we have supported several projects through Rete CLima :  in 2021 we neutralized the CO2 and greenhouse gas emissions of the trips made in 2021 by supporting the Allain Duhangan Hydropower Plant  project in India and the reforestation of the Madonie Park in Sicily, heavily damaged by the summer fires of 2021.  

This year we support the VCS 1088 - 4.2 MW Wind Power Project by National Enterprises in Tamil Nadu, India, involving the generation of renewable energy from two wind generators, as well as the national reforestation project Foresta Italia.  

The goal of Foresta Italia is simple and at the same time ambitious: being increasingly effective in the design, implementation and care of urban forestry projects - which they carry out directly in Italy together with partner companies like us - and protecting the existing forests according to PEFC standard (Programme for the Endorsement of Forest Certification),  aimed at their sustainable management.  

To make us even more part of the project, Rete Clima invited us to Sesto, near the lively city of Bolzano, to literally replant a piece of forest. An exciting challenge, which we welcomed with enthusiasm and a lot of curiosity: where exactly do you start to restore a forest destroyed by natural events?  

As Giacomo and Paolo of Rete Clima, who welcomed Marco and Francesca to Sesto, explained, we start with trees: not only by planting the species previously present, but also by increasing as much as possible the variety of plant species that can coexist serenely and, at the same time, regenerate the territory in the most effective way. The species to be planted were chosen after a careful analysis of the local fauna and flora: in Sesto these were larch, spruce, mountain rowan, mountain maple and beech.

The forestry official Stefan showed Marco and Francesco historical photos of the area, comparing them with the current state of the forest to show the effects of storm Vaia, the largest in the last 100 years:,the effects were 41 thousand hectares of forests razed to the ground, 16 million trees, 8.6 million cubic meters of wood felled in a few minutes by wind gusting up to 200 km / h between Trentino and Alto Adige, Veneto, Lombardy and Friuli Venezia Giulia. 

Reforesting such a big part of the forest seems like a very difficult task, but the benefits of all the trees that can be planted are many: increased and protected biodiversity, reduced soil erosion, about 9.5 tons of CO2 absorbed by the trees that will be planted thanks to our contribution.  

After the explanation, it's time to roll up our sleeves: Francesca and Marco have planted about fifty trees - they have opened the way for many others which will fill the great void left by those fallen in 2018.

It’s been a wonderful, important day that made us realize how important our contribution is: a country with more trees us a country that breathes better, regulates better, slowly heals with every growing leaf.