Ecosia is the search engine that plants trees with its ad revenue. Ecosia is a social business run by a small group of dedicated and passionate people. They work together to create tools we all use, that also empowers everyone to easily give back by planting trees. So far over 11 million tress have been planted with 5.5 million active users. And there long term goal is to plant one BILLION trees!
By planting trees, Ecosia is making a positive impact in many areas such as helping to:
Cool the climate
Trees absorb CO2, which is one of the main drivers of climate change. Larger forests can even create clouds, which then reflect the sunlight and cool our planet.
Biodiversity
Forests are the most diverse systems on land with millions of species out of which many have not even been discovered and analyzed yet.
Clean air
Trees create oxygen, which we need to breathe. They also clean the air by absorbing pollutant gases and filtering out the particulates.
Water security
Forests regulate the water cycles and prevent floods. They create moisturous microclimates and increase groundwater levels. They act like a “sponge” and therefore prevent droughts.
Soil protection
Trees protect the soil from erosion and they create productive and fertile land. If you cut down trees, you will very soon end up with a desert.
Happy people
Forests provide us with healthy food and lots of other products, which can be sustainably harvested. Worldwide the livelihood of 1.6 billion people depends on forests. By planting a tree, you can turn deserts back into fertile forests and provide nutrition, employment, education, medical assistance, as well as promote economic stability.
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They have partnered with many organizations and have planting projects currently going in several different parts of the world that desperately needed help:
Tanzania
They are working with The Friends Of The Usambara Society to restore the ancient Usambara Mountains in northeastern Tanzania, which is home to unique animal life that can be found nowhere else on the planet. It is vital to preserve the habitat for their survival.
Madagascar
Unfortunately, Madagascar has already lost 90% of its lush coastal forests. With the help of their partner Eden Reforestation Projects, reforesting in this area has consisted of planting Mangrove trees, which grow in saltwater, provide breeding ground for young fish, will help with soil erosion and removing carbon from the air.
Burkina Faso
The Sahara Desert is rapidly expanding south making survival difficult for people in Sahel. So their partner OZG is reforesting the desert with drought resistant trees to make the soil fertile again.
Indonesia
With the help of Masarang Foundation and Gunung Saran Lester Foundation palm oil alternatives are being planted to help save Mount Sara in Borneo which is home to the orangutan.
Peru
The San Martin region in Peru was almost completely deforested in the 1980s when coca production boomed. With the help of their partner Pur Project San Martin is being reforested to establish new income for the locals!
Nicaragua
In the Pacific Lowlands their focus is to reforest the volcano slopes to prevent further soil erosion. Fundacion dia has partnered with Ecosia to help protect nature and restore water sources.
Planting trees has never been so easy! If you want to help reforest all around the world it is as simple as downloading an eco friendly search engine and using it!