Your Web Searches Today Can Help with Wildfire Restoration

Ecosia (Ecosia.org), a not-for-profit search engine that uses profits to plant trees, is going to dedicate all revenue from searches today (Tuesday, July 27) towards wildfire efforts in the US, Brazil and Australia as part of its Ecosia Wildfire Relief campaign. This will include launching a new project in partnership with American Forest Foundation to plant 2,500 trees with private landowners to restore fire-damaged lands. 

• The 2021 wildfire season is in full swing and it could prove to be the most deadly yet
• In California, the fires are outpacing last year’s record levels and the Bootleg fire in Oregon has blackened more than 365,000 acres
• Ecosia recently announced that it has begun its largest tree planting project in the U.S restoring forest impacted by the 2018 Terwilliger Fire
• Ecosia will be working with the American Forest Foundation to plant 2,500 trees in California to restore fire-damaged lands
• Ecosia has committed to planting at least 40,000 trees this year to help reforest affected wildfire areas as well as continue investing in local firefighting efforts – but hopes to plant more with the support of its users

Already, the 2021 wildfire season could prove to be the most devastating yet. Wildfires in California are “off to a daunting start” – outpacing last year’s record levels causing destruction and damage. The Amazon rainforest now emits more carbon dioxide than it absorbs because of the level of wildfires, which are often set deliberately to clear land for beef and soy production.

In addition, Ecosia recently announced that it has begun its largest tree-planting project in the U.S, as the company ramps up its focus on US-based environmental initiatives. Tree planting following the Terwilliger Fire within the Willamette National Forest in Oregon began in June and 13,000 trees are being planted over the course of this reforestation project. Accounting for normal rates of survival, Ecosia expects that 9,750 of these trees will still be growing after three years.

Ecosia has planted over 76,000 trees in the US and Australia, as well as a further 12.9 million in Brazil to restore forests and help them become more resilient. Alongside reforestation efforts in Brazil, the company has also invested over $450,000 in firefighting efforts with the ITPA who put out fires and protect the country’s trees. This year, Ecosia has committed to planting an additional 40,000 trees in areas affected by wildfires along with supporting organizations such as the ITPA, but wants to step up these efforts to ensure it can do as much as possible to restore areas devastated by the fires and shore up their resilience for the future.

The last time the company did this was in January 2020, when Ecosia users funded the planting of 24,446 trees in Australia following the difficult 2019/2020 wildfire season in the country. As well, in 2019, Ecosia saw a signup increase of 1150% because of the terrible fires in the Amazon rainforest, with new users keen to contribute to the recovery efforts.

Ecosia plants native, biodiverse species accurately to ensure sustainable and effective growth. It works with tree planting partners in each location to support the local economy and provide meaningful employment to communities. The trees are also monitored using satellite technology to make sure they survive.

Chantz Joyce, California Conservation Manage at American Forest Foundation, said: “The American Forest Foundation helps bring technical and financial assistance to landowners, creating opportunities for them to learn about their forest and ways to improve existing forests or regenerate them following catastrophic events. The ability of Ecosia to bring awareness and resources to family lands is invaluable. Working in California the past 20 years, I have seen fires impact single families to entire communities, and that is why I work to help small private family landowners create fire resilient forests.”

Antonia Buchard-Levine, Account Manager, Ecosia Tree Planting Team, said: “With 2021’s wildfire season already causing huge swathes of destruction and pain across the world, we felt we had to do something. Though we had already planned to plant 40,000 trees this year in areas affected by wildfires, by working with our users we plan to increase those efforts so we can plant more trees to help regenerate scarred lands and encourage resilience for local forests. Wildfires are one of the most swiftly devastating aspects of the climate crisis and we must do as much as we can to prevent them from happening.”

Mauricio Ruiz, ITPA firefighter in Brazil, said: “We have been fighting forest fires for 23 years. When we started, we were amateurs without infrastructure and gradually we have evolved towards adopting more professional and efficient methods – with the same strength and determination as we had in the beginning. The Ecosia partnership is extraordinarily important to us. Ecosia recognized the importance of helping us fight the fires, because they understand the Brazilian reality, are always open to dialogues and have a strong commitment to innovation for the restoration of ecosystems. We would have enormous difficulty in doing our work without Ecosia’s support. We are certain that each year we are winning the battle against fires and that we will be able to regenerate many forests.”

Maximo Bottaro, CEO and Co-founder at ReForest Now in Australia, said: “Australia’s rainforests are suffering because of these dangerous fires. The species have little ability to cope, so what burns simply dies. If the fire is hot enough, then the seed bank in the soil will also be destroyed. We’re working with Ecosia to restore the areas that have the highest annual rainfall as our priority and increase the water holding capacity of those areas such as restoring creeks, rivers and water springs. Wet forests are harder to burn the wider and larger they are, so we need to protect and buffer existing rainforests to help make areas more resilient against wildfires.”

How to use Ecosia
You can search on the internet using Ecosia.org The ad revenue from every search will go towards planting trees across the world – currently around 45 searches plants one tree. Users can also download the Ecosia app, or use it in their browser by making it their default search engine or downloading the browser extension.

About Ecosia
Headquartered in Berlin, Germany, Ecosia is the world’s largest not-for-profit search engine. It has planted over 130 million trees across more than 30 countries worldwide. In 2014 Ecosia was accredited as a B Corporation and in 2017 it built the first of its four solar plants to ensure it is 100% renewable, reaching 200% renewable in July 2020. In 2018 Ecosia gave away its shares to the Purpose Foundation, to assure that it can never be sold and that no one, including the founder, can profit or receive dividends from the company. Ecosia was founded by Christian Kroll in 2009. 

Visit info.ecosia.org/ to learn more.