Living on the beautiful east coast of New Zealand, we live our lives closely aligned with nature. This means that we see up close the harmful impact that humans have on our precious planet - from shrinking coastlines, to micro beads washing up along the shore. And like the rest of the world, we watched, horrified, as Australia burned through the devastating bushfires of the summer of 2020. We don’t want to waste anymore time as bystanders while the lands we grew up on and cherish waste away. It’s vital that we act now to prevent our planet from further destruction. Sometimes as individuals it can feel like we aren’t getting very far - that’s why we’ve created the LETE Connect and Protect Foundation with the sole purpose of protecting our planet. We want to inspire, engage, and educate our customers to want to do more, too.
Heads up! Some facts coming your way:
More than half of the Earth’s rainforests have already been lost due to human demand for wood and arable land; rainforests that once grew over 14 percent of Earth’s land now cover only six percent.
And if current deforestation trends continue, these habitats will disappear completely from our planet within the next hundred years.
Rainforests are the home to more than two thirds of our planet’s plant and animal species.
Every day, we lose more than 137 species of plants and animals due to rainforest destruction.
Rainforests are our biggest “carbon sink”, storing more than 50% of our planet’s carbon.
When a forest is destroyed, that carbon releases into the atmosphere as global warming CO2.
Animal agriculture is the leading cause of deforestation; it takes 20 times more land to feed meat eaters than plant-based eaters.
70% of the Amazon Rainforest has already been destroyed for the use of feed crops and pastures.
The world’s population is on track to reach 8.5 billion by 2030.
We have already used up more than a third of our planet’s natural resources, and our growing population will only put more pressure on our delicate ecosystem.
It’s not too late to try and reverse the damage being done to our rainforests. Halting tropical deforestation and allowing for regrowth could mitigate up to 50% of our net global emissions by 2050.
This has led us to team up with HalfCut, our chosen alliance partner in protecting our Earth. HalfCut is a non-profit organisation that focuses on rainforest conservation and regeneration, and we’re bringing them to New Zealand because they live and breathe the same values as we do. Founded in 2011 by James Stanton-Cooke and Jessica Clarke whilst working on conservation projects in the Bolivian Amazon Basin, the idea grew (literally) that people could be the face (again, literally) of the environmental movement. So, James and Jess used their hair as a talking point to begin the conversation about conservation: James shaved off half of his beard and Jess braided half her hair, so that whenever somebody asked them why, they could raise the topic of rainforest destruction.
Over half of the world’s forests have been destroyed - they’re #HalfCut. One of the best things we can do to battle the climate crisis is save our forests and replant what’s already been cut down. HalfCut helps to raise awareness and funds to do just that, and for the price of $2.50 per square metre of forest, they’re saving the Daintree Rainforest in Australia and giving it back to the Traditional Owners, the Kuku Yalanji Bama people, to manage for the long term. Not only that, but HalfCut also aims to start mass tree planting projects to ensure a better future for all of our species on this planet.
For every item that we sell, $2.50 from that sale will go towards buying back rainforest. HalfCut will then match that amount, making $5, which will then be used to buy up to two acres of rainforest that we will be able to protect for its lifetime and giveback to the Traditional Owners.
In 2020, HalfCut raised $348,096 and protected 139,238 square metres of the Daintree Rainforest.
But there’s still forest out there that needs our help. That’s why Lete Connect & Protect has teamed up with these legends, so that we can continue making a difference to our planet. Earth was meant to be wild. Help us take her back to her roots.
You can find out more about HalfCut at https://halfcut.org.
Sources
OVO Energy. (2016, December, 1). 61 Facts You Need to Know About the Rainforest. OVO Energy.
The World Counts. (n.d.). World Population. The World Counts.
World Animal Foundation. (2020, December, 9). Animal Agriculture is Destroying Tropical Forests. World Animal Foundation.
World Wildlife Foundation. (n.d.). Deforestation and Forest Degradation. World Wild Life.
