Bloggers unite to replant the rainforest

Photo by W. Miellet

Over 3,000 bloggers from 50 countries have joined a social media campaign this month to give the Earth a whopping big birthday present - a million dollars. The money will be used to protect and replant three threatened rainforests in Borneo, Costa Rica and Belize, and plant the seeds for two more projects in Chad and Congo.

 

The Earth Day Birthday Campaign (EBDB) has an open invitation to bloggers and twitterers to help spread the word. Each day in April, a new topic related to rainforest preservation is posted and bloggers are encouraged to blog and RT (that's "retweet") away. You can check out the nicely organized content schedule here.

 

The organization has some great on-the-ground partners including Willie Smits, whose RedApes organization has developed and successfuly tested an ingenious way to reconstruct devastated rainforest lands while creating both a sustainable cash crop for villagers and a wildlife refuge for endangered orangutans. Watch the amazing video here. 

 

My one critique -- a lack of clarity on the fundraising. There is a ChipIn! widget on the sidebar but it's unclear if that is the primary method for contributing. The contribution amount is also unclear. My advice -- set a clear goal to get 10,000 blogger/twitterers to get 10 people to contribute $10 each >> $1 million and get those ChipIn widgets on Facebook.

 

Nevertheless, the organizers have pulled together some really great content. The best way to follow the whole thing is via twitter @EcoInteractive.

 

I'll post up some of the cooler videos like the recent discovery of the Lost City of El Dorado and how this ancient civilization thrived by using biochar to fertilize its soil.