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GOAL: 100,000 | TOTAL TREES: 134,000

Over the last 500 years, Brazil's Atlantic Rainforest has been destroyed dramatically leaving only seven percent of its original cover today. Through agricultural production and urban development, millions of acres of trees have been tragically damaged, burned or cut down. etnies stepped in by expanding its Buy a Shoe, Plant a Tree project to help reverse Brazil's deforestation. Through its partnership with Trees for the Future, a leading nonprofit organization planting trees worldwide through seed distribution, agroforestry training and in-country technical assistance, etnies brought people together to make a difference in this area, one shoe and tree at a time.

etnies began working with Trees for the Future with the goal of planting 100,000 trees within the Atlantic Rainforest's state of São Paulo throughout 2012. Through its partnership with this world-changing nonprofit, etnies' Buy a Shoe, Plant a Tree project empowered and educated students and indigenous groups of Brazil on how to restore their lands with the tree cover that once filled their country. Local students and native groups of São Paulo were taught about environmental issues, how to produce tree seedlings and transplant trees. As the year went on and more consumers got involved, etnies was able to far exceed its original planting goal with a final count of 134,000 trees planted by the end of 2012.

TOTAL TREES: 35,000

One may seem like a small number, but in 2011, when one brand (etnies), teamed up with one tribe (the Maleku ), and one foundation (La Reserva Forest Foundation ) in Costa Rica, a country committed to sustainability, the results were incredible. To celebrate etnies' 25 year anniversary in 2011, etnies owner and CEO, Pierre-Andre Senizergues decided to look toward the future and what the NEXT 25 held. He found no better way to celebrate the future than by planting a rainforest in Costa Rica through etnies' new Buy a Shoe, Plant a Tree project. Costa Rica's pledge of carbon neutrality and natural habitat made the country an ideal partner to start off etnies' project to plant a rainforest and the etnies'Jameson 2 Eco the ideal shoe to get the community involved in reforestation. The Jameson 2 Eco shoes are created using recycled bike tires and rubber gloves in the outsoles and plastic bottles in the making of their PET shoe laces. For every pair of Jameson 2 Eco shoes sold, etnies planted one tree in what became the new rainforest.

By the end of 2011, etnies planted 35,000 trees on the Maleku reserve in northern Costa Rica. The Maleku are an indigenous tribe with a way of life that revolves around the forest, and they are rightfully known as the guardians of the forest. For more than 150 years, the Maleku have had to fight for their trees that were depleted due to cattle farming and a horrible rubber-tree war, which led to a massacre, and nearly wiped out their tribe. The United Nations sanctioned their land as a biological corridor to be restored and the international organization officially marked 2011 as the "Year of the Forest" globally. The Maleku just needed the help obtaining the trees to reach their goal of reforesting the lands they live off of. etnies was honored to be the answer to their wish for help.