VIERI BOTTAZZINI & EDEN REFORESTATION PROJECTS AT WORK TOGETHER TO BRING YOU CARBON-NEUTRAL PHOTOGRAPHY WORKSHOPS!
As a Fine Art landscape photographer and nature lover, I am extremely proud and excited to announce my partnership with Eden Reforestation Projects! Our work together is aimed at bringing you carbon-neutral photography Workshops, offsetting your carbon footprint by planting 250 trees for every participant to each of my unique Workshops! (See OUR COMMITMENT TO THE ENVIRONMENT for details).
My work as a Fine Art landscape photographer allows me to share my passion for the Earth’s beauty with others in mainly two ways. First and foremost, by creating the best photographs I can of the amazing landscapes I am fortunate enough to see and experience. Second, and not less important, through my Workshops, which give me the great privilege to share my passion and my knowledge with others. I have been teaching almost all my life, and “Let’s develop photography together” is not just a slogan for me, is my motto, something deeply rooted in my being.
However, to pursue landscape photography we need to travel, and often to travel very far from home. That, in turn, often means flying. This is a world where people travel in unprecedented numbers in the history of mankind, and what’s worse, these numbers are increasing every day. IATA tells us that 4.4 billion people flew in 2018, while there were just 3.1 billion flyers in 2013: that’s a 39% increase in 5 years! Don’t get me wrong, traveling is amazing, is a fantastic cultural experience, it enriches our minds and souls. More to the point, it allows us as photographers to explore and portray some of the most beautiful, expressive and amazing landscapes shaped by time and by the power of nature.
Unfortunately, we all know how traveling (often by plane) is a serious contributing factor to harm the planet, to the point of threatening the survival of life as we know it. As I mentioned in my ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AND LANDSCAPE PHOTOGRAPHY article, I think that as photographers we contribute in no small part to this threat, and not only with our traveling.
So, I decided the time had come to really do something about it.
I realised that just doing my part was certainly necessary, but not enough anymore: so, I went for a two-pronged approach, so to speak. First, as you can see in my ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AND LANDSCAPE PHOTOGRAPHY article, I started supporting two organizations active in environmental protection: Nature First – The Alliance for Responsible Nature Photography and Leave No Trace Center for Outdoor Ethics. They do a great job in educating people, and they can reach much farther than I’ll ever be able to do on my own.
Second, I decided to offer you carbon-neutral landscape photography workshops. There are many websites that help you calculate your carbon footprint and offset it by planting trees, but rather than asking you to calculate the carbon footprint created by joining one of my Workshop and offset it, I decided to do it for you.
To do so, I entered a partnership with EDEN REFORESTATION PROJECTS. As a Seed Partner of Eden Projects, I’ll fund the planting of 250 trees for every participant to each of my Workshops, a number which will help offsetting much more carbon than that created by participating in any of my Workshops.
All tree-planting work is being done by Eden Reforestation Projects for the purpose of reforestation, agroforestry and reducing extreme poverty through the employment of local villagers. Eden Reforestation Projects is doing a really great job, please check out their website EDEN REFORESTATION PROJECTS and see if there is any way that you could help as well.
From Eden Reforestation Projects’ website:
“Eden Reforestation Projects is a 501c3 non-profit whose mission is to provide fair wage employment to impoverished villagers as agents of global forest restoration. We hire the poorest of the poor to grow, plant, and guard to maturity native species forest on a massive scale. Our “employ to plant methodology” results in a multiplication of positive socio-economic and environment measures.
By the year 2020 our objective is to plant a minimum of 100 million trees each year and to offer hope through the employment of tens of thousands of people in countries where extreme poverty is rampant.
By keeping our overhead costs low, we are now recognized as one of the most cost-effective reforestation projects on the planet. While our primary goal is to lift people out of extreme poverty, we have also become a model for environmental restoration and land management.”
We rely on the Earth’s amazing beauty as a source of life and inspiration, and we should do all we can to help preserve our planet. Saving the planet might sound like a much bigger task than what we, as landscape photographers, can do: as a start, now you can enjoy working together on one of my Workshop knowing that you are participating in a carbon-neutral photography Workshop, and that you are helping me support Eden Reforestation Projects in their battle against deforestation and poverty. I am looking forward to welcoming you onboard: just click on the banner below to find the perfect Workshop for you, leaving no carbon footprint!
VIERI BOTTAZZINI & EDEN REFORESTATION PROJECTS
TREES PLANTED SO FAR BY US
UPDATE 31 DECEMBER 2023 | After 4.5 years of cooperation, sadly we decided to part ways with Eden Reforestation Projects. We are proud of the work done together and of having planted a small forest, and we are now looking for new ways to keep protecting our planet.
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