The past year of COVID-19 lockdowns disrupted much of our lives and the activities of businesses and charities alike. However, the Rainforest Trust managed to accept adversity and continue to work for the better good, with a series of wine tastings to raise funds to help save two million acres of Bolivian rainforest.
On 30th of June the charity partnered with Chufly Imports to hold a wine-tasting event. According to Leslie VanSant, vice president of philanthropy at Rainforest Trust over one hundred people attended the first wine tasting in March.
Speaking on the events Mr VanSant said:
“We work with an international audience, so this virtual event was one of the most positive outcomes of Covid,”
Though the organization works to establish protected areas across Latin America, Africa, Asia and the Pacific, this particular fundraiser was established to save an area of the Bolivian Amazon, known as the Bajo Paragua Rainforest.
“People don’t realize that 55 percent of Bolivia is covered in Amazon rainforest; this project is on the edge of the deforestation line,” explained VanSant.
The wine partnership intends to emphasize the region of Bolivian Amazon that’s being destroyed, due to deforestation, by incorporating the socioeconomic impact of wine in Bolivia.
Speaking on the events Ramón Escobar, co-founder of Chufly Imports, emphasized Chufly’s mission to empower communities to transform their local economies through sustainable and inclusive socioeconomic development:
“All of the vineyards with which we work, run their wineries in an environmentally sustainable manner—as in minimal intervention farming techniques,”
“We see the Rainforest Trust’s conservation mission as a crucially important complement to our efforts as we must pair environmental sustainability with economic development.”
During the tasting, Chufly Imports draws the parallel of a healthy ecosystem to the wine regions of Bolivia, and spotlights the curated labels as sustainably certified, high-elevation Bolivian wines, including 1750’s 2017 syrah and 2020 Pedro Gimenez Dulce, as well as a 2018 cabernet franc from Aranjuez.
“The 1750 labels don the image of a Guarani woman—a tribute to the native people whose women were revered as fierce and noble warriors and Maria Eldy’s status as one of the only women winemakers in Bolivia,” said Escobar.
The next tasting will take place on 21st October 2021.
For more information visit the Rainforest Trust Website.
