Walking the 3000 kilometers of Te Araroa trail to plant 3000 trees

I am Daniel Nogueira, I'm originally from Brazil and have been living in New Zealand for 5 years now. I'm passionate about nature and the outdoors. Let me share a bit of a background of my project:

It all started in January 2019 in the the Tarkine forest, Tasmania, where I stayed on a temporary camp with volunteers to protect the forest from the logging industry. Right there I saw the two sides of a story: The beautiful native forest with all its life, waterways, birds, native species and enormous variety of native plants. And then you have destruction: the logging industry put the forest down and plant single species, fast-growing tree which will create a monotonous, poor diverse forest, which eventually will be put down again when the trees are mature enough to produce timber.

Since then I decided I wanted to create positive impact in our environment and encourage people to do the same. But I also wanted to go on a big adventure. So I spent many hours thinking of how I could combine those 2 things. So here is what I came up with:

I decided to hike the Te Araroa Trail, walking the length of New Zealand to encourage people to take individual actions to fight climate change and create a positive impact in our environment.

The 3 key goals of my Te Araroa walk:

1) Plant 3000 trees. As I hike the 3000 kilometers of Te Araroa trail, I want to plant one tree for every kilometer walked. How? I am supporting the Native Forest Restoration Trust (https://www.nfrt.org.nz/) and will be providing them with native, eco sourced trees, to be planted in one of their Waipoua Reserves in Northland. I will be organising a team to plant the trees under the guidance of NFRT. The estimated cost to plant is $30,000 which I am aiming to reach by the end of my walk, around April 2020. Once the crowdfunding is finished, we will organise a planting day so everyone that donated can have the opportunity to come and plant native trees! How amazing is that?

2) Zero Waste Hiking. I am attempting to hike New Zealand with Zero Waste, creating minimal impact. I will be doing this by not buying foods in single use plastic, using reusable bags to get bulk foods in supermarket, making my own cereal bars, etc. I am no expert in Zero Waste, but my goal is to learn and get better everyday.

3) Offsetting carbon. I will use the Ekos platform to offset all my carbon emissions during the trail, including food, which I follow a vegan diet for minimal impact, possible car rides, bus, and any other form of transport that I might use. I am also no expert in Carbon offsetting and will be learning as I go.

F.A.Q:

1) How is the money from donations going to be used?

The money donated through givealittle will be 100% directed to the Native Forest Restoration Trust to plant native trees in one of their Northland reserves. It will cover the costs of ecosourced trees with any funds left over being contributed towards maintaining the trees.

2) Is the money from donations also to support your hike?

No! I have planned and saved enough to cover all the costs of my hike. I am collecting donations exclusively to provide people with an opportunity to create a positive impact on our planet, by funding tree planting on a beautiful native forest restoration project.

3) Where are the trees going to be planted?

We chose part of a reserve that is being transformed from retired farmland to original native, eco-sourced trees, close to the Waipoua forest in Northland. The area is home of a variety of wildlife, including a population of North Island Brown Kiwi, Kauri Snail many native bird.

See more about the reserve here: https://www.nfrt.org.nz/reserves/professor-w-r-mcgregor/

4) When are the trees going to be planted? Can I help planting them?

After I finish the walk, we will organise a planting day in Autumn/Winter of 2020 and all donors will be invited to come.

Do you have any other questions? Do you want to help this project in any other way? Contact me! Facebook, instagram, email! I will be checking it eventually!