By SIERRA DAVIS | Pali Life Editor
Using the $140 he raised through a campus bake sale, , a first-grade student at , purchased three acres in the Columbian rainforest to help preserve and unite the jaguar habitat and 40 acres in the Peruvian rainforest.
Using the $140 he raised through a campus bake sale, Leo Pesce, a first-grade student at Seven Arrows Elementary, purchased three acres in the Columbian rainforest to help preserve and unite the jaguar habitat and 40 acres in the Peruvian rainforest.
Rich Schmitt/Staff Photographer
To protect parts of the rainforest from deforestation, Pesce partnered with Rainforest Trust and encouraged his classmates to join him.
“The rainforest is home to snakes, toucans, harpy eagles, lemurs and other animals who are losing their habit and dying out because people are cutting down the rainforest,” Pesce said. “We need to stop cutting down the trees and start planting new ones.”
Pesce took on the conservation project as part of his ethical leadership project at school where he researched the Amazon rainforest and presented his findings to his classmates. He also wrote a list of 12 steps everyone can do to help save the rainforest, including suggestions like don’t litter; don’t pollute the oceans; recycle; and don’t build things where trees should be.
“We’re really thrilled by [Leo’s] efforts. Not only has he helped raise donations and awareness together, it’s wonderful to see him being an example to others,” said Jesse Lewis, rainforest education coordinator at Rainforest Trust.
Pesce is currently brainstorming new ideas to raise funding to purchase rainforest land in Brazil, which comes with a much higher price tag of $170 per acre.
“Eventually, I would really like to visit the rainforest in Peru to see all of the land that I worked to protect,” he said.
Visit rainforesttrust.org for more information.
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