According to National Geographic magazine, 15 billion trees are cut down each year around the world, dangerously impacting the 80 percent of global species that call the forest home. In addition to the loss of habitats, deforestation also reduces the forests’ ability to absorb carbon, which helps mitigate the effects of climate change.
Eighteen years ago, Silicon Valley investor and tech entrepreneur Chris Vargas ’85, ’87M.S., met Colombian conservationist Rosamira Guillen at a Wildlife Conservation Network conference. Guillen rebuilds forests in northern Colombia through Fundación Proyecto Tití, where she leads a team to save the endangered cotton-top tamarin (known as the “titi” by locals) and other local wildlife.
Inspired by her mission, Vargas founded ReWorld, a nonprofit to raise money for conservation organizations like Guillen’s to increase the speed and scale of their efforts.
With the help of 24 volunteers, Vargas’s ReWorld team launched a crowdfunding campaign to help Fundación Proyecto Tití, enabling donors to sponsor 2.5 acres of Colombian forest for about $1,200. The effort raised $1.2 million, allowing Guillen to acquire 950 acres, which is currently being converted into a biodiversity zone.
To engage donors, ReWorld provides real-time satellite imagery to track reforestation progress and invites benefactors to visit restored areas. They also help Guillen acquire carbon credits, which support her conservation efforts and fund further research. Businesses and individuals can buy the credits to offset their own greenhouse gas emissions, a potential source of significant revenue for Guillen’s organization.
Additionally, ReWorld developed a mobile app for streamlined field research, enabling Fundación Proyecto Tití to collect data in remote areas without Wi-Fi.
What inspired you to found ReWorld?
I’ve been passionate about the environment my whole life. When I was growing up, my father was a career military officer, so we’ve traveled all over the world. Every time we traveled, we always got out and explored a lot. I remember most of the traveling we did was to natural places like the mountains and the beaches. There’s this wonderful grace that exists in nature; you really feel God’s presence. And so I developed a sense of awe for nature.
Then of course, as you get older, you realize how much we’re destroying nature. We’re clearcutting, polluting, depleting our water reserves and destroying wildlife. The extinction rate is going off the charts. I was alarmed at how much we’re destroying the most beautiful, precious asset we have. But once you become an adult, you can do something about it, so now I try to help in any way I can.
How do you see your role in collaborative projects like what you’re doing with Rosamira Guillen?
I see myself more as an enabler of great things as opposed to a doer of great things. I love to find really amazing people and help them in any way I can. In Rosamira’s case, that meant figuring out how to raise money, building her an app that helps with data collection, expanding her social media footprint and getting her carbon credits. But honestly, the biggest help we gave was deciphering the world of carbon credits. It’s very complicated to get these.
Why are you focused on carbon credits? What’s the benefit for Rosamira?
Think about the potential. Her big vision was to buy this massive piece of land, and it took $1.2 million to do that. So we rolled up our sleeves and launched a crowdfunding campaign to help her raise the capital to buy this abandoned cattle ranch and then convert it into a new biodiversity zone. If her one piece of land can generate $10 million worth of carbon credits, that’s an endowment.
You know, it costs money to do the work she’s doing. If she can use a carbon credit income to fund her operations, Rosamira will be freed from the capital-raising experience, and she can focus on the conservation work. She can expand her operations three or four-fold through these carbon credits. To me, that’s the most exciting thing we’re working on.
Tell me about her progress.
Twenty-five years ago, they had no land. They were studying the cotton-tops [a species of monkey], traveling throughout the countryside and educating local populations so they would protect the cotton-tops.
Rosamira started, little by little, acquiring land. It’s rare to buy land. We buy from retirees, like cattle ranchers who are too small and want out of the business. But it’s mostly through conservation easements, where you negotiate an easement with a farmer, and they get some value, and you get an easement that protects the land in perpetuity. Her goal has always been to own a large biodiversity region and create a protected park that can grow forever and protect many species. But it takes a long time to get there.
Three years ago, she owned around 800 hectares in total, and her newest acquisition more than doubled that. They’re hiring a few more people and gearing up to plant a couple million trees. I think they’re really seeing themselves in a growth state, which is fun to watch. And quite frankly, I love watching the volunteers just show up and get really excited.
She’s got a vision to extend further south and north 10 times larger over the next 20 years. It’s just going to be amazing when it’s all done.
Can you give me an example of how you have seen your work with ReWorld and Guillen come to fruition?
One of the most interesting stories was when I went to visit Rosamira in Colombia.
Just three years ago, Rosamira was driving me around this beautiful valley where her research station was. Then, we came across this one piece of land. It’d been demolished because a farmer had literally torn everything down and converted it into a cattle ranch. It was barren and dead. You hear about this happening all over the world.
Then I came back to Colombia two years later, and I said, “Rosamira, where is that one piece of land?” because I was in a beautiful spot with trees growing all around me. And she said, “Chris, you’re standing on it.” And I looked around at these trees, like 6 or 7 feet tall. I was stunned that you can go from a bunch of dirt and tree trunks that have been toppled over to literally six, seven, or eight-foot trees growing within two years. It really inspired me to think about how nature will always find a way to keep coming and keep growing if you give it a chance.
Some people think it takes 50 or 100 years, but within only a couple of years, you can make a huge difference.
Interview by Michelle Cuneo, an associate editor of this magazine