The More Forest Tax initiative – growth with added value.
Our enthusiasm for the mate culture
In addition to our enthusiasm for the mate culture and the effect of fresh mate infusions, there was another decisive factor that motivated us to offer fairly traded organic mate tea in Europe. To protect the Atlantic rainforest and let it grow again by selling Mate . To use the forest as a forest garden, as close to nature as possible and in coordination with everyone involved.
After several years of intensive work, we have gained further knowledge and found even better ways to use the forest even more carefully and have been working together with an initiative in Uruguay since this year. But all this takes so much time and we don't have that anymore.
During our travels through the areas of the "former" Atlantic rainforest, of which only about 7-10% still exist as a kind of patchwork quilt, we got an impression of what the Amazon rainforest could look like in a few years if we as a global community don't act immediately. There are some organizations and sustainable companies that are working to protect and restore forests, but with all due respect, all this is far too little.
We need governmental solutions, governments that recognize the seriousness of the situation, that recognize that it is much cheaper to protect forests now than to have all the forests replanted in a few years' time. The rainforests have developed over thousands of years, serve as habitat and food source for humans and animals, as a huge carbon store and regulate the water balance and the temperature on our earth. We can't easily restore all of that. Since 1990 we have lost an area of rainforest the size of Spain, France, Portugal, Italy, Great Britain, Germany, Belgium and the Netherlands combined, and more is being lost every day.
When the new economic stimulus package was decided at the beginning of July, we were too disappointed by the short-sightedness of these measures and by the climate change in our policy. Climate protection only plays a role in this as long as it promotes direct economic growth with well-known patterns. In particular, the 20 billion expensive reduction in VAT was a puzzle for us that had to be solved entrepreneurially.
We already have fair prices, no one will buy another pack of mate tea because it's a few cents cheaper, but many billions of cents together can create real added value for everyone, namely more forest and less climate change .
Our answer is called more forest tax . Let's put the VAT reduction into climate protection, now and everyone together.
We leave all prices the same and as fair as they are and give the amount of the VAT reduction 1 to 1 to the MehrWaldsteuer initiative. This will then protect forests and reforest the world. In addition, the aim of the initiative is to find a political solution for the protection of the world's forests. Whether this will ultimately be an actual additional forest tax , a few percent of GDP or something completely different must be clarified with all those involved. But until then, we call on all companies and people to support the initiative, to support it, to shape it and to lead it to success together.
Because there are already millions of people who are suffering from climate change , millions of people who are fleeing from the consequences and are being displaced.
We call on all people and companies to support the more forest tax , it should live on, even after December 31st, 2020. As a tax we are all happy to pay.
More information can be found at mehrwaldsteuer.de
Die Mehr Wald Steuer ist ein wirklich tolles Konzept! Ich bin gespannt weiteres davon zu erfahren :)
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