Inditex contributes €3 million to The Great People’s Forest, one of the Largest Environmental Restoration Initiatives in South Asia

Inditex has contributed €3 million to The Great People’s Forest initiative, one of the largest restoration efforts in the history of South Asia. This initial donation from Inditex contributes to the initiative’s launch.  Led by the global nonprofit Conservation International and a coalition of leading organizations from Bhutan, India, and Bangladesh, the Great People’s Forest will conserve and restore the Eastern Himalayan region, an ecosystem that represents over one-twelfth of the planet’s biodiversity, including two biodiversity hotspots.

The overall effort seeks to plant one billion trees and restore and protect one million hectares of land across the Eastern Himalayas, from the mountains to the mangroves, indirectly benefiting around one billion people who depend on this connected ecosystem. The Great People’s Forest founding implementing partners are the Balipara Foundation, Friendship NGO, The Energy and Resources Institute, The Ashoka Trust for Research in Ecology and the Environment, Bhutan Ecological Society and Bhutan Trust Fund for Environmental Conservation.

The Eastern Himalayan region spans the mountains, valleys, plains and delta of Northeast India, Bhutan, Nepal and Bangladesh. It is a unique ecosystem which connects glaciers of the world’s tallest mountains, the Ganges and Brahmaputra rivers and the Sundarbans mangrove forest -- the largest on the planet. Home to some of the most densely populated areas on Earth, with one billion people relying indirectly on its natural resources, the region faces urgent environmental and social challenges: each year, over one million people are displaced in the region by extreme climate events and around 100,000 hectares of forest are lost. 

“The Eastern Himalayas region is one of the world’s most populous, carbon-rich, and biologically important places; one billion people rely on its bounties for their lives and livelihoods. It’s also home to astonishing beauty, with the Ganges and the Brahmaputra rivers, fed by glaciers on the world’s tallest mountains, leading into the world’s largest mangrove forest,” said Dr. M. Sanjayan, CEO of Conservation International. “The ambition of the Great People’s Forest is breathtaking, and it’s a model for what’s possible when we address transnational problems by tying livelihoods, resource security, and conservation together. Today’s announcement from Inditex is a strong affirmation of that vision, a critical step toward restoring and protecting this planetary jewel.”

“We are proud to participate in this initiative led by Conservation International and its partners on the ground in the Eastern Himalayas for the protection of a unique natural space that is critical for its environmental and social impact on one of the most densely populated regions of the world. At Inditex we are convinced of the importance of protecting biodiversity, which is vital to the planet’s equilibrium and the effort to combat climate change. To that end, we have committed to protect, restore or regenerate five million hectares worldwide by 2030”, said Inditex’s CEO, Óscar García Maceiras.

Partnership between Inditex and Conservation International 

Inditex’s initial contribution of €3 million will help launch this initiative by developing the various strategic fronts spearheading the work to conserve and restore the region’s biological wealth, starting with coordination between the local organizations that are participating actively in this initiative in India, Bangladesh, Bhutan and Nepal.

The initial actions include supporting the first restoration and enterprise projects led by young leaders and local organisations to foster regenerative farming and supporting the protection and restoration of 60,000 hectares, which have already been identified. Inditex’s funding will also spur scientific research to better understand the threats and best practices around conservation and restoration in the region and the development of a new oversight framework so that the actions taken are backed by scientific evidence.

This agreement reinforces Inditex’s partnership with Conservation International, with which it sealed a strategic alliance in 2023 when it joined the Regenerative Fund For Nature, earmarking €15 million to efforts to drive regenerative farming and breeding practices. 

The amounts contributed by Inditex are, in both cases, part of the proceeds obtained by charging for paper bags and envelopes, an initiative rolled out by the Group in 2021 to foster the use of reusable shopping bags. The rest of the funds collected by charging for shopping bags will be invested in environmental projects championed by a range of organizations, such as the sanitation network improvement projects being run by Water.org in several South-east Asian countries or the agreement with WWF for recovering ecosystems under threat in Europe, Asia, Africa and Latin America.