Anne Fontaine Foundation

The Anne Fontaine Foundation is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization, created in 2011 by the Franco-Brazilian fashion designer Anne Fontaine. Based in New York City, it aims to encourage reforestation and concentrates its financial resources specifically on the protection of the Atlantic Rainforest in Brazil".^[1]

Founder

Anne Fontaine was born and raised in Rio de Janeiro. She moved to France when she was 18, where she designed her first collection of white shirts for women in 1993. She founded her brand Anne Fontaine, with her husband Ari Zlotkin, and opened her first store in Paris in 1994. The company now operates 60 stores worldwide (28 of which are in the United States). Her personal experience of living with the Canela tribe in the Amazon rainforest^[2] inspired her commitment to the conservation of the environment conservation of the environment.^[3] In 2011, Anne Fontaine created her own foundation in New York, in favor of the protection of rainforests.^[4]

Mission

The Anne Fontaine Foundation is dedicated to raise environmental awareness and to encourage reforestation activities, mostly located in the Brazilian Atlantic Forest (Mata Atlântica). To do so, the Anne Fontaine Foundation supports reforestation programs implemented in Brazil by local NGOs, and to which local communities are associated.

In order to raise funds and environmental awareness, the Anne Fontaine Foundation organizes artistic events and invites artists inspired by nature themes to collaborate. In 2013 and 2014, the Anne Fontaine Foundation held two photographs exhibitions at Sotheby’s, entitled Trees in Focus. One at Sotheby's New York and the second one at Sotheby's Paris. It gathered the works of 35 international photographers which were later auctioned.^[5] Among them Charlélie Couture, Martine Franck, Pamela Hanson, Rafael Y. Herman, Ange Leccia, Sarah Moon, Clifford Ross, Sebastião Salgado, Michael Kenna.^[6]

Each year, the Anne Fontaine Foundation also organizes a "Forest Day". On this special day, 50% of the sales of each Anne Fontaine boutique are donated to the Foundation.^[7] On this occasion, the Anne Fontaine Foundation invites one or more artists to collaborate.

Projects and Partnerships

The Foundation's first plantation program was led through a partnership with The Nature Conservancy (TNC) and Instituto Floresta Viva. Based in Southern Bahia, a region highly threatened by deforestation, the initiative's objective was to plant 100,000 trees in the Serra do Conduru State Park by the end of 2012. The same year, the Foundation also partnered up with the New York Restoration Project (NYRP) in order to help restore the parks and gardens of New York City that were damaged after the passage of Hurricane Sandy. In 2013 and 2014, the Anne Fontaine Foundation renewed its partnership with Instituto Floresta Viva by supporting a recovery project for the riparian vegetation across river basins in Southern Bahia. In parallel, the Anne Fontaine Foundation also supports a reforestation initiative in the region of Minas Gerais. This project, implemented by the local NGO Instituto Terra consists in restoring the area around water sources through the plantation of 6,000 trees. Since 2012, the foundation has economically supported 3 NGOs in the states of Bahia, Pernambuco and Minas Gerais. The foundation planted 38,500 trees already.

References

External links

• Anne Fontaine Foundation
• Anne Fontaine
• United Nations Billion Tree Campaign
• Instiuto Floresta Viva
• Instituto Terra
• New York Restoration Project