w w w . v a l e . c o m

2 0 1 2 S u s t a i n a b i l i t y R e p o r t

20

12

S

us

ta

in

ab

il

it

y

Re

po

rt

Vale’s support for the Genesis expedition and

exhibition is directly related to the company’s

mission, vision and values. It is a high-level

illustration of Vale’s beliefs, as well as its

commitment to integrated development in

the communities where it operates across the

planet. The exhibition plays an informative and

educational role, highlighting and motivating

nature preservation.

Besides sponsoring this project since 2008,

the company supports the Instituto Terra,

an institution created by Sebastião Salgado

and Lélia Wanick Salgado, its president, to

preserve the Doce River Valley region, location

of the photographer’s hometown of Aimorés

in Minas Gerais. Half a million saplings from the

Vale Natural Reserve – one of the largest areas

of protected Atlantic Forest in Brazil,

maintained by Vale since the 1950s – have been

donated for the Instituto Terra’s reforestation

actions. The company also has a partnership

with the institute in a project to restore some

of the headwaters of the Doce River, also

in Minas Gerais and in Espírito Santo.

Vale, a Brazilian company established in 1942,

since becoming one of the largest mining

companies in the world, believes that it is

possible to transform natural resources into

social and economic prosperity, with respect

for the communities where it operates and the

environment. Vale seeks to promote

sustainable development among its employees,

partners and communities where it is present.

In this way, it will be possible to leave a positive

legacy for future generations. Sebastião

Salgado conveys this message through his

exuberant images, demonstrating that

humanity can only truly evolve when it accepts

itself as being an inseparable part of nature.

I conceived this work

as a tribute to the planet.

We decided to identify its

pure parts in order to help

preserve them.

Sebastião Salgado

“ “For eight years, from 2004 to 2012, on an

expedition to more than 30 regions of different

countries, Brazilian photographer Sebastião

Salgado went on foot, by boat, on small aircraft

and by hot-air balloon to create, with his

sensitive and tasteful eye, the Genesis project.

It was an expedition to remote parts of the

planet, frequently accompanied by his wife,

Lélia Wanick Salgado, sometimes by their son,

Juliano Ribeiro Salgado, and most of the time

by colleague Jacques Barthélemy. They sought

land and marine landscapes, animals and

ancestral communities that had escaped

interference from the modern world.

People in many countries will have the

opportunity to see the Genesis exhibition,

the result of work that, according to Salgado,

was the most rewarding experience of his life.

The exhibition’s premiere took place on April 9,

2013 in London.

The Genesis project’s creation began when Sebastião

Salgado and his wife, Lélia Wanick Salgado, agreed to

take care of a relative’s property in the Doce River Valley

in Minas Gerais. It was there that Sebastião had grown

up, surrounded by lush vegetation, birds, wild animals

and rivers full of fish; however, this paradise had been

lost. By the 1990s, deforestation and erosion had dried

up the land. Lélia then had the idea to recreate the

forest using local species. They planted more than 300

different tree species and, as they grew and made the

land green, the flowers and animals came back. Rather

than causing flooding, the seasonal rainwater was

absorbed by the soil and, over time, the watercourses

became regular once more, bringing back fish and

alligators. The property became the Instituto Terra

(“Earth Institute”), founded in 1998.

Sebastião Salgado’s previous projects – including

Trabalhadores (“Workers”) and Exodus – were

journeys through the experiences and adversities

of humanity. Genesis, in turn, is a tribute by this

brilliant photographer to the grandiosity of nature.

He faced a world practically unchanged since volca-

noes, icebergs, deserts and jungles were formed.

He recorded animals in their natural environment

and sought to portray peoples as near as possible

to their ancestral lifestyle. It is an elegy to mankind’s

harmony with nature.

(1) Ecuador – Galapagos

(2) Congo (3) Rwanda (4) Uganda – Virunga Mountains

(5) Antarctica

(6) Argentina – Valdés Peninsula

(7) Namibia

(8) Sudan – South Region

(9) Bhutan – Himalaya

(10) Venezuela – Amazon

(11) Chile – High Patagonia

(12) Argentina – High Patagonia

(13) Botswana – Cubango Delta and Kalahari Desert

(14) Ethiopia – Omo River Valley and Northern Mountains

(15) Indonesia – Sumatra and West Papua

(16) New Guinea

(17) Libya – Sahara Desert

(18) Algeria – Sahara Desert

(19) Brazil – Amazon, Pantanal Wetlands and Xingu National Park

(20) Alaska – Arctic Region

(21) Falkland Islands

(22) South Georgia Islands

(23) South Sandwich Islands

(24) United States – Colorado Plateau

(25) Zambia – Kafue National Park

(26) Madagascar

(27) Russia – Yamal Peninsula, Wrangel Island and Kamchatka Peninsula

(28) Canada – Kluane National Park

1234

5

6

7

8

9

10

1112

13

25

14

1516

1817

20

212223

24

26

27

28

19

After some time, we started

to replant the forest. We saw

everything being born again.

The birds, insects and animals

came back. Life began to

return on all sides inside

my head, and so the idea of

photographing Genesis came to

me. I went to see life, the most

fabulous things on the planet.

Sebastião Salgado

“

“

Cover photo: Amazon (Venezuela) 2006

Amazon (Venezuela) 2006 Sebastião Salgado Vale is proud to sponsor the Genesis Project.