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Mercado Libre, Latin America’s largest e-commerce store, has created a $400 million sustainability bond towards reforestation projects in Brazil’s Atlantic Forest area.

Mercado Libre is Latin America’s largest e-commerce store. And with twice the market capitalization of eBay, it’s important to note that this is a company with some serious financial assets to put to good use.

A Greenbiz report has published some details about how large and successful the company is.

“This company is a big deal in South America with 132.5 million active users and 649.2 million items shipped during 2020. It’s growing at a rapid clip. Revenue for the fourth quarter of last year was $1.3 billion, up almost 97 percent from the year earlier."

The company has decided to put some of that success to good use and has created a $400 million sustainability bond towards reforestation projects in Brazil’s Atlantic Forest area.

Almost 15% of Brazil’s lost forest area is in this region, and Mercado Libre has set goals to regenerate those ecosystems as a matter of aggressive climate action.

What’s inspiring about this story is that rather than just take the easy option of buying carbon offsets and letting other organizations initiate the projects, Mercado Libre is actively looking for a much more hands-on approach.

Maybe they can bring some of their organizational skills to these reforestation projects to make them more effective. 


Chris is one of GreenCitizen’s writers who has been a long-time advocate of individual responsibility when it comes to the environment. He shares GreenCitizen's passion for making the world a better place every day of the year.

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