RAINFOREST TRUST

RAINFOREST TRUST CLIMATE ACTION FUND

To slow climate change, we must protect rainforests. Deforestation destroys nature’s ability to absorb carbon and releases damaging emissions into the atmosphere. Yet, despite the dangerous consequences, one acre of rainforest is lost every two seconds. Our donations to the Rainforest Climate Action Fund support projects that will cost-effectively store and sequester vast quantities of carbon. These projects support the creation of protected areas across the tropics, through land purchase, government designation, or strengthening local and Indigenous land tenure. Each landscape – rainforests, mangrove forests, peatlands – helps keep our planet’s climate in balance and protects people and wildlife from climate change impacts.

PROTECTING INDIGENOUS LAND IN THE PERUVIAN AMAZON

The Loreto and Ucayali regions are two of the largest moist tropical forests in Peru, a country where half the surface area is covered by tropical forest. The regions are home to hundreds of communities and thousands of species, including Giant Otter, Black-faced Black Spider Monkey and White-bellied Spider Monkey. Hundreds of Indigenous communities – and of course the wildlife – had no recognised land rights and were under threat from loggers, mining, gas and agricultural industries. Rainforest Trust is working in partnership with the Center for the Development of an Indigenous Amazon (CEDIA), empowering local Indigenous communities to gain legal rights to their land, thus preventing commercial land developers from obtaining the land and destroying their forest home. Our first donation in support of this project was made in September 2019 and protected 9,230 acres of threatened rainforest in the Peruvian Amazon.

SAVING HABITAT IN THE ANNAMITE MOUNTAINS, LAOS

We are delighted to report that this project is now fully complete and 133,098 acres of land protected!

The Khoun Xe Nong Ma province in Southeast Asia’s Annamite Mountains is one of the world’s most important biodiversity regions, supporting unique species including the Critically Endangered Saola (also known as the Asian Unicorn), the Large-antlered Muntjac, Southern White-cheeked Gibbon, Red-shanked Douc Langur and Chinese Three-striped Box Turtle. These species were threatened by illegal snaring by commercial hunters. We supported Rainforest Trust’s work with local partner Asian Arks to conserve the forest as a National Protected Area with the support of local communities. As well as placing the area under legal protection, our funds were used to train snare removal teams and support revenue-generating activities such as ecotourism to ensure long-term sustainability. Our first donation in support of this project was made in September 2019 and protected 530 acres of threatened rainforest in the Annamite mountains in Laos.