Rainforest Foundation 1900 views

The Rainforest Foundation UK protects rainforests by working with those who know the forest best – indigenous peoples and traditional forest dwellers.Company Overview We believe that an important means of protecting rainforests from external threats such as the expansion of industrial palm oil plantations, logging and mining etc is to ensure that the people who have lived in those areas for centuries have the rights to protect their ancestral lands.Indigenous communities have often served as ‘protectors’ of rainforests, and their traditional cultures and traditions are deeply entwined with the forest.Yet most forest dependent communities (especially in the Congo Basin) still lack any legal rights over lands on which they live.The Rainforest Foundation UK aims to change this: we strive to help bring about meaningful, long lasting and locally implementable solutions to prevent deforestation.

We believe that the best way to protect the rainforest is through empowering the indigenous peoples to defend their ancestral lands.We promote the establishment of community rights over rainforest lands and tackle the root of the problem related to deforestation and paving the way for local people to benefit fairly from the use and protection of forest resources.Indigenous communities rely on the forest for food, water, medicine, shelter and they are strongly entwined spiritually and culturally to their rainforest. Yet most forest dependent people are unable to defend the lands they live upon even though they have long served as ‘protectors’ of the rainforest.The Rainforest Foundation was founded in 1989 by Sting and his wife Trudie Styler, after they saw first- hand the destruction of the Amazon Rainforests, and the devastating impact it had on the lives of the indigenous people who lived there.Since our inception, the Rainforest Foundation has helped indigenous communities and local communities to protect more than 11 million hectares of rainforest.