Protecting Our Planet Challenge UPDATE
Progress Towards the Protecting Our Planet Challenge
In September of 2021, Rainforest Trust pledged to invest $500 million to reverse biodiversity loss by 2030, joining the largest ever private funding commitment to biodiversity conservation. This pledge highlights the increasing importance of protected areas, and the role they play in the future of conservation, and species loss. The organization has protected more than 40 million acres since its inception, and is well on its way to protecting 125 million acres of habitat by 2025.
*High Integrity Forest describes forests that are “most valuable for supporting biodiversity and ecosystem services.” (NASA.gov, pg. 10). High Integrity Forest has the least anthropogenic modification (changes from human activity), and is defined by Grantham et al.2020 as having a Forest Landscape Integrity Index (FLII) of greater than or equal to a score of 9.6.
How we pick projects/project selection criteria
Proposed sites qualify if they meet one of the following:
- Protect globally significant populations of Critically Endangered (CR) or Endangered (EN) species on the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species
- Protect an Intact Landscape
• Must be within the Tropics or Subtropics
• Must contain areas of High Integrity Forest
• Priority landscapes for Rainforest Trust include: Amazonia, the Congo Basin Forests, Southern African Miombo, and the • islands of Borneo and New Guinea. - Mitigate global climate change.
• Landscapes with a high capacity for carbon sequestration (e.g. tropical peat swamps, mangroves, páramo)
• Projects which substantially reduce CO2 emissions (Carbon offset eligible)
• Projects which store in perpetuity a very large quantity of carbon at a reasonable cost (e.g. designations of extensive tall hardwood forests as national parks at a low cost/acre)
Other project qualifiers
- To be considered, projects must have a clear focus on creating a new protected area or the expansion of existing protected areas. This can be through:
• Land purchase
• Designation as a National Park or other officially recognized protected area
• Conversion of logging concessions to reserve
• Long-term land lease
• Land-titling or other mechanism of providing for Indigenous ownership and management with the formal stipulation that the Indigenous or community lands will be managed for conservation - Proposed sites must be currently unprotected
• Protected means meeting the standards for IUCN category 1 – 6
• We do not consider Biosphere Reserves, World Heritage Sites or RAMSAR Reserves to be officially protected by virtue of these designations - Projects should have endorsement from project stakeholders, especially local communities
- All projects are expected to obtain Free Prior and Informed Consent (FPIC) of any impacted communities
• Indigenous people steward three-quarters of the world’s remaining biodiversity. Many of our projects bolster that stewardship, securing ownership and management of land and natural resources for local and Indigenous people. Every one of our projects engages with local and Indigenous people and none proceeds without their freely given, prior, fully informed consent (FPIC).
• FPIC is “a principle protected by international human rights standards that state, ‘all peoples have the right to self-determination’ and – linked to the right to self-determination – ‘all peoples have the right to freely pursue their economic, social and cultural development’.” (UN.org) - Projects should seek to develop sustainable financing mechanisms for long-term management of the proposed protected area
Protecting Our Planet Projects
Save Grauer’s Gorilla and lock up 28.6 million tons of carbon
Last stand against deforestation in the Peruvian Andes
Create a wildlife corridor for tigers in Thailand
Expand a safe haven for “Africa’s Big Five”
Save Vietnam’s exquisite Grey-shanked Douc Langur
Save a Carbon Rich Swamp Forest for Bonobos
Save the Critically Endangered Bengal Florican and Elongated Tortoise in Nepal
Protect Biodiversity in Colombia’s Sierra Nevada
Save a Forest Island for Lemurs in Madagascar
Safeguard a Pristine Coral Reef in Cuba
Protect Ecuador’s Valley of Orchids
Save Critically Endangered Amphibians and Thousands of Threatened Species
Expand Protection for the “Asian Unicorn”
Protecting Endangered Pangolins in the North Western Ghats of India
Rainforest Trust has my highest respect... for its reserve-creating projects which have the exceptional merit of being based upon biological research of high quality, exact mapping, and clear statements of what support will accomplish.
The late E.O. WilsonTwo-time Pulitzer Prize winner, and former Rainforest Trust Board Member
Rainforest Trust has my highest respect... for its reserve-creating projects which have the exceptional merit of being based upon biological research of high quality, exact mapping, and clear statements of what support will accomplish.
The late E.O. WilsonTwo-time Pulitzer Prize winner, and former Rainforest Trust Board Member
Rainforest Trust has my highest respect... for its reserve-creating projects which have the exceptional merit of being based upon biological research of high quality, exact mapping, and clear statements of what support will accomplish.
The late E.O. WilsonTwo-time Pulitzer Prize winner, and former Rainforest Trust Board Member
Rainforest Trust has my highest respect... for its reserve-creating projects which have the exceptional merit of being based upon biological research of high quality, exact mapping, and clear statements of what support will accomplish.
The late E.O. WilsonTwo-time Pulitzer Prize winner, and former Rainforest Trust Board Member
Rainforest Trust has my highest respect... for its reserve-creating projects which have the exceptional merit of being based upon biological research of high quality, exact mapping, and clear statements of what support will accomplish.
The late E.O. WilsonTwo-time Pulitzer Prize winner, and former Rainforest Trust Board Member
Rainforest Trust has my highest respect... for its reserve-creating projects which have the exceptional merit of being based upon biological research of high quality, exact mapping, and clear statements of what support will accomplish.
The late E.O. WilsonTwo-time Pulitzer Prize winner, and former Rainforest Trust Board Member
Rainforest Trust has my highest respect... for its reserve-creating projects which have the exceptional merit of being based upon biological research of high quality, exact mapping, and clear statements of what support will accomplish.
The late E.O. WilsonTwo-time Pulitzer Prize winner, and former Rainforest Trust Board Member
Rainforest Trust has my highest respect... for its reserve-creating projects which have the exceptional merit of being based upon biological research of high quality, exact mapping, and clear statements of what support will accomplish.
The late E.O. WilsonTwo-time Pulitzer Prize winner, and former Rainforest Trust Board Member
Rainforest Trust has my highest respect... for its reserve-creating projects which have the exceptional merit of being based upon biological research of high quality, exact mapping, and clear statements of what support will accomplish.
The late E.O. WilsonTwo-time Pulitzer Prize winner, and former Rainforest Trust Board Member
Rainforest Trust has my highest respect... for its reserve-creating projects which have the exceptional merit of being based upon biological research of high quality, exact mapping, and clear statements of what support will accomplish.
The late E.O. WilsonTwo-time Pulitzer Prize winner, and former Rainforest Trust Board Member
Rainforest Trust has my highest respect... for its reserve-creating projects which have the exceptional merit of being based upon biological research of high quality, exact mapping, and clear statements of what support will accomplish.
The late E.O. WilsonTwo-time Pulitzer Prize winner, and former Rainforest Trust Board Member
Rainforest Trust has my highest respect... for its reserve-creating projects which have the exceptional merit of being based upon biological research of high quality, exact mapping, and clear statements of what support will accomplish.
The late E.O. WilsonTwo-time Pulitzer Prize winner, and former Rainforest Trust Board Member
Rainforest Trust has my highest respect... for its reserve-creating projects which have the exceptional merit of being based upon biological research of high quality, exact mapping, and clear statements of what support will accomplish.
The late E.O. WilsonTwo-time Pulitzer Prize winner, and former Rainforest Trust Board Member
Rainforest Trust has my highest respect... for its reserve-creating projects which have the exceptional merit of being based upon biological research of high quality, exact mapping, and clear statements of what support will accomplish.
The late E.O. WilsonTwo-time Pulitzer Prize winner, and former Rainforest Trust Board Member
Explore our conservation victories
“Halting and reversing biodiversity loss and climate change requires expanded protected and conserved areas, especially in tropical forests—this has been Rainforest Trust’s mission for over 30 years,” said James C. Deutsch, Ph.D., CEO of Rainforest Trust. “Developing nations and Indigenous Peoples need financing to achieve this, which is why we are pledging to more than double our level of funding between now and 2030 and urging other private and public funders to do the same.”
Dr. James DeutschCEO, Rainforest Trust
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