Why we chose Rainforest Concern

There are a number of organisations now offering carbon offsetting for companies and individuals, which simply neutralise your carbon footprint. Rainforest Concern’s system provides many additional benefits.

Not-for-profit

Rainforest Concern is a registered charity with a 13-year track record of purchasing and protecting tropical forests. They currently operate 13 projects in Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Ecuador, Panama, Peru and Sri Lanka. These involve habitat conservation and reconstruction, and alternative income generation for local people. No money is deducted from offset donations for profit, and to ensure that virtually all of our contribution goes to the projects, they keep their administration costs as low as possible.

Biodiversity

Climate change threatens more than 1 million species with extinction by 2050. Our carbon offset donation to Rainforest Concern is used to protect and re-plant the most biodiverse habitat in the world. Carbon offset projects which plant monocultures of pine or eucalyptus cannot support indigenous wildlife, whereas their replanting programmes use a minimum of 30 native tree species. Today, rainforests occupy only 6 percent of the Earth’s surface, yet it is known that these rainforests are home to at least 50 percent of our planet’s wild plants, trees and wildlife. Only a fraction of these species have even been identified, much less catalogued and studied. Many of their projects are located in ecological hotspots so they can protect the flora and fauna that proliferates in these forests.

Sustainable Communities

Rainforest Concern partners with local communities. Not only is this the most realistic way of protecting forests in the long term, but the future of these communities often depends on their forests. For example, fresh drinking water comes from ‘springs’ at the base of cloud forest catchments. If the forest is cleared at the watershed, these water sources may dry out or flood. Their offset projects are carefully chosen to ensure that a true carbon saving is attained known as additionality and they monitor leakage. They identify standing forest that is under real threat and their replanting projects are established to last a minimum of 99 years. They employ third party consultants to verify their calculations.

Medicinal Research

Rainforests are a vital source of medicines. Today, less than 1% of the world’s tropical forest plants have been tested for pharmaceutical properties, yet at least 25% of all modern drugs came originally from rainforests. More than 1,400 varieties of tropical plants are thought to be potential cures for cancer. In addition, anaesthetics for surgery and antimalarial drugs have been sourced from rainforests. The mysteries of indigenous medical knowledge have attracted over one hundred pharmaceutical companies to fund projects studying indigenous plant knowledge and the specific plants used by native shamans and healers.