The Rainforest Foundation: Celebrity Supporters

The Rainforest Foundation UK was founded in 1989 by Sting and Trudie Styler, after they saw first-hand the impact the destruction of the Amazon rainforests had on the Kayapo Indians’ way of life. This sparked the Foundation’s first campaign which, in 1993, resulted in the protection of 27,359 km² of indigenous peoples’ land. The Foundation has expanded and diversified since, and has worked in more than 20 countries to date towards the mission of “supporting indigenous peoples and traditional populations of the world’s rainforest to protect their rainforest homes and fulfill their rights to land, life and livelihood”.

The Foundation’s approach differs from other organisations in that it links human rights and environmental protection. It considers that the best way to sustainably manage rainforests, and to reduce poverty in tropical forest countries is to recognize the rights of the traditional and indigenous communities who live in those forests, and who have the traditional knowledge of protecting it. Instead of purchasing land or conserving forests purely for their biodiversity-value, the Rainforest Foundation adopts a right-based, approach and promotes the establishment of community rights over rainforest lands, tackling the root of problems related to deforestation and paving the way for fair benefit sharing from forest resources.