News
Get Inspired and #MatchMaggie (through Twitter!)
Five-year-old Maggie wrote to the Rainforest Foundation UK to tell us she will be donating her weekly pocket money – 20 pence – for a whole year! “I love rainforests and I want to be a rainforest explorer when I grow up,” she wrote. Maggie, from Sutton Coldfield, sent her first 20p in the post … Read more
New evidence show that world’s second largest rainforest ‘wilderness’ is already occupied and ‘owned’ by African villagers
New maps put online today by the Rainforest Foundation UK – following two years of training and helping local villagers to use sophisticated mapping techniques – have revealed an extensive network of previously ‘invisible’ forest land ownership, occupation and use which could challenge many of the current ideas about how best to ‘protect’ rainforests in … Read more
Time for a rethink of forest management in the Congo Basin
Much of the commercial forest sector remains chaotic and badly governed. There is little evidence that ‘trickle-down’ wealth distribution from either logging or strict conservation has ever materialised, a view that is supported by recent independent evaluations of some of the main international backers of these sectors[1]. This failing ‘paradigm’ could provide the impetus for … Read more
Round the world trip for former RFUK staff member
Rosemary Brown, a former staff member at the RFUK, has set off on a round-the- world trip, offsetting the emissions of her travels by donating to the RFUK an amount equivalent to her adventure’s carbon footprint. Rosemary’s trip is in remembrance of Nellie Bly, a pioneer of investigative journalism, whose work resulted in historic reforms … Read more
RFUK teams up with ethical bank Triodos
We have launched a new partnership with the ethical bank Triodos, offering you a great alternative to UK high street banks who are often accused of lending money or providing financial services to companies who are directly involved in rainforest destruction. Triodos Bank pride themselves on only offering banking services to companies whose services have … Read more
More awards for RFUK’s Peruvian partner Ruth Buendía
Ruth, who was also honoured with the prestigious Goldman Environmental Prize earlier this year, was awarded with a Diploma of Honour of the Republic at a special ceremony in September, chaired by the President of the Peruvian Congress, Ana María Solórzano, who recalled the moments in which the Asháninka suffered terrible violence at the hands … Read more
DRC: Conservation authorities will reconsider communities’ role in conservation in controversial new rainforest reserve
Kinshasa: WWF and the DRC government’s protected areas authority have agreed to reconsider the status of a controversial protected area after meeting yesterday with representatives of local communities who were threatened with loss of their lands and access to natural resources on which they depend for their livelihoods and survival. Supported by Rainforest Foundation UK, … Read more
Are national parks in the Congo Basin failing biodiversity and people? New ‘paradigm’ of conservation needed – RFUK
The briefing, “Protected Areas in the Congo Basin: Failing People and Biodiversity?”, which contains the initial findings of detailed research due to be published in 2015, states that, despite hundreds of millions of dollars having been spent on conservation efforts in the Congo Basin over the past 10 years, current conservation policy and practice in the … Read more
Enough Rainforest Martyrs – Rainforest Foundation Statement
RAINFOREST FOUNDATION STATEMENT Four Peruvian indigenous environmental and human rights activists, including outspoken Asháninka leader Edwin Chota, were brutally murdered on September 1st or 2nd, 2014, near the Brazilian border, presumably by illegal loggers from whom they had been receiving death threats. Unfortunately this is not an isolated incident, but follows a long-term pattern of … Read more
DRC forest communties are “Squatters on their own lands” – RFUK report finds
A new report published today by the Rainforest Foundation UK challenges current laws in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) which ascribe all ownership of land to the State and deprive forest dwelling people of any right to own or protect forest for their own benefit. The study, “In Search of Land Laws that Protect … Read more