The rainforest is a home, a habitat, a shelter, a pharmacy, a supermarket and an ecosystem that supports many lives and livelihoods. For the indigenous people and animals that inhabit it, the rainforest is everything. Yet most forest dependent people are unable to defend the lands on which they live from forest destruction, land theft and resource exploitation. The Rainforest Foundation UK aims to change this.
At the RFUK, we tackle deforestation locally and globally. Locally, we help forest communities to gain land rights, challenge logging companies, manage their forests and protect their environment. Globally, we campaign to influence national and international laws to protect rainforests and their inhabitants.
Our approach differs from that of other organisations in that it is committed to both human rights and environmental protection. Instead of purchasing land or conserving forests purely for their biodiversity value, the RFUK promotes the establishment of community rights over rainforest lands, tackling the root of the problems related to deforestation and paving the way for local people to benefit fairly from the use and protection of forest resources.
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.
The mission of the rainforest foundation UK is to support indigenous peoples and traditional populations of the world’s rainforest in their efforst to protect their environment and fulfil their rights to land, life and livelyhood by assisting them
The Rainforest Foundation UK, 233a Kentish Town Road, London NW5 2JT, UK
Phone: +44 20 7485 0193
Fax +44 20 7485 0315
Coordinates
233a Kentish Town Road,London NW5 2JT , UK
http://www.rainforestfoundationuk.org