Earth to Musicians: STING’s Amazing Rainforest Foundation

More than two decades ago, rock star Sting, and his wife, Trudie Styler, created The Rainforest Foundation and over the last 20 years it has expanded and diversified. There is the New York-based Rainforest Foundation Fund, backed by Sting, which provides funding for three branches – Rainforest Foundation US, Rainforest Foundation Norway, Rainforest Foundation UK (together they directly support projects in more than 20 countries that protect tropical rainforests and the people that live there)…

Every year an area of rainforest the size of England and Wales is cut down. This leaves local people homeless, drives animals and plants to extinction and releases more CO2 emissions (which cause climate change), than all of the world’s planes, trains and automobiles. Tropical deforestation is an issue that affects us all. ~The Rainforest Foundation

RF tackles deforestation locally and globally, helping forest communities to protect their environment, land rights, and manage forests for wellbeing, all while globally campaigning to influence national and international laws to protect rainforests and their inhabitants. Working in the tropical rainforest regions of 15 countries, they’ve protected more than 71,000 square miles of land in Brazil, Latin America, Africa, and Southeast Asia.

The rainforest is home sweet home to more endangered species of animals and plants than any other place on earth so adopt a tree or donate to an RF project.

Since it was founded in 1989 the Rainforest Foundation has actually protected more than 100,000 square kilometers of rainforest. Sting and his wife saw first-hand the destruction of the Amazon rainforests, and the devastating impact it had on the lives of the indigenous peoples who lived there.

From the start the Rainforest Foundation believed that the best way to protect the rainforests is to let the indigenous people who have inhabited the areas for centuries control and manage the land. Indigenous peoples’ participation and their knowledge of the local ecology are now recognised as the most effective environmental management tools. Not only does it support practical projects in tropical rainforest areas, the Rainforest Foundation carries out international advocacy campaigns.

Experience has proven that the combination of practical work and lobbying, all of which is based on local experience, is the most powerful tool for lasting change. ~RF

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