From January 2022 - May 2022, Wild Planet Creations has been gearing up to donate 10% of all sales made to the Rainforest Trust!
Why the Rainforest Trust? Great question! I'll start to answer that with a quote from the incredible. E.O. Wilson - a celebrated and brilliant ecologist who was also a Board Member of the Rainforest Trust.
"The one process now going on that will take millions of years to correct is the loss of genetic and species diversity by the destruction of natural habitats. This is the folly our descendants are least likely to forgive."
50% of the planet's biodiversity (different kinds of species) are found in rainforests! The Amazon rainforest, located in South America, is a whopping 1.4 billion acres and spans across 9 different countries. This rainforest alone supports 10% of the world's biodiversity (that's 140,000 different species, and there are so many still left undiscovered!). The Amazon rainforest is also famous for being one of Earth's largest carbon stores, which helps reduce the amount of carbon in the atmosphere and slow the rate of climate change.
The Amazon rainforest is under constant and direct threat! Deforestation, or the act of removing excessive numbers of trees, plants and wildlife from a given area, occurs at a rapid rate here! In the year 2020, more than 10 million acres of rainforest were destroyed by unsustainable logging, destructive mining, and poor agriculture techniques (like slash and burn techniques). That is the size of the country Switzerland! Organisms that live in the Amazon rainforest have complex and intricate interaction with each other. Once those interactions are broken, there is no going back. This is why it is very difficult to renew lost or damaged rainforest! Indigenous people are under tremendous pressure as well because they do not have legal rights to the land they have occupied for centuries. So what does the Rainforest Trust have to do with this information?
The Rainforest Trust and their international partners identify critical sites that provide a permanent refuge for threatened/endangered species as well as for storing vast amounts of carbon. What is truly incredible is that 100% of the money donated to this organization foes towards saving habitat! The board members ad other supporters cover operating costs.
Founded over 30 years ago, the Rainforest Trust has helped protect 13.4 million acres of the Amazon rainforest across Bolivia, Brazil, Ecuador, Columbia, and Peru. They have helped 150 local communities gain legal rights to their land. They have also helped protect 204 threatened species! This year, the Rainforest Trust revealed that 99% of the forest in their reserves has remained standing post-protection!
Wild Planet Creations is more than happy to be donating a portion of all proceeds to the Rainforest Trust! We cannot wait to report exactly what project the money will be spent on! Thank you so much for contributing to this cause!