Rainforest Partnership

The mission of Rainforest Partnership is to protect and regenerate tropical rainforests by working with the communities of the forests to develop a sustainable economy. As a result, these communities can provide for their families while respecting both people and nature.

Our central objectives are to:

- Protect tropical rainforests and mitigate local drivers of deforestation by making it more profitable for rainforest communities to keep the forests standing

- Improve the lives of local populations by helping communities establish and manage economically and ecologically sustainable businesses that will continue to flourish long after our work with the community is over

- Make community members key players in the protection and monitoring of the forests where they live

- Achieve added beneficial objectives alongside the key goal of rainforest protection including biodiversity conservation and climate change mitigation

- Create enduring, replicable models in regions where we work and beyond

We are currently working with communities in the Amazon rainforest region in Peru and Ecuador, developing income generating activities specific to each project area. Specific considerations for every income generating activity include biodiversity potential, land management practices, socio-economic conditions, cultural context, market potential, and most importantly, whether the community has control over their land and if they want an alternative, sustainable income source.

We establish synergy between environmentally sustainable economic development and rainforest conservation.

Our model is collaborative, bottom-up, and results-driven. We work closely with rainforest communities and with in-country organizations, technical experts, business, and local governments to identify and develop goods and services found only in the forest. Then, we ensure the product is created sustainably and that it returns a steady income to the community. We work with communities that want an alternative to deforestation. By enabling communities to have an active role in the project and by using market-based approaches we collaboratively prevent deforestation, promote active conservation, and foster economic development.

We have community selection criteria which is the first essential tool to determine whether a community has the potential to carry out sustainable development activities that would lead to the direct protection of tropical rainforests.

Our strategies to protect rainforest lands and reduce deforestation include
1) Identifying rainforest communities that are looking for an alternative income source for protecting their forests and want to commit to a rigorous effort of sustainable development for five to seven years. Collaboratively, we work on identification, planning and implementation of an economically and environmentally sustainable course of action.

2) Assessing opportunities within the forest for marketable goods and services. There are a variety of goods available in many Amazon forests that can be sustainably harvested and sold in local and international markets–food products such as cacao and coffee, tree products such as piassaba palm fibers, medicinal plants, and even ecotourism opportunities. Our role is to work with the communities themselves, local foresters and biologists, and other local partners as needed to document the full range of possibilities for further exploration in each region.

3) Designing an action plan for the development of the identified goods and services. We take into account the cultural rules and norms for work and decision-making, in addition to current and potential skills of community residents. Plans typically call for training and education of community members, with training provided by our in-country local team members to ensure cultural sensitivity. Our collaborative style ensures that every community works within itself to produce goods and services that are consistent with cultural values.

4) With advice and assistance from the Rainforest Partnership team and technical experts, the community implements the plan. The plan is revised and extended to accommodate new information and new opportunities. The implementation achieves our joint objective–a reliable income for the community while keeping the forest intact.

We believe that building a strong and collaborative workforce is critical to any organization's long-term success. We work as an integrated team in Austin, Peru, and Ecuador. The team in Peru and Ecuador includes the director of projects, community based project coordinators, and technical personnel. Communicating with the team on-the-ground on a regular basis from Austin is critical for the successful implementation of the various project goals and objectives. We use platforms such as Skype and WhatsApp to keep updated on progress and updates on a daily and a weekly basis. We aim to achieve high-impact results while keeping costs low by forming strategic partnerships and leveraging the knowledge and resources of our staff, partner communities, and strategic experts in key program areas.

We follow five defined steps to make sure this happens:

1) Initial Research & Selection: We select our partner communities based on thorough on-the-ground research of the community. We assess the community’s current forms of livelihood, needs and desires, the threats to each rainforest, and the business opportunities inherent in each rainforest.

2) Implementation of Sustainable Production Methods: Our knowledgeable from on-the-ground teams comprised of Rainforest Partnership team members and partner NGOs allows us to provide hands-on training in sustainable production and extraction, starting with community leaders.

(3) Design of individualized business plans: Based on our initial research, we work side-by-side with the community to develop executable business plans. We identify target markets, challenges, marketing strategies, management plans, leadership needs and Rainforest Partnership's exit strategy.

(4) Train Community Leaders and Project Coordinators: We equip key community leaders and project coordinators with business skills through a series of workshops, apprenticeships, and one-on-one guidance from knowledgeable experts and partners.

(5) Measure Our Impact: Long-term change will not occur unless the local population is empowered to protect their own forests. After our initial project evaluation, we coordinate with university partners and community members to utilize a “citizen expert" approach, enabling the local community to be ongoing stewards of their own forests.

We have established multiple projects with rainforest communities in Ecuador and Peru. They have all been successful in our organization's aim to protect tropical rainforests by working with the communities of the forests to develop sustainable livelihoods. Most of our projects are ongoing, some have been completed, and others are in the process of expanding. In the future we will seek to replicate, scale, and amplify our projects in order to have a greater impact on protecting the rainforests and empowering local communities.

Our projects currently cover 68,493 hectares of protected rainforest and support 1,326 people who directly benefit from the generation of income as a result. In addition, nearly 800,000 hectares of forest and over 14,000 people are benefitted indirectly by our projects. These numbers will continue to increase as new projects go live.

Projects: Our work with the women of Sani Isla community in Ecuador helped establish a local income generating activity of artisanal crafts. Previously these women had no source of income, but now they collectively make over $25,000 in craft sails and ecotourism. By empowering the women in this community and establishing a sustainable means of income, they no longer have to consider opening their lands to oil prospecting.

With the Achuar communities in Peru we are in the process of establishing a traditional medicine center to help create a sustainable means of income. With the indigenous Chipaota communities of Peru we helped create the Allima Waska artisan group, which allowed women of the community to produce and market traditional baskets and bags. We also established a sustainable method of harvesting Piassaba palm fibers–previously they were harvested by cutting down the entire tree.

In the Colibri cloudforest of Peru's Selva Central region we have established basic ecotourism in the San Antonio and Calabaza communities. We have also created methods for protecting local wildlife and are in the process of constructing a butterfly sanctuary.

Rainforest Partnership has an international short film challenge, Films for the Forest. Winning films are screened at SXSW in Austin and elsewhere. The annual challenge consists of short film entries about the forests and picked by a panel of celebrity judges.

Protecting tropical rainforests is a highly ambitious goal. It is going to require collaborative global action by individuals, corporations, nation states and local governments and NGOs working at multiple levels to achieve net zero deforestation of these forests.

We at Rainforest Partnership recognize that we have to activate a global network of Rainforest Partners to act at every level for us to reach our lofty goals. To this end, we launched the inaugural World Rainforest Day on June 22, 2017 as a collaborative effort to encourage individual actions in protecting rainforests while highlighting their critical climate regulation role.

See our site https://worldrainforestday.com/