About The Rainforest Foundation, UK

The Rainforest Foundation is committed to both human rights and the environment. Early attempts at environmental conservation often excluded local populations and sometimes resulted in their forced expulsion from traditional lands.

But now, the participation of indigenous peoples and their knowledge of local ecology is recognised as one of the most effective environmental management tools.

The Rainforest Foundation was one of the earliest organisations to realise this and advocate the involvement of forest communities in the protection of the rainforests.

The charity works in partnership with local organisations and indigenous rainforest communities to assist them in demarcating their traditional territories, securing the legal ownership of their land, establishing community forests, improving their livelihoods through food security and income generation and upholding their basic rights. It also works to improve their capacity to better manage projects and press for positive change in policy within their own countries.

Current funding supports projects in South America (Peru, Venezuela and Guyana) and Africa (Cameroon, Gabon, Democratic Republic of Congo, Republic of Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Central African Republic, Kenya and Madagascar).

Internationally, the charity works to influence and change the policies and practices of governments and international organisations (i.e. European Commission, World Bank) which undermine indigenous peoples' rights and lead to further destruction of the rainforests.

In the UK it produces information and educational resources to further the public's knowledge about rainforests and their indigenous inhabitants, and to encourage people to make a positive difference.

Our history

The Rainforest Foundation was founded in 1989 by the musician Sting and his wife Trudie Styler.

Initially an umbrella organisation called the Rainforest Foundation International, it began because an indigenous leader asked for help.

Trudie and Sting agreed to help, not because they were trying to preserve tribal cultures for the sake of Western sentimentality, but to ensure that indigenous forest people have the right to change as and when they see fit, and to help them benefit from the limited rights granted to them under international law.

Through the Rainforest Foundation, their work in Brazil eventually led to the legal demarcation and protection of an area of tribal rainforest homeland the size of Switzerland. More importantly it was a catalyst, bringing together those concerned with the environment and human rights around the world and indigenous people living in the rainforest to work together.

Their work was as much about real people fighting inequality and repression as it was about saving an important part of our heritage for future generations.

Sting and Trudie left the Board of Trustees of the Rainforest Foundation UK in 2000 to set up the Rainforest Foundation Fund, which independently funds Foundation projects in rainforest regions.

They both continue to be associated as Patrons and follow the development of the charity's work closely.
But despite the work that Trudie, Sting and others have undertaken, loss of the rainforests and violations of human rights of indigenous people and forest dwellers has continued, just as they did in the late 1980s.

In recognition of this continued threat, the Rainforest Foundation International now has four autonomous country offices around the world (United States, Norway, Austria and UK) supporting projects in 12 separate countries spanning South and Central America, Africa and Asia.