Rainforest_Trust
Rainforest Trust
Nonprofit environmental organization
Rainforest Trust is a US-based nonprofit environmental organization focused on the purchase and protection of tropical lands to strategically conserve threatened species.[2] Founded in 1988, Rainforest Trust was formerly known as World Parks Endowment. In 2006, then World Parks Endowment affiliated itself with World Land Trust, a UK-based nonprofit environmental organization, and became World Land Trust-US, as both organizations were dedicated to minimizing their costs in order to allow donated funds to flow to habitat conservation projects on the ground.[3] On September 16, 2013, because of diverging modus operandi, and as part of celebrating the organization's 25th anniversary, the World Land Trust-US changed its name to Rainforest Trust.[4]
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Rainforest Trust supports the purchase of large tracts of land by local NGOs working across tropical Asia, Africa, and Latin America for the purposes of protecting it, in a fashion similar to the Nature Conservancy by making use of land trusts. The organization also seeks to help in-situ conservation measures by providing training, capital and equipment for environmental stewardship in economically impoverished areas.
Most acres are permanently protected for an average of less than $100 per acre. As of 2018, Rainforest Trust has helped protect 20,000,000 acres (81,000 km2) of habitat.[5]
Byron Swift was the CEO of the organization from 1988 until 2012 when Paul Salaman became the CEO. In 2020, James C. Deutsch became the CEO.[6]
Robert S. Ridgely, President Emeritus, is an expert on neotropical birds, on which he has published several books, is a longtime conservationist, and is the co-discoverer of the jocotoco antpitta.