In November 2020, Rainforest Trust, one of onboard.earth’s three project partners for our Trees+ climate solutions programme, joined an international coalition of conservation groups urgently working together to protect a pristine rainforest in Belize. This large intact tract of Maya Forest was under imminent threat from clear-cutting to convert it to agricultural lands.
At 260,000 acres, this was the single largest, and perhaps most urgent, purchase in Rainforest Trust’s history, yet due to the nature of the negotiations it had to be completely confidential.
This project is a shining example of why travel carbon balancing donations to onboard.earth go to support Rainforest Trust’s Conservation Action Fund: to enable swift conservation action when and where it is needed most. Find out more about our Trees+ partners here.
In spite of the confidentiality and short timeline, the land was successfully purchased in time because of the Conservation Action Fund. The purchase will put a stop to the looming threats from commercial agriculture, narco-traffickers, loggers and profiteers who wanted to harvest rich rewards from this rainforest and leave nothing behind.
Now this forest – the second largest intact rainforest in the Americas, one of the world’s most important places for mammal conservation, storage for billions of tonnes of carbon and the site of irreplaceable indigenous archaeological sites – is protected forever.
Read more in The Guardian
Photo credit: Sylvie Macle for The Rainforest Trust