onboard.earth have been working with the Rainforest Trust since 2020, in that time we’ve channelled donations to help them protect over 16,900 acres of threatened rainforest in projects all around the world.
In 2022 alone, donations helped to protect over 3,800 acres through their climate action fund which focuses on protecting areas of forest that store and sequester vast quantities of carbon to help in the fight against climate change as well as preserving the natural environment for the many endangered creatures that make these rainforests home. You can take a rare glimpse into the unseen lives of some of these wild animals in their natural habitat via the Rainforest Trust’s trail camera footage from projects around the world:
The Climate Action Fund works with local partners to support projects in three categories:
Frontier Forests: These forests massively reduce carbon emissions in the immediate future because they protect forest in imminent danger of destruction—a so-called “frontier” providing a protective barrier, keeping dense forest intact.
Super-Sequesterers: Forests inundated by water are particularly efficient sequesterers because the water blocks the oxygen required for carbon-releasing decomposition. These include flooded forests, swamp forests, peat forests and mangroves.
Carbon Vaults: These forests lock up carbon in large, tall, intact hardwood forests in perpetuity for a reasonable cost. These large trees store vast amounts of carbon in their wood, roots and soil, preventing huge amounts of carbon from being released.
“Our partnership with onboard.earth helps events fund the protection of tropical forests which cost-effectively store and sequester vast quantities of carbon. This includes established old-growth forests; frontier forests on the edge of the deforestation line; and ecosystems known to sequester high amounts of carbon” Rainforest Trust UK
Rainforest Protection and Climate Change
Tropical deforestation accounts for up to 15% of net global carbon emissions each year – the same as every car, truck, bus, plane, ship and train on the planet. Safeguarding existing rainforests is one of the most efficient and cost-effective ways an individual can fight climate change, as every acre safely stores over 100 tonnes of carbon that could otherwise enter the atmosphere as the greenhouse gas CO2. Studies have shown that halting tropical deforestation and allowing for regrowth could mitigate up to 50% of net global carbon emissions in the next 30 years – yet rainforests are still being cut down at a rate of 70,000 acres a day. And as well as storing billions of tonnes of carbon, the world’s rainforests produce 20% of the planet’s oxygen, stabilise global weather patterns, provide habitat for thousands of endangered species and sustain the livelihoods of millions of indigenous people. In short, we can’t really live without them. (Source: Rainforest Trust).
Find out more about The Rainforest Trust and onboard.earth’s Trees+ programme.