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Formation | 1988 |
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Type | Non-governmental organization |
95-1622945 | |
Focus | Human rights, environmentalism |
Headquarters | Brooklyn, New York |
Region | Central and South America |
Method | Advocacy, research, field work |
Key people | Trudie Styler and Sting, founders Suzanne Pelletier, Executive Director John W. Copeland, Chair of the Board of Directors |
Website | rainforestfoundation |
Rainforest Foundation US is a non-profit NGO working in Central and South America. It is one of the first international organizations to support the indigenous peoples of the world's rainforests in their efforts to protect their environment and fulfill their rights to land, life and livelihood. [1]
The idea that the indigenous peoples of the world are holders of a specific set of rights and are also the victims of historically unique forms of discrimination is most completely/thoroughly enunciated by the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, adopted by the UN General Assembly in 2007. Rainforest Foundation US works to protect and defend indigenous rights, thereby protecting the rainforests.
The Rainforest Foundation was founded in 1988 by Sting and his wife Trudie Styler after the indigenous leader of the Kayapo people of Brazil, the Chief Raoni made a personal request to them to help his community protect their lands and culture. The Rainforest Foundation's initial project was successful in coordinating the first ever privately funded demarcation of indigenous land in the region – 17,000 square miles of traditional land, the Menkragnoti area, next to Xingu National Park, was demarcated and legally titled to the Kayapo people by the Brazilian government in 1993.
Since then Rainforest Foundation US, along with its sister organizations Rainforest Foundation UK, Rainforest Foundation Norway, and the Rainforest Foundation Fund, have protected a total of 28 million acres of forest in 20 different rainforest countries around the globe. [2]
With its goal of conserving the rainforest, Rainforest Foundation US advocates for the rights of the indigenous inhabitants of the rainforest, by providing project-related grants, capacity-building expertise and direct technical assistance to its local partners on the ground, including indigenous communities and grassroots organizations.
Rainforest Foundation's current work is focused around three main issues: [3]
Rainforest Foundation US is currently funding and collaborating on work in four countries: [3]
The territory of Raposa Serra do Sol, located in the northern Brazilian Amazon, is home to an about 18,000 Macuxi, Wapishana, Ingarikó, Taurepang and Patamona people. For over 30 years these communities have worked together to gain legal recognition of their traditional lands and protection of their rights in the region. They have been opposed by cattle ranchers, rice growers, and others with economic interests in their lands, who have used violence and intimidation against the indigenous peoples to continue their illegal activities. The length of the fight and the severity of the situation, led the Indigenous Council of Roraima (CIR), together with Rainforest Foundation US, to file a petition for help with the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights in 2004. While, In April 2005, the Brazilian government formally recognized the indigenous people's rights to their land in Raposa Serra do Sol, with a decree which called for all illegal non-indigenous settlers to leave the territory some rice-growers refuse to leave and have retaliated violently against indigenous communities, leading to further court cases. In 2009, the Supreme Court of Brazil issued a decision reaffirming the rights of the indigenous peoples in Raposa Serra do Sol, and again mandating the exit of the rice-growers. There is currently a case with the Inter-American Commission on Human rights focusing primarily on violence perpetrated against the community and impunity of those who allegedly committed acts of intimidation including physical violence against the communities. [18] [19] [20]
Rainforest Foundation US is a non-profit organization. The majority of its financing comes from grants from foundations and other non-profit organizations, the Rainforest Fund among them, as well as from individual and corporate donations.
Rainforest Foundation US has worked together with various companies to promote their cause. Such alliances include:
Since 2008, Rainforest Foundation US has received four stars out of four from Charity Navigator, with an efficiency score of 38.93 out of 40. [38] However, from 2002 to 2004 the organization was given zero stars, primarily because only 43–60% of funds during those years were spent on programs on the ground. [39]
The Amazon rainforest, also called Amazon jungle or Amazonia, is a moist broadleaf tropical rainforest in the Amazon biome that covers most of the Amazon basin of South America. This basin encompasses 7,000,000 km2 (2,700,000 sq mi), of which 5,500,000 km2 (2,100,000 sq mi) are covered by the rainforest. This region includes territory belonging to nine nations and 3,344 formally acknowledged indigenous territories.
Terra indígena Raposa/Serra do Sol is an indigenous territory in Brazil, intended to be home to the Macuxi people. It is located in the northern half of the Brazilian state of Roraima and is the largest in that country and one of the world's largest, with an area of 1,743,089 hectares and a perimeter of about 1,000 kilometres (620 mi).
The Fundação Nacional dos Povos Indígenas or FUNAI is a Brazilian governmental protection agency for Amerindian interests and their culture.
Size of Wales is a climate change charity founded with the aim of conserving an area of tropical rainforest the size of Wales. The project currently supports seven forest protection projects and one tree planting project across Africa and South America. The charity focuses upon furthering the promotion of rainforest conservation as a national response to the global issue of climate change.
The Coalition for Rainforest Nations (CfRN) is an intergovernmental organization established by forested tropical countries to collaboratively reconcile forest stewardship with economic development. The Rainforest Coalition aims to bring together both developing and industrialized nations for the purpose of creating community-driven, environmentally sustainable growth.
The Rainforest Foundation Fund is a charitable foundation founded in 1987 and dedicated to drawing attention to rainforests and defending the rights of indigenous peoples living there.
Indigenous people under the nation-state have experienced exclusion and dispossession. With the rise in globalization, material advantages for indigenous populations have diminished. At times, national governments have negotiated natural resources without taking into account whether or not these resources exist on indigenous lands. In this sense for many indigenous populations, the effects of globalization mirror the effects of the conquest in the mid 16th century.
The Paiter, also known as Suruí, Suruí do Jiparaná, and Suruí de Rondônia, are an indigenous people of Brazil, who live in ten villages near the Mato Grosso–Rondônia border. They are farmers, who cultivate coffee.
Fern is a Dutch foundation created in 1995. It is an international Non-Governmental Organization (NGO) set up to keep track of the European Union's (EU) involvement in forests and coordinate NGO activities at the European level. Fern works to protect forests and the rights of people who depend on them.
Colombia loses 2,000 km2 of forest annually to deforestation, according to the United Nations in 2003. Some suggest that this figure is as high as 3,000 km2 due to illegal logging in the region. Deforestation results mainly from logging for timber, small-scale agricultural ranching, mining, development of energy resources such as hydro-electricity, infrastructure, cocaine production, and farming.
The Amazon rainforest, spanning an area of 3,000,000 km2, is the world's largest rainforest. It encompasses the largest and most biodiverse tropical rainforest on the planet, representing over half of all rainforests. The Amazon region includes the territories of nine nations, with Brazil containing the majority (60%), followed by Peru (13%), Colombia (10%), and smaller portions in Venezuela, Ecuador, Bolivia, Guyana, Suriname, and French Guiana.
Amazon Watch is a nonprofit organization founded in 1996, and based in Oakland, California, it works to protect the rainforest and advance the rights of indigenous peoples in the Amazon Basin. It partners with indigenous and environmental organizations in Ecuador, Peru, Colombia and Brazil in campaigns for human rights, corporate accountability and the preservation of the Amazon's ecological systems.
The Rainforest Foundation UK (RFUK) is a non-profit NGO working in Africa and South America. It is one of the first international organizations to support the indigenous peoples of the world's rainforests in their efforts to protect their environment and fulfill their rights to land, life and livelihood. The Foundation aims to protect rainforests by securing the land rights of indigenous peoples and other forest-dependent communities. It also campaigns internationally on issues such as industrial logging, climate change, agricultural expansion and nature conservation.
In Brazil, an indigenous territory or indigenous land is an area inhabited and exclusively possessed by indigenous people. Article 231 of the Brazilian Constitution recognises the inalienable right of indigenous peoples to lands they "traditionally occupy" and automatically confers them permanent possession of these lands. In practice, however, a multi-stage demarcation process is required for a TI to gain full protection, and this has often entailed protracted legal battles. Even after demarcation, TIs are frequently subject to illegal invasions by settlers and mining and logging companies.
Rainforest Foundation Norway (RFN) is a non-governmental organization (NGO) working to protect the world's rainforests and to secure the legal rights of their inhabitants. It is one of the largest rainforest organizations in the world, and collaborates with around 70 local and national environmental, indigenous and human rights organizations in 7 rainforest countries in the Amazon region, Central Africa and Southeast Asia. The organization works to support people in securing their rights and increase people's level of commitment to rainforest protection; to prevent policy and business interests from contributing to the destruction of the rainforest; and to consolidate policy and practice that serve to protect it. RFN engages in advocacy work in key international processes concerning rainforest issues.
Free, prior and informed consent (FPIC) is aimed to establish bottom-up participation and consultation of an indigenous population prior to the beginning of development on ancestral land or using resources in an indigenous population's territory. Indigenous people have a special connection to their land and resources and inhabit one fifth of the earth's surface. Such areas are environmentally rich in both renewable and non-renewable resources. The collective ownership style of most Indigenous Peoples conflicts with the modern global market and its continuous need for resources and land. To protect Indigenous Peoples' rights, international human rights law has created processes and standards to safeguard their way of life and to encourage participation in the decision-making process. One such method is the process of FPIC. There is criticism that many international conventions and treaties require consultation, not consent, which is a much higher threshold. Without the requirement for consent, indigenous people cannot veto government projects and developments in their area that directly affect their lives and cultures. FPIC allows Indigenous Peoples to have the right to self-determination and self-governance in national and local government decision-making processes over projects that concern their lives and resources.
Mount Roraima National Park is a national park in the state of Roraima, northern Brazil.
Joênia Wapichana is the first indigenous lawyer in Brazil and a member of the Wapixana tribe of northern Brazil. After taking a land dispute to the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, Wapixana became the first indigenous lawyer to argue before the Supreme Court of Brazil. She is the current president of the National Commission for the Defense of the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.
REDD+ is a framework to encourage developing countries to reduce emissions and enhance removals of greenhouse gases through a variety of forest management options, and to provide technical and financial support for these efforts. The acronym refers to "reducing emissions from deforestation and forest degradation in developing countries, and the role of conservation, sustainable management of forests, and enhancement of forest carbon stocks in developing countries". REDD+ is a voluntary climate change mitigation framework developed by the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). REDD originally referred to "reducing emissions from deforestation in developing countries", which was the title of the original document on REDD. It was superseded by REDD+ in the Warsaw Framework on REDD-plus negotiations.
The milestone thesis, also known as the time marker or Copacabana thesis, is a legal thesis constructed by a case law based on the judgment of the Raposa Serra do Sol case by the Supreme Federal Court (STF) of Brazil in 2009. In it, the Supreme Court decided that the article of the Constitution which guarantees the usufruct of lands traditionally occupied by Brazilian indigenous people should be interpreted by counting only the lands in possession on 5 October 1988, the date of promulgation of the Constitution.