10 STEPS TO SAVING RAINFOREST

Cool Earth’s model is simple and efficient: we believe - and can prove - that the best people to save rainforest are the people who live there. All our projects follow ten simple, sustainable steps.

It’s a process that’s being repeated successfully in Peru, Brazil, the Congo, and from this year, Papua New Guinea.

1. A RAINFOREST VILLAGE APPROACHES COOL EARTH

Cool Earth only works with communities that approach us. This protects the rights of our partners and ensures the decision to partner with Cool Earth has come straight from the community.

2. EVALUATING THE PARTNERSHIP

We only form partnerships to protect community forest. The rainforest must be at-risk and still intact. This is assessed by satellite technology and surveys on the ground. We want to make sure that the community will benefit from our model, so carry out a baseline survey to better understand the socio-economic situation of our partners. This data then underlines our monitoring and evaluation procedures.

3. COMMUNITY ASSOCIATIONS

For a partnership to be struck, the community must elect an association with a President and Treasurer and open a community bank account. The association provides an auditable entity for community consultation and agreement. Training workshops in areas such as running a meeting, accounting and keeping minutes ensure these associations run effectively and work for the benefit of the community as a whole.

4. A FOREST PROTECTION AGREEMENT IS MADE

An agreement is made between the community and Cool Earth that agrees no forest is cleared, the forest remains owned by the community and that Cool Earth funds are spent to benefit the community as a whole.

5. BUILDING BETTER LIVES

The community decides on spending from the very first tranche of Cool Earth funding. The first thing many communities buy is a boat to evacuate medical emergencies and to transport goods and building materials. Communities often also invest in medicines, school supplies and tools for building projects, ensuring that all members of the community benefit from Cool Earth funds. Community members are often employed as local facilitators to be the points of contact with our partner communities, updating us on the latest news and funding expenditure.

6. LIVELIHOODS GROW

Alongside community funding, Cool Earth helps develop local livelihoods to boost community income. This ensures each partnership is sustainable, with communities earning more from the forest than they would otherwise earn from clearing it. This is how our partners become self-sufficient, not dependent.

7. SUCCESS BEGINS TO SHOW

As the income from improved livelihoods increases, the community can afford better healthcare, education and equipment. This is reflected in the socio-economic surveys we carry out to monitor and evaluate how the project is going. As well as increases in school attendance, access to healthcare and improved income generation, we also see social impacts such as improved confidence and empowerment amongst women and more hope for the future amongst the community as a whole. .

8. PROVING IT

To show our donors the impacts that their donations are having we update them on the progress of our projects. We use data from our monitoring and evaluation procedures alongside satellite imagery to produce annual and quarterly reports as well as monthly social packs and online content.

9. THE PROJECT GROWS

As knowledge of Cool Earth spreads by word of mouth, our partner communities’ neighbours approach us too. They can see first hand how our projects work and know that we can be trusted. As the villages link together, they form a shield to protect the forest behind. What starts with one community often blossoms into a partnership with many more.

10. NO LONGER NEEDED

It is our aim to put ourselves out of a job. We fund the development of local income streams so each village partner becomes self-funding. We prioritise improving existing income sources rather than introducing new ones and help establish co-operatives to share production costs. Boosting community income ensures that each of our projects creates strong resilient communities, not dependency.