Cool Earth in 2015

More Acres than Ever

We kicked off 2015 with the news that Cool Earth supporters had saved half a million acres of rainforest. That total is now over 640,000 acres – thirty times the size of Manhattan. Thanks to you, our partnerships have put more trees out of the reach of loggers than ever before.

MADE WITH LOVE

Cool Earth is hugely proud of the AMARNO cooperative in our Awajún partnership. This group of women are creating artisan jewellery that’s made with love for the forest, using seeds and dyes from plants.

AMARNO used Cool Earth funds for much needed computer training, giving them the skills they need to be able to access new markets and improve their business practices.

A strong village means a safe forest

Tragically, a third of all the families in our Asháninka partnership have seen a child die before the age of five. In March we began working with the women in our partner villages, finding out some of the challenges mothers face, and training them to become maternal health promoters for the wider community. One of the things we realised straight away was that most of the biggest challenges mothers and new babies face are down to malnutrition. So in 2016 we’re going to be focussing on improving nutrition throughout all our partnerships across the globe.

Healthy Forests & Healthy Families

In our Lubutu partnership, 2,000 tonnes of wood are used for fuel every year, which has a big impact on the forest. Not only that, wood fuelled stoves are dangerous to health: globally, household air pollution from cooking fires kills more children every year than AIDS or malaria combined. (Practical Action, 2004.“Smoke: the Killer in the Kitchen”) So in 2015 we trained 164 community members on energy efficient stoves and their installation and the community built 45 stoves. In 2016 we’ll be carrying out a study to see how effective the stoves have been in reducing use of tree wood.

Empowering women in the Awajún

In May we carried out a household survey in our Awajún partnership to see how working with Cool Earth had impacted communities. It had some surprising and very encouraging outcomes. Over the past two years, 92% of AMARNO cooperative members have considerably higher self esteem, 85% of the women’s hopes for the future of their community have improved a lot, and 97% of the women in the cooperative feel empowered. Your support has made a huge difference to these women, and the future of their forest.

An Award Winning Idea

You’re backing an award winning idea. In June Cool Earth picked up the Charity Award for Environment and Conservation. We’ve followed that up with a PEA (People, Environment, Action) award for best International NGO, and a Cornwall Sustainable Business Award, as well as being runner up for Third Sector’s Big Impact award.

Growing the Shield

In July we were excited to announce a new village partnership. Oviri is the latest community to join our Asháninka Partnership in central Peru. The village lies between the steep mountains along the Rio Tambo, a powerful river that joins the Urubamba. Their 16,000 acres – the size of 80 Battersea Parks – has grown our forest shield to secure the northerly extent of the neighbouring reserve. This region is one of the most at-risk areas on the planet. The Ene Valley, where the project is located, currently has 28 logging concessions in operation and terrifyingly, a further 81 are in the process of authorisation. Last year alone, our partner villages were offered five logging contracts.

Hunting Sustainably

As part of every partnership, from Peru to Papua New Guinea, we hold workshops with our partner villages to make sure everyone’s aware of the project and what it’s trying to achieve. In Lubutu, one outcome of these workshops was awareness of the rate of species extinction in the local area. A healthy forest is a bio diverse one, and as a result of the workshops our partner associations decided to stop hunting using 12-gauge shotguns, and the use of toxic products and small-meshed fishing nets on spawning grounds, until July 2018. The community are now using more sustainable methods of hunting and fishing, so families still have access to protein, but with less impact on the forest.

COOL EARTH GOES GLOBAL

In September we launched our most exciting partnership to date: saving rainforest in Papua New Guinea. Our Yakolima partnership is working with three villages in the Milne Bay province in East Papua New Guinea. The launch of this partnership means Cool Earth is now saving rainforest across three continents and in all of the world’s major rainforest biomes. Over a three-year period we’re aiming to achieve zero deforestation within the partnership areas and to double community incomes. We will use exactly the same light touch, community-led approach that has so far shielded five million acres of rainforest from loggers.

100% Rainforest

Hot on the heels of the launch of our new partnership we received an unbelievably generous gift. Thanks to a visionary grant from the Michael Uren Foundation, all our operational costs will be covered until the end of next year. The Foundation was impressed by the simplicity and effectiveness of what we’re doing and wanted to ensure every donation goes directly to saving rainforest. That means that for the whole of 2016, 100% of your donations to Cool Earth will go directly to our rainforest partnerships. It means your support has more impact than ever.

The Queen’s Commonwealth Canopy

November saw the launch of a new initiative to protect forest across the 153 nations that make up the Commonwealth. The Queen’s Commonwealth Canopy has Cool Earth’s model of community-led conservation at its heart. Announced by the Queen herself, it’s an exciting initiative that we’re proud to be leading alongside the Royal Commonwealth Society and the Commonwealth Forestry Association. The Queen’s Commonwealth Canopy will show that, irrespective of geography, economy, culture or tenure, solutions exist to the threats facing these most critical of ecosystems.

Drought Emergency in Papua New Guinea

In December we had bad news from our Yakolima partnership in Papua New Guinea. All three villages were experiencing the worst drought in living memory. A severe El Niño meant the usual rains didn’t fall this year. Vegetable gardens dried out and crops failed. Access to drinking water became difficult, with water wells drying up or becoming saline and communal rainwater storage tanks quickly emptied. Our partners had to travel by dinghy to a neighbouring village to fill tanks with drinking water. While 40,000 delegates in Paris spent hours debating how to prevent global warming, climate change was already threatening lives on the ground. We had an overwhelming response to our emergency appeal which meant that the 67 families in our Yakolima partnership survived a devastating drought. This means they can carry on protecting their forest and keeping the palm oil plantations at bay. In 2016 we want to provide every family with a covered tank to store water safely when the rains return.