Abbreviation RP Type NGO | Formation 2007 Headquarters Austin, Texas | |
Motto Linking People to People for a Sustainable Future Purpose Environmental Protection
Sustainable Development | ||
Rainforest Partnership is a North American non-profit corporation 501(c)(3) based in Austin, Texas that aims to protect tropical rainforests. Its goal is to help rainforest communities become economically self-sufficient without deforestation, while educating communities in the United States about the role rainforests play in climate protection. It serves to link communities located in and around Latin American rainforests with partner communities in the United States.
Contents
History
Rainforest Partnership was founded at the end of 2007 by Niyanta Spelman, Hazel Barbour, Jordan Erdos, and Bob Warneke, facilitated by Beth Caplan. Shortly after the formation of the Texas nonprofit corporation, Rainforest Partnership held its first board meeting. At this board meeting, the new board adopted bylaws and elected the officers: Hazel Barbour as Board Chair after her chance meeting with Niyanta Spelman, Jordan Erdos as Board Secretary, Bob Warneke as Board Treasurer and Niyanta Spelman as an ex-officio member of the board and the executive director. Further connections led to Lucia Eslava, a native Peruvian who currently serves as the Program Coordinator in Peru. By 2008, Rainforest Partnership had established its first major partnership with the community of Chipaota in Peru.
Projects and activities
Projects aim to create and support sustainable economic alternatives to deforestation and give local communities a stake in preserving their forests. Depending on the nature of the forest and the local community, this involves creating a market in the United States for shade grown crops such as acai berries, cacao, or coffee, medicinal plants, palm trees or for crafts made by local artisans. Rainforest Partnership's first project, in Chipaota, Peru, involved creating a sustainable management plan for harvesting piassaba palms from which to make brooms. In some communities, such as Pampa Hermosa, Peru, it is more appropriate to develop plans for sustainable logging and for ecotourism. In protecting cloud forests, as the project in Pampa Hermosa aims to do by introducing alternatives to deforestation, local communities are faced with a "win-win" situation according to Ken Young of UT Austin's Geography department. Animals and wildlife are protected while the needs of local people go unharmed. Through a bottom up approach, Rainforest Partnership matches economic development choices to the needs and desires, culture, knowledge, and skills of local communities, and to the opportunities presented by each individual rainforest. The organization functions on a "collective model" in which "much depends on the active consent and ideas of the Latin American partners" describes Michael Barnes of the Austin American-Statesman.
On May 13, 2010, Rainforest Partnership held a short film competition titled "Films for the Forest" and the films had to be between 30 seconds to three minutes long, along with featuring the theme of "The tree and I". The films held in the competition were sent from around the world, including "countries as far away as Brazil, Italy and India". The judges for the competition were Richard Linklater, Lisa McWilliams, Michel Scott, and Evan Smith.
Rainforest Partnership has been featured in multiple local media outlets including the Austin American-Statesman's online counterpart, Austin360.com, listener-supported public radio station KUT, and local news station News 8 YNN Austin. Further articles have appeared in The Austin Chronicle, an alternative weekly newspaper published on Thursdays in Austin.