Rainforest Partnership
Rainforest Partnership is an environmental organization based in Austin, Texas, that works to help rainforest communities in Ecuador and Peru become economically self-sufficient, 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.
History
Rainforest Partnership was founded in 2007 by Niyanta Spelman, Hazel Barbour, Jordan Erdos, and Bob Warneke, facilitated by Beth Caplan.In 2008, Rainforest Partnership had established its first major partnership with the community of Chipaota in Peru.
Projects and Activities
Projects
Projects aim to create and support sustainable economic alternatives to deforestation and give local communities a stake in preserving their forests. The mission of a project depends on the nature of the forest and the local community, this includes 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.