Our Vision
A world where the rights
of Indigenous peoples are respected and rainforests flourish.
Our Purpose
Our purpose is to support Indigenous and traditional peoples of the world’s rainforests in their efforts to protect their environment and uphold their rights by assisting them in:
- Securing and controlling the natural resources necessary for their long term well being and managing these resources in ways which do not harm their environment, violate their culture or compromise their future; and
- Developing the means to protect their individual and collective rights and to obtain, shape and control basic services from the state.
Rainforest Foundation founder Sting with Raoni Metuktire, Chief of the Megranoti-Kayapo people, Xingu Indigenous Territory, Brazil, in November 1990. • Credit: Sue Cunningham
Our History
In 1988, Chief Raoni of Brazil’s Indigenous Kayapo people asked Sting and Trudie Styler to support the Kayapo—to protect their traditional lands and culture.
Sting and Trudie established Rainforest Foundation shortly after this historic meeting, and spent the organization’s formative years fighting for the Kayapo peoples’ land rights. The collaboration led to a historic success in 1993: the legal recognition and protection of over 12 million acres (4.9 million hectares) of Menkragnoti Territory, the ancestral lands of the Kayapo. 


This foundation of collaboration and respect has been at the core of Rainforest Foundation US’s (RFUS) work. From 1994, RFUS continued expanding its land rights, rainforest protection, and institutional strengthening programs, and now works with Indigenous peoples and communities in other regions of Brazil and throughout the Amazon, Central America, and Mexico.
Rainforest Foundation founder Sting with Raoni Metuktire, Chief of the Megranoti-Kayapo people, Xingu Indigenous Territory, Brazil, in November 1990. • Credit: Sue Cunningham
The Rainforest Foundation Family
There are three national sister organizations, based in the United States, Norway, and the United Kingdom.
All three share the same purpose and vision, and each specializes in different geographies: Rainforest Foundation US works in Central and South America, Rainforest Foundation UK works mostly in the Congo Basin, and Rainforest Foundation Norway operates in across the tropical belt. Today, the three organizations combined comprise the biggest NGO working on rights-based forest protection worldwide.
