Expanding Impact in Protecting Indigenous Peoples' Rights and Rainforests

Reports

New Report Confirms Climate Impact of Rainforest Foundation US & Indigenous Peoples Collaboration

Indigenous peoples' territories across four countries sequester more than 9.8 Million Metric Tons of CO2e—equivalent to the annual emission of more than 2 million gas vehicles or 1.3 million homes.

New Report Confirms Climate Impact of Rainforest Foundation US & Indigenous Peoples Collaboration

What your support helped achieve in 2024

For over 35 years, Rainforest Foundation US (RFUS) has been protecting rainforests in Latin America in partnership with the forests’ greatest protectors: the Indigenous peoples who call them home. Your support enables RFUS to provide the tools, training, and resources that ensure the rainforests’ best guardians are able to defend their rights and forests. We partner with Indigenous peoples to secure legal recognition of their lands, protect their forests through monitoring, and build strong governance for managing their territories through capacity strengthening.

Our partnership with Indigenous partners advances nature-based carbon sequestration, as forests protected by Indigenous peoples have reduced deforestation and remain strong carbon sinks.

In 2024, RFUS’s work on Indigenous land titling and forest monitoring in Peru, Brazil, Guyana, and Panama supported communities to achieve a net annual carbon sink of 9.8 million metric tons of CO2e1 on their lands—equivalent to the annual emission of more than 2 million gas vehicles or 1.3 million homes.

A map of the impact by country.
Panama: 1.6M acres monitores & 1.1M metric tons of CO2e stored
Guyana: 12.2. acres monitored & 5.5M metric tons of CO2e stored
Peru: 2M acres monitored & 1M metric tons of CO2e stored
Brazil: 4M acres monitored & 2.1M metric tons of CO2e stored

Notes:

  1. Methodology: To calculate the carbon sequestration value of RFUS’s work, we compare the annual carbon loss or gain (carbon flux) within the precise geographic regions where RFUS provides titling, monitoring, and institutional strengthening support. ↩︎

RFUS in the Press

Indigenous women monitor the Peruvian Amazon with the help of technology (Article published in Spanish by Mongabay)

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