Rainforest Foundation US is leading a groundbreaking shift in how we protect our planet’s rainforests. We challenge traditional conservation models that protect nature by excluding people. Since our founding, we have stood in solidarity with those who call the rainforest home.
Supporting Indigenous peoples on the frontlines of rainforest protection is not just an ethical imperative—it is a smart and effective strategy. Deforestation in rainforests safeguarded by Indigenous peoples is significantly lower than even national parks. Indigenous peoples play a vital role in curbing deforestation, which protects biodiversity and slows climate change.
Key priorities drive our work: healthy rainforests, Indigenous peoples’ rights, and climate action. Learn more about each of our priorities.
We believe that to protect and sustain the world’s tropical rainforests we must recognize the rights of the Indigenous peoples who have been responsibly stewarding these forests for millennia. Without secure rights, their very survival hangs in the balance.
RFUS’s territorial monitoring program, called Rainforest Alert, provides training, tools and financial support to Indigenous organizations to map, monitor, and protect their territories using cost effective technology like smartphones and drones.
In addition to our core work in partnership with Indigenous peoples, Rainforest Foundation US undertakes special projects that respond to our partners’ most pressing challenges. Check out our topical initiatives and campaigns.
In an op-ed featured on Mongabay, Miguel Guimaraes Vasquez, Vice President of the Interethnic Association for the Development of the Peruvian Jungle (AIDESEP), and Wendy Pineda, General Project Manager of Rainforest Foundation US in Peru, discuss the importance of land rights for Indigenous peoples and the innovative land titling strategy already yielding record results in Peru.
The city of Iquitos, Peru, hosted an event dedicated to the protection of Amazonian wildlife. Organized by Rainforest Foundation US, the Regional Organization of Indigenous Peoples of the East (ORPIO), and the Regional Organization AIDESEP Ucayali (ORAU), and with financial support from the U.S. Embassy in Peru and the World Resources Institute (WRI), the event brought together a diverse group of 55 participants.
Indigenous peoples are, without question, the most effective stewards of our forests. Now, imagine the transformative power when they have access to advanced tools that amplify their efforts to safeguard their lands.
Check out this interview with Wendy Pineda Ortiz, General Project Manager of our Peru program, to learn how Indigenous peoples in the Peruvian Amazon are leveraging cutting-edge monitoring technology to fight deforestation.
Rainforest Foundation US is tackling the world’s most urgent challenges: biodiversity loss, climate change, and human rights violations. Your donation moves us one step closer to creating a more sustainable and just future.
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Get updates on our recent work and victories, stories from our Indigenous partners, and learn how you can get involved.
Didier Devers
Chief of Party – USAID Guatemala
gro.y1726228861nffr@1726228861sreve1726228861dd1726228861
Didier has been coordinating the USAID-funded B’atz project since joining Rainforest Foundation US in April 2022. He holds a Master’s in Applied Anthropology and a Bachelor’s in Geography. Before joining the organization, Didier worked for 12 years in Central and South America on issues of transparency, legality, governance, and managing stakeholders’ processes in the environmental sector. Prior to that he worked on similar issues in Central Africa. He speaks French, Spanish, and English, and is based in Guatemala.
