Cool Earth exists because right now, the world is in a climate crisis. The most effective way to fight back is to protect the best carbon-storing technology that already exists: rainforest. And the best way to do that? Back, support, and listen to the people living there. Indigenous peoples and local communities have lived in balance with rainforest for thousands of years and are the real rainforest experts. They are people who face extreme injustice whilst living on the front line of the climate crisis. We champion the relationship between people, rainforest and climate. Cool Earth exists to give cash direct to rainforest communities, to fund projects that create choice, tackle the root causes of deforestation and protect vital carbon sinks. This is our mission. To back people, to protect the rainforest and fight the climate crisis.

Cool Earth exists to back people to protect rainforest and fight the climate crisis. Tropical forests have the highest carbon density of all forest types. The destruction of tropical forests accounts for around 18% of global emissions every year. Indigenous people and local communities (IPLCs) who have lived in the rainforest for generations are best placed to protect it. The immeasurable diversity in indigenous knowledge and resilience across the Amazon, and globally, should be embraced, protected and promoted. Despite their crucial role in conserving one of Earth’s most valuable ecosystems, IPLCs face injustices that often leave little choice when it comes to protecting trees or improving the quality of their lives. Cool Earth exists to change this by countering marginalization, securing land rights, and improving health and livelihoods so that IPLCs can continue stewarding the forest as they always have.

Source: Nonprofit submitted responses

Goal One: Cool Earth is embarking on an innovative project to establish a cash transfer programme to provide a basic income to rainforest villages in the Amazon, Congo Basins and New Guinea.

Goal Type: New program(s) based on observed changes in needs among our constituencies/communities served.

Goal Two: Expand the Rainforest Labs project to provide infrastructure, tech, and data to local people so that they can combine their knowledge with tech and continue to protect their livelihoods and forest.

Goal Type: Grow, expand, scale or increase access to the existing programs and services.

Goal Three: To continue to grow the Cool Earth in-country teams in Peru and Papua New Guinea (PNG).

Goal Type: Invest in the capacity of our organization (financial, management, technical, etc.).

Describe an investment in leadership

Introduced a Global Leadership Team of Directors, Heads of Departments and Country Managers of which 83% people identify as women.

This organization mobilizes for mission in the following ways:

• Strategic Partnerships

• Networks of Collective Impact Efforts

• Thought Leadership

• Raising Awareness

• Community Building

What are this organization’s external mobilizaton efforts?

We partner with local NGOs and organisations including: Central Asháninka del Río Ene, Organización Nacional de Mujeres Indígenas Andinas y Amazónicas del Perú, Organisation Ecologique des Lacs et de l’Ogooué, Go Conscious Earth, CCREAD-Cameroon, Cadasta, Rural Water Supply Sanitation Project. June 2022 - Universal Basic Income working group at Bath University, September 2022 - Spoke at the Basic Income Earth Network Congress in Brisbane, Australia, October 2022 - Spoke at FLARE in Rome, November 2022 - Presented at the BOND: Power in Development Conference, November 2022 - the first Cool Earth webinar was held, January 2023 - Guest lecture at the University of Exeter to present Cool Earth’s work on sustainable finance in a climate emergency, January 2023 - Our research collaboration with Callum Sheehan, a Master’s student at the University of Leeds in 2021, is published in Biological Conservation. We post across social media platforms in Spanish and English.

The past year has seemed like a long one. Our partners and teams have had to battle political turbulence, shocking extremes of weather and a post-Covid resumption of forest threats, on top of daily life. It has also been our most successful year, with more rainforest protected and more partnerships than ever before. This is a testament to the communities, staff and our donors who together make Cool Earth what it is. In 2022 we continued to grow the Cool Earth team in Peru and Papua New Guinea (PNG). Our UK team now represents just a quarter of the organisation although it remains the beating heart of our fundraising and operations, and its Queen’s Green Canopy campaign planted no fewer than three million trees. We are delighted to have Tony Juniper, chair of Natural England (formerly of Friends of the Earth and WWF), as our incoming chair. Cool Earth is now evolving to put more control and resources in the hands of local people in Peru, PNG, Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), Gabon and Cameroon. From 2023, providing cash and access to data will underpin every part of Cool Earth’s work, so we can deliver impact for the people we work with and donors that make this work possible. One of our proudest achievements is the trust held in our organisation, with this year marking 15 years with the Asháninka and 10 years with our partners in PNG. New partnerships this year are expected to grow and develop for decades to come. The reason for our persistence is simple. From our own work and an ever-growing global evidence base, it is clearer than ever that the only people with a track record of rainforest conservation are those who live there. When it comes to impact, Cool Earth’s environmental justice approach is the best chance we have of halting the contribution rainforest destruction makes to the climate crisis.