The majority of rainforest at risk of destruction in Latin America lies in private hands. For example, four of the Latin American hotspots - including the Chocó-Darien of western Ecuador and Colombia, the Atlantic Forest of Brazil are estimated to be more than 80% private lands. Sadly, there are few restrictions on deforestation and even less enforcement on private lands.

Consider, for example, the Atlantic rainforests of Brazil:

• · A megadiverse region with extraordinary concentrations of endemic mammals, amphibians, birds, and other groups;
• · A region of exceptionally important for global biodiversity conservation;
• · However, less than 8% of the original forest remains today;
• · Less than 3% is currently protected;
• · More than 95% percent of the remaining unprotected habitat of the Atlantic Forest lies in private hands;

This example clearly shows that the only way to protect what is left of this region is through securing private lands to both establish new protected areas and expand existing ones, such as around national parks.

How We Buy and Protect Rainforest

WLT-US believes that the key to being successful at securing private lands is to work through locally-based conservation organizations, that negotiate, acquire and manage private lands.

We carefully select our partners to ensure they are legally constituted non-profits, with good governance, an experienced staff familiar with the local situation, and have the highest legal and ethical insight. These groups exist and have been very successful to date at securing land. The limiting factor, however, is access to donor funds.

WLT-US' goal is to secure the funds necessary to allow local organizations to fulfill their mission - to purchase and manage critical lands for biodiversity conservation. Also, WLT-US helps build the capacity of local groups by providing recommendations and bolstering their staff and infrastructure.

WLT-US monitors each project through regular reporting from local partners, so that we can ensure donors their funds are achieving the greatest conservation results.

By working exclusively through local conservation organizations, WLT-US is able to keep the size of our own staff and overhead costs extremely low and therefore direct 96% of your donated funds to buying and protecting rainforests.