Cool Earth is a UK-based international NGO
that protects endangered rainforest in order
to combat global warming, protect ecosystems
and to provide employment for local people.The
organisation receives its income through business
partnerships, trust funds and individual contributions
from over 50,000 sponsors in order to secure
specific tracts of endangered rainforest.
Through the Cool Earth website, an individual
can donate to support rainforest and indigenous
communities to protect their rainforest.
Less than 10% of Cool Earth's supporter income
is spent on administration.In 2015, it was
named Charity of the Year in its category
at the Civil Society Media Charity Awards
and best International NGO at the PEA Awards.
It is supported by various celebrities including
Professor James Lovelock, Dame Vivienne Westwood,
Kelly Hoppen, Ricky Gervais, and Sir David
Attenborough.
== History ==
Cool Earth was founded in 2007 by entrepreneur
Johan Eliasch and MP Frank Field out of their
common interest in protecting the rainforest.
They argued that it was unacceptable that
the 20% of carbon emissions created by tropical
deforestation were ignored by the Kyoto protocol
and that urgent, direct action was needed
to put a stop to deforestation, lest it take
up to twenty years to get an idea adopted
by the political bureaucracy.
== Activities ==
Cool Earth's ethos is that the most effective
custodians of rainforests are the people who
have lived there for generations as they have
the most to lose from its destruction.
Their approach is to work with indigenous
and rainforest-based communities to secure
threatened rainforest that, within 18 months
or less, would otherwise be sold to loggers
and ranchers.
The charity provides local people with the
support they need to get income from the forest
without cutting it down so that the forest
is worth more intact.
This is done by concentrating on three key
areas, these are:
Forest Protection
Income Generation
Partner SupportThe provision of resources
for these areas enables the building of sustainable
livelihoods, better schools, better clinics
and the empowerment of partner villages to
monitor their forest and secure it from illegal
logging.
This basic model used by Cool Earth has been
described as "simple but so intelligent" by
the Times journalist Deborah Ross.
The charity is currently working alongside
118 rainforest villages in Peru, the Democratic
Republic of the Congo and Papua New Guinea
and previously worked with communities in
Brazil and Ecuador, so far helping to protect
over 500,000 acres of forest.
The charity argues that to be selected each
project must fulfill the following criteria:
They are located where rainforest is immediately
threatened by human activities like logging
and cattle ranching;
Their location or their conservation acts
as a protective blockade for the forest beyond
them, ensuring optimum protection of forests;
They are mature rainforests with high levels
of biodiversity.In Peru the charity is working
with two indigenous communities at the frontline
of deforestation, the Ashaninka and the Awajún.
Cool Earth has been partnered with villages
in the Asháninka community since 2008, after
they contacted the charity desperate to be
able to turn loggers away despite living below
the poverty line.
The project has expanded to 14 other Asháninka
villages and the support from Cool Earth has
enabled the villages to carry out activities
such as strengthen register community associations,
demarcate their community borders, carry out
voluntary patrols, enable emergency evacuations,
establish a cacao and coffee producers association,
provide mosquito nets for every villager,
build medical outposts and improve primary
schools.
The partnership with the Awajún villages
in Northern Peru, near the Ecuadorian border
is aiming to protect 56,000 acres of forest.
The key activities being supported are the
development of cacao production, fish farms
and traditional jewellery.
The jewellery producers use seeds harvested
from the rainforest and their work has inspired
Vivienne Westwood’s Gold Label Collection
and featured in her Paris fashion show.In
the Democratic Republic of the Congo, the
charity has been working since 2014 with five
rainforest villages in the remote province
of Maniema.
Here civil war has resulted in the people
living in extreme poverty.
So far Cool Earth has helped improve the villages
rights over their forest through training
of local people in GPS mapping and plotting
600,000 acres of community forest.Cool Earth's
youngest project is in Papua New Guinea and
was launched in September 2015.
It is working with three indigenous and rainforest
coastal villages on the edge of the palm plantation
frontier.
They are aiming to build sustainable livelihoods
to enable the villagers to halt the advance
of the palm plantations from the east and
protect the pristine rainforest behind.Cool
Earth is one of three bodies supporting The
Queen's Commonwealth Canopy, a project launched
in 2015 to preserve and promote forested areas
throughout the Commonwealth.
== Recognition ==
Cool Earth is supported by notable people
and organisations including Professor James
Lovelock, Dame Vivienne Westwood, Pamela Anderson,
Ricky Gervais, Sir David Attenborough, Lily
Cole, Kate Moss, Sadie Frost, Stella Tennant,
Ian Hislop, Professor Lord Stern, Tracy Chevalier,
Jo Brand, Philip Pullman, Dr Tony Juniper,
Kelly Hoppen, Leah Wood, Nick Baker and Dr
John Hemming.
In 2015, it was named Charity of the Year
in its category at the Civil Society Media
Charity Awards and best International NGO
at the PEA Awards.In 2016, a detailed external
evaluation of Cool Earth was undertaken by
"Giving What We Can" which found Cool Earth
to be the most cost-effective charity working
on mitigating climate change through direct
action.
The report concluded: "Cool Earth is overall
the most cost-effective climate change charity
which can reliably reduce emissions without
risk."
== Criticism ==
The Brazilian TV show Fantástico accused
Cool Earth of buying up rainforest land.
Three points of correction were provided to
the Guardian at the time of publication highlighting
the article's factual errors relating to how
Cool Earth operates:
"Every single Cool Earth partnership adheres
to all local regulations.
In addition, Cool Earth insists upon full
financial transparency in every dealing with
community associations."
"All of Cool Earth's partnerships establish
Free Prior and Informed Consent well beyond
the recommendations of the UN's Indigenous
and Tribal Peoples Convention."
"The logging concession that was acquired
and closed down by Johan Eliasch in order
to protect an area of Brazilian rainforest
has no link whatsoever with Cool Earth and
predates the founding of the charity."The
corrections also clarified that Cool Earth
never has and never will acquire rainforest,
instead providing grant funding and technical
support to communities wanting to protect
their rainforest.
The charity states that sponsoring rainforest
is not the same as buying it and that donated
money goes toward helping local communities
protect rainforest land.
A column in the Guardian concluded that "The
reality is that the organisation could not
buy up the Amazon, even if it wanted to, since
much of it is already in public hands
