Cool Earth

Cool Earth is dedicated to reducing rainforest destruction through community-based partnerships. To keep the communities they work with fully invested in the process, Cool Earth forgoes outreach and instead lets Indigenous communities make the initial contact. The communities they partner with are poor and face a difficult choice between either saving their forests or selling them to loggers or miners to bring in needed financial resources. According to Cool Earth, “…As these villages link up, they form a shield to make the adjacent forest inaccessible to destruction. Each partner village is helping form a shield for five million acres of pristine rainforest.”

Through knowledge sharing, villages are also learning how to replenish poor quality rainforest soils. They use the Inga tree as a cover for other crops, which gives the village better soil and wood for burning that comes from somewhere besides the rainforest. Food crops are able to be cultivated in the continually improving soil. 

Creating food and income pathways is a regular and major part of Cool Earth’s commitment to their partner communities, and the organization dedicates seven years to achieving success within each one. Since FBB last featured Cool Earth in Q4 2016, they have grown to have an estimated 56,493,779 trees in their 13 partnerships with local communities in South America, Africa, and Southeast Asia.

Cool Earth’s partner communities have been hit hard by COVID-19, and Cool Earth has pivoted its work to focus on relief through a resilience fund supporting local partners in getting urgent food supplies to Indigenous and isolated communities. The organization is working with their partners to distribute soap and PPE, and provide seeds and tools that will help improve food security in the months to come. Funding also supports local businesses, helping people return to work when the pandemic ends. 

FBB is proud to support Cool Earth’s community-led, economically sustainable approach to environmental protection and restoration.