| Rainforest Trust | |
| Formation: | [1] |
| Founding Location: | New York |
| Vat Id: | (for European organizations) --> |
| Headquarters: | Warrenton, Virginia, United States |
| Owners: | --> |
| Board Of Directors: | Dr. Eric Veach (Board Chair) Edith McBean (Board Vice-Chair) |
| Key People: | James C. Deutsch (CEO) |
| Revenue: | $24.1 million |
| Revenue Year: | 2019 |
| Expenses: | $20.6 million |
| Expenses Year: | 2019 |
| Formerly: |
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Rainforest Trust is a US-based nonprofit environmental organization focused on the purchase and protection of tropical lands to strategically conserve threatened species.[2] Founded in 1988, Rainforest Trust was formerly known as World Parks Endowment. In 2006, then World Parks Endowment affiliated itself with World Land Trust, a UK-based nonprofit environmental organization, and became World Land Trust-US, as both organizations were dedicated to minimizing their costs in order to allow donated funds to flow to habitat conservation projects on the ground.[3] On September 16, 2013, because of diverging modus operandi, and as part of celebrating the organization's 25th anniversary, the World Land Trust-US changed its name to Rainforest Trust.[4]
Rainforest Trust supports the purchase of large tracts of land by local NGOs working across tropical Asia, Africa, and Latin America for the purposes of protecting it, in a fashion similar to the Nature Conservancy by making use of land trusts. The organization also seeks to help in-situ conservation measures by providing training, capital and equipment for environmental stewardship in economically impoverished areas.
Most acres are permanently protected for an average of less than $100 per acre. As of 2018, Rainforest Trust has helped protect 20000000acres of habitat.[5]
Byron Swift was the CEO of the organization from 1988 until 2012 when Paul Salaman became the CEO. In 2020, James C. Deutsch became the CEO.[6]
Robert S. Ridgely, President Emeritus, is an expert on neotropical birds, on which he has published several books, is a longtime conservationist, and is the co-discoverer of the jocotoco antpitta.