Rainforest Partnership

“The 990 instructions state "Enter the number, as of the end of the organization's tax year, of members of the governing body of the organization with power to vote on all matters that come before the governing body (other than when a conflict of interest disqualifies the member from voting)." At the end of the tax year, the governing body comprised of five members. Three of the board members listed in Part VII transitioned out of their positions during the year.”

“An amended Conflict of Interest Policy was reviewed and approved by the Board of Directors on November 9, 2023.”

“Rainforest Partnership has no governing committees with authority to act on behalf of the governing body.”

“The Chief Executive Officer, Chief Business Officer, and designated team members review financial accounting inputs for expenses and revenue, such as contributions and in-kind, before conducting a reconciliation and producing the final year-end reports used for the financial statements and thereafter Form 990. Information for the Form 990 is reviewed by the CEO, Chief Business Officer, and Board Treasurer before being shared with the Board of Directors. Once all relevant parties have reviewed and provided feedback, the Form 990 is submitted to the IRS.”

“Any potential conflict of interest is required to be disclosed. All Board members and key team members receive the Conflict of Interest policy and submit Conflict of Interest forms, and are required to review the policy and resubmit the form annually.”

“The Board of Directors approves compensation after careful review. The process for determining compensation includes a review of comparability data followed by deliberation by the Board of Directors as part of the annual budget adoption. (The CEO does not vote on the budget adoption as per Rainforest Partnership's bylaws)”

“Governing documents, Conflict of Interest policy, and financial statements are available to members of the public upon request. Financial documents are also available on our website and Candid.”

“It took a team of 7 board members and 8 advisors, 3 executives, and a compensated team of 12 globally distributed members and 8 in-country team members, along with 77 dedicated volunteers and interns based all over the world that contributed over 6,000 hours totaling to $444,303.20 worth of in-kind services, helping us create outsized impact in rainforest conservation.”

“[STANDING FOREST PROTECTION WITH INDIGENOUS AND LOCAL COMMUNITIES] Our conservation strategy in Ecuador centers community, partnership, indigenous leadership, empowerment, and economic opportunity as critical tools to protect Ecuador's critically important tropical forests and vast biodiversity. The strategy includes several diverse projects, including: (1) Protecting threatened areas of the Ecuadorian Chocó-Andino region by creating a conservation corridor/network of protected areas with cohesive conservation management plans; (2) Building economic independence with indigenous communities and women in particular by creating sustainable income sources so they have the resources and resilience to resist pressures from extractive industries and prevent deforestation, contamination, and harm to community land, health, and livelihoods; (3) Supporting communities' access to key resources and training to strengthen their capacities to conserve their forests and biodiversity, restore degraded forest, and protect their land from illegal extractive activities; (4) Training National Park Rangers in butterfly monitoring and biodiversity research in partnership with Universities and National Parks to strengthen capacities of Ecuador's protected areas to monitor and conserve biodiversity; and (5) Creating empowerment, educational, and economic opportunities in indigenous communities focused on women and young people who are both key groups in leading communities to deny oil companies entry to their land. [RIO NAPO PROJECTS] Women-led associations organizing sustainable bio-enterprises for economic stability and independence in five Kichwa communities (1) Hatun Urku: ASOCIACIÓN DE MUJERES URKU SISA WARMI; (2) Munditi Urku: GRUPO DE MUJERES MUNDI WARMIS; (3) Isla Flor Amazonico: ASOCIACIÓN AYLLU KAWAY; (4) Sani Isla: SANI WARMI; (5) Flor de Pantano: PROYECTO TURÍSTICO AMARUN YAYA. This project builds long-term economic resilience for strengthened community capacities to conserve and protect their 149,500+ acres of community-owned forest. In 2023, we continued and expanded an ongoing sustainable aquaculture project in partnership with the women's associations and Ecuadorian NGO Centro Lianas, conducting monthly field visits, meetings, trainings, and monitoring and providing technical support and materials; after three rounds of introducing the native fish to the ponds, the women began to eat and sell the cachama fish, improving food security and providing a new, growing source of income. With continued technical assistance, training and guidance, these aquaculture projects will grow and provide increasingly successful sources of food and income for the participating women and their families. We also organized several training opportunities for the women on other topics such as leadership, culinary techniques for ecotourism, and sustainable agroforestry and beekeeping. In addition to the women's projects, we continued to support the growth of the Youth Association in Sani Isla, called Mushuk Ñanpitak Pascachik Wanrakuna or in Spanish, Jóvenes que abren nuevos Caminos (Youth who open new paths), which we helped establish the previous year. The organization began building a Youth Empowerment Center where they will host events, training and capacity building opportunities, and youth exchanges to inspire and empower other young people in communities in the region. We organized many capacity building workshops and educational activities with the youth including exchanges where they visited other youth-led projects in Ecuador on topics from sustainable entrepreneurship to climate change and the history of community-led resistance to oil companies in Sani Isla. All these activities gave our partners new tools and skills that they will use to expand and strengthen their projects, communities, and conservation efforts.”

“[BIODIVERSITY RESEARCH AND CONSERVATION] In 2023, we deepened the scientific knowledge about critical and highly threatened Tropical Andes landscapes through exciting scientific research and species discoveries and trained Park Rangers in Yasuni National Park and Cuyabeno Wildlife Reserve in the Ecuadorian Amazon. In Ecuador,, we successfully replicated the pilot project previously established in Yasuní National Park in Cuyabeno Wildlife Reserve, providing a second success story and model that we will replicate in National Parks across Ecuador to train more park rangers in butterfly and biodiversity monitoring, conservation science, research, and conservation techniques. We provided equipment and ongoing training to park rangers from both sites to strengthen their skills, knowledge, and capacities to produce critical research about the health of butterflies and biodiversity in and around National Parks. We also reinforced training done with park rangers in Yasuní National Park, and led workshops that strengthened park rangers' science and research skills to be able to produce data and scientific results/papers independently. Specific activities included: workshops with 15 Cuyabeno park rangers on the basics of butterfly monitoring, species identification, the importance of conducting long term research for biodiversity and conservation, data entry, basic database analysis and report writing, setting up 32 traps/16 bait stations at two sites, one on the park's border and mainland forest to compare ecosystems' diversity; Workshops in Quito with Cuyabeno park rangers visiting four natural history and science museums in Quito to see how they operate, their importance, and specifically, learning how we process the butterfly specimens they are collecting in the field, and practicing data entry, report writing, and data analysis; Workshops with previously trained park rangers from Yasuní in species identification, scientific writing, data analysis, and other key skills; Workshop supporting Yasuní park rangers working on their 2nd scientific article; Development of butterfly-related environmental education materials (games, posters, puzzles). In Peru, we led four research expeditions in the fragmented, threatened, and highly biodiverse cloudforests of Cutervo National Park, Cañaris, and Pagaibamba protected forest. We studied an impressive range of incredibly diverse amphibian species, producing data from places that have never been studied before. This and previous research also led to published or to-be-published discoveries of four frog and lizard species. We discovered 10 potential new species between Cutervo, Pagaibamba and Kañaris and 5 new species in Pampa del Burro in partnership with CEPF and CORBIDI, and submitted two articles to scientific journals in which we formally described 4 species new to science: two lizards of the genus Enyaliodes discovered in the Cordillera de Colan, and two frogs of the genus Prstimantis, discovered in the relict forests of Cañaris. We also led two amphibian and reptile-focused environmental education initiatives, collaborating with a) CEPF and the National University Toribio Rodriguez de Mendoza in Chahapoyas on a course on biodiversity research techniques and monitoring of Andean amphibians and b) a school in the Perla del Imaza community, who are the owners of the Pampa del Burro private conservation area, to teach local people about the amphibians and reptiles that live on their land and inspiring them to protect these creatures and their habitats. Finally, we began developing the "Frogs of Peru Portal," a public database of Peru's amphibians, providing extensive information and in-depth, verified data to researchers, conservation stakeholders, and anyone interested in amphibians and biodiversity conservation. Specific activities in Peru included: four research expeditions in threatened cloudforests in Peru, recording and studying rare, threatened, or undiscovered species ; Formal descriptio”

“[GLOBAL ACTIVATION INITIATIVES] - [FILMS FOR THE FOREST] Films for the Forest (F3) is an annual juried short film collection that uses the power of creative storytelling through the medium of film to convene, empower, and activate global audiences to take action on behalf of the world's forests. Launched by Rainforest Partnership in 2010, Films for the Forest invites filmmakers from around the world to share the voices and stories of forests worldwide, highlighting their rich biodiversity and diverse communities, their immense beauty and importance to the entire planet, the threats they face, and the opportunities for renewal. The theme for the 2023 competition was Living Forests. Thriving Future. and challenges filmmakers to highlight the urgent need for collective action in the face of climate change, and to showcase the value of healthy, standing forests for the future of humanity and every life form on the planet. In 2023 we received 83 film submissions in 5 categories, from 26 countries. The 2023 judges panel comprises four talented individuals from the film, TV, and music industries. Each brings a unique perspective and commitment to the visual stories of the rainforest: Richard Linklater - American Director and screenwriter; Iwan Rheon - Welch actor and musician; Calum Worthy - Canadian actor and activist; Brenda Asnicar - Argentinian actress, singer, model, and dancer. We screened 10 powerful stories, which constituted our 100-minute feature reel, during the 2023 World Rainforest Day Summit on June 22, reaching over 1000 people on all the platforms. [WORLD RAINFOREST DAY] June 22 marked the seventh World Rainforest Day where celebrations took place around the world: zoos and museums, parks and recreational spaces, nonprofit organizations and for-profit companies hosted events to spotlight climate-critical rainforests and amplify their own commitment to the protection of these vital ecosystems. At the forefront of this global movement was Rainforest Partnership, the founding organization behind World Rainforest Day. We hosted the third annual World Rainforest Day Summit, a virtual event offering knowledge exchange and community building designed to highlight solutions for rainforest protection and drive holistic, unified actions around the world. The Summit ran for two days, with registrants from 77 countries and over 30 organizations taking part in events revolving around our 2023 theme: Conserve. Restore. Regenerate. Panel discussions and networking sessions focused on the need to assist the recovery of ecosystems that have been degraded or destroyed, while conserving those that are still intact, with a special emphasis on the interplay between new & emerging solutions and local & indigenous knowledge and practices. Participants left equipped with new knowledge, connections, and project opportunities to help us meet global climate goals and end deforestation by 2030. [RAINFOREST COLLECTIVE] Rainforest Collective is convened and led by Rainforest Partnership's CEO, Niyanta Spelman. The core team comprises Niyanta and four other heads of respected and experienced environmental organizations. Its mission is to spark exponential growth for high-impact, indigenous and local-led rainforest conservation efforts on unprecedented scales by facilitating global collaboration. To accelerate high impact conservation work on the ground, Rainforest Collective will create an instrument that channels funding directly to community-based, direct work that uplifts indigenous peoples and prioritizes impact that lasts over time. This instrument will upend the current inefficient and siloed funding landscape for forest conservation to leverage funding as efficiently as possible and exponentially maximize impact for forests and climate. By advocating collectively as one diverse, global, united voice, Rainforest Collective will also target global socioeconomic drivers of deforestation which incentivize, reward, and perpetuate deforestation wo”

“The loans were provided at a zero percent interest rate and includes a deferred expense reimbursement totaling $9,964.48.”

“Total liabilities include EIDL loans and other loans that allowed Rainforest Partnership to continue it's mission to protect and regenerate tropical rainforests in 2021 and 2022. 2023 was a momentous year for Rainforest Partnership, though it was not without its challenges. As the world (including donors) transitioned out of the pandemic, we confronted delays in major gifts, and a nonfulfillment of a publicly announced $1 M pledge; this severely affected our overall 2023 revenue. Through it all, we remain resilient, persistent and unwavering, for our forests and our planet.”