The team behind Rainforest2Reef. Rainforest2Reef was founded by a Silicon Valley venture capitalist, a Bay Area orthodontist, an award-winning wildlife biologist, and a prominent Mexican environmental lawyer. You can read the story of our founding here.

How Rainforest2Reef’s approach is different. Traditional international conservation models usually focus on an area’s natural resources while leaving local communities out of the equation. These models are frequently socially and environmentally unsustainable because they provide no economic alternatives to local communities. When the needs of these communities are ignored, squatting and wildlife poaching almost inevitably follow. By working with local communities and promoting environmentally friendly business opportunities, Rainforest2Reef has created a more effective, economically viable approach to conserving wildlife and rainforest habitat.

How it works. Rainforest2Reef works with ejidos – local communities who collectively own land within the rainforest – to develop new solutions that are both economically viable and eco-friendly. Rather than purchasing the rainforest land outright from the ejidos, Rainforest2Reef signs binding long-term conservation lease agreements with the ejiditarios. By offering a long-term lease with a yearly payment rather than a one time lump sum, Rainforest2Reef provides an ongoing economic alternative to selling logging rights, engaging in slash and burn agriculture or turning to illegal hunting. Ejiditarios are paid the equivalent of what they would get from a logging company plus additional pay for pro-active rainforest conservation activities. 

Why the Selva Maya rainforest is so important. The great Selva Maya Rainforest is the second largest rainforest in the Americas after the Amazon and a critical biological corridor for many species. The jaguar is a key example. After losing two thirds of their habitat in Mexico and Central America, the Calakmul Biosphere Reserve within the Selva Maya rainforest is one of the last places in Latin America where the jaguar can maintain a viable population. There are also 350 species of birds that either inhabit or migrate through the Corridor, which is 33% of all bird species in Mexico. Of the tens of thousands of other species that live within the area, nearly 160 are endangered.

What we’ve accomplished. In just seven years, Rainforest2Reef has signed agreements on more than 300,000 acres of previously unprotected rainforest and achieved our original goal of signing conservation contracts on all unprotected land within the Calakmul Biosphere Reserve.

Due to this phenomenal success, Rainforest2Reef has recently expanded our mission to include the protection of a larger biological corridor within the Mesoamerican hotspot – the area extending from the Calakmul Biosphere Reserve, to the Sian Ka’an Biosphere Reserve, to the Mesoamerican Reef. In the coming years, Rainforest2Reef plans not only to protect but also to help heal this vital biological corridor though reforestation.