Sky Rainforest Rescue
Help WWF and Sky save a billion trees in the Amazon
WWF has joined forces with Sky for an exciting new campaign to help protect part of the Amazon rainforest in Brazil. Our target is to safeguard a billion trees, covering an area about the size of Belgium.
The Sky Rainforest Rescue project is based in the state of Acre in western Brazil. It will work with local communities – including indigenous people, rubber tappers and farmers – providing them with economic incentives to look after three million hectares of forest.
The environmental importance of the world’s vast tropical rainforests is well known – both in terms of species diversity and regulating the global climate. This project aims to provide financial backing to the cause, to reinforce the view that it’s worth more to conserve trees than cut them down.
To achieve this, Sky Rainforest Rescue will financially reward local communities, including support for community enterprises, for their role in forest conservation. The project will also enhance Acre’s monitoring capabilities against threats facing the forests including illegal logging and forest clearance as well helping local producers to secure fair prices and find new market opportunities for sustainable goods.
Just £10 could help save 500 trees in the Amazon, along with the endangered animals that live there. Your donation could make all the difference.
Helping people and wildlife
The Amazon is home to millions of unique and wonderful animals, including howler monkeys, scarlet macaws, harpy eagles and giant otters. Many species are particularly rare and threatened, like the jaguar, three-toed sloth, manatee, yellow-spotted sideneck turtle, pink river dolphin and black caiman (a river alligator).
The forest is also a vital source of food, shelter and livelihoods for almost all the 30 million people who live in the region. The state of Acre itself is a well known producer and exporter of rubber and Brazil nuts
Helping the fight against climate change
Deforestation is responsible for around 15% of the world’s greenhouse gas emissions – that’s comparable with all cars, planes and ships put together. Tackling forest loss must play an important part in how we fight global warming.
In the decade leading up to 2005, Acre lost around 60,000 hectares (an area twice the size of London) of forest every year. This is estimated to have generated around 22 million tons of CO2 emissions each year.
The Amazon on the big screen
Sky will be raising awareness about the campaign with their TV customers over the next three years. This kicked off with a week-long series of Amazon-themed programmes across Sky channels starting on 26 October 2009.
The schedule, covering the main Sky channels and Nat Geo Wild, included a daily instalment of the Final chance to Save series, fronted by celebrities such as Bill Bailey, Sanjeev Bhaskar, Griff Rhys Jones and Vic Reeves. Other shows included the Children of the Amazon documentary, environmental episodes of The Simpsons, and a nightly prime-time slot on some of the Amazon’s more outlandish creatures.
