2023–24 Report: Rainforest Action Network
2024 donation: $100,000
Donations to date: $330,000
Our donations allow the Rainforest Action Network (“RAN”) to hold multinational corporations responsible for using unethically sourced resources while protecting the Leuser Ecosystem of Sumatra, Indonesia, from the deforestation caused by the illegal expansion of pulpwood and palm oil plantations. In this way, RAN not only protects rainforests from destruction — which is vital to keeping our climate ecosystem intact — they also help consumers “vote with their pocketbook” by identifying companies that don’t walk their climate talk.
RAN works with community partners and local authorities to document illegal deforestation, the clearing and burning of peatlands, labor abuses, and other human rights violations. Then, by publishing reports and using high-profile local and international media coverage, RAN focuses public scrutiny on the multinational corporations that benefit from this behavior. RAN’s work can be summed up in three campaigns: Stop Deforestation, Defund Climate Change, and Support Communities.
In 2024, RAN’s Keep Forests Standing campaign saw positive results, as some brands, traders, and palm oil mills committed to using ethically harvested palm tree products and the local Aceh government committed to supporting smallholder farmers with sustainable, smaller-scale palm oil production (which can be certified as deforestation-free, per the EU’s Deforestation Regulations). In addition, RAN stopped plantations from encroaching on the 80,000-hectare Rawa Singkil Wildlife Reserve and the 1.75 million hectares of lowland rainforests that surround it (which are home to the largest density of Sumatran orangutans on the planet as well as breeding populations of the Sumatran rhinoceros, tiger, and elephant).
Over the next year, our donations will help RAN expand their work to East Kalimantan on Borneo, grow their Keep Forests Standing campaign in Indonesia, help rural Indigenous communities build the local capacity to defend their land and their rights, and push the global financial sector to implement reforms that stop illegal logging, deforestation, and rights abuses.
2022 donation: $40,000
Donations to date: $130,000
Our donations allow the Rainforest Action Network (RAN) to challenge the multinational corporations that use unethically sourced resources and protect the Leuser Ecosystem of Sumatra, Indonesia from deforestation caused by the illegal expansion of pulpwood and palm oil plantations.
To do this, RAN works with community partners and local authorities to document illegal deforestation, the clearing and burning of peatlands, labor abuses, and other human rights violations. Then, by publishing reports and using high-profile local and international media coverage, RAN focuses public scrutiny on the multinational corporations that benefit from this behavior. RAN's work can be summed up in three campaigns: Stop Deforestation, Defund Climate Change, and Support Communities.
In 2022, RAN published their second annual Keep Forests Standing (KFS) scorecard and ranked multinational brands and banks as to their success in walking the climate talk (spoiler alert — most failed). And in Banking on Climate Chaos — their annual report on finance and fossil fuels – they called out the continuing disconnect between corporate action on climate change and the world's largest financial institutions by noting that the world's 60 largest banks have poured $4.6 trillion into fossil fuels since the Paris Agreement. But not all was negative, as half the brands identified in the KFS scorecard have begun efforts to evaluate and disclose their true forest footprints, and progress was made toward recognizing the crisis facing Human Rights Defenders — who are often threatened, injured, or intimidated — with Unilever publishing a Responsible Partner Policy that RAN hopes could set a precedent for global consumer goods manufacturers.
In 2023 our donation will help RAN with action and empowerment. One-half will be earmarked to directly help rural Indigenous communities build the local capacity to defend their land and their rights through RAN's Community Action Grants Program. The other half will be directed towards funding three of their current projects: publicly campaigning for corporations to implement policies to protect forests and human rights; partnering with local governments to document illegal corporate expansion into intact forests and human rights violations; and attempting to stop plantations from encroaching on the 80,000 hectare Rawa Singkil Wildlife Reserve and the 1,750,000 hectares of lowland rainforests that surround it (which are home to the largest density of Sumatran Orangutans on the planet as well as breeding populations of the Sumatran rhinoceros, tiger and elephant).
2021 donation: $40,000
Donations to date: $90,000
Our donations allow the Rainforest Action Network (RAN) to challenge the multinational corporations that use unethically sourced resources and protect the Leuser Ecosystem of Sumatra, Indonesia, from deforestation caused by the illegal expansion of pulpwood and palm oil plantations.
To do this, RAN works with community partners and local authorities to document illegal deforestation, the clearing and burning of peatlands, labor abuses, and other human rights violations. Then, by publishing reports and using high-profile local and international media coverage, RAN focuses public scrutiny on the multinational corporations that benefit from this behavior.
Last year, RAN published Keep Borneo's Forests Standing: Evaluating the Forest Footprint of Brands Driving Deforestation in the Indonesian Provinces of North and East Kalimantan, Borneo, and called out the ten target corporations in their Keep Forests Standing (KFS) campaign — Colgate-Palmolive, Ferrero, Kao, Mars, Mondelēz, Nestlé, Nissin Foods, PepsiCo, Procter & Gamble, and Unilever — for failing to disclose their impact on Indonesia's last remaining forests and their related communities. And in their 12th annual report on finance and fossil fuels, Banking on Climate Chaos, they called out the continuing disconnect between government action on climate change and the world's largest financial institutions by noting that the world's 60 largest banks have poured $3.8 trillion into fossil fuels since the Paris Agreement.
Going forward, RAN will leverage their reports to encourage companies — like Unilever, Nestlé, and Colgate-Palmolive — to release complete global accounting of the forests and communities they impact, and explain how growth plans will impact the future. In addition, they will continue to publicly campaign for corporations to implement policies to protect forests and human rights; partner with local governments to document illegal activities; and attempt to stop plantations from encroaching on the 80,000-hectare Rawa Singkil Wildlife Reserve and the 1,750,000 hectares of lowland rainforests that surround it (which are home to the largest density of Sumatran Orangutans on the planet, as well as breeding populations of the Sumatran rhinoceros, tiger, and elephant).
Donation: $50,000
Our donation supported the efforts of the Rainforest Action Network (RAN) in Sumatra, Indonesia, where they worked to make corporations accountable for their supply chains. RAN's mission is to raise awareness of illegal deforestation and the clearance of the associated peatlands while helping protect Indigenous people from human rights abuses and violence stemming from these illegal land grabs.
RAN is committed to saving the rainforests. Rainforests help prevent global warming by absorbing the greenhouse gases that would otherwise be released into the atmosphere while providing the moisture to maintain a constant level of global rainfall. They also provide a biodiverse habitat for countless animal and plant species.
Over the last year, RAN has successfully pressured some corporations to adopt and implement "No Deforestation, No Peatland, and No Exploitation" commitments, while exposing others that are expanding into intact forests. Just recently, because of the constant exposure by RAN, two palm oil companies worked with Indonesian organizations and local governments to create a sanctuary for Sumatran rhinos.
RAN also works hard to keep global brands responsible in their practices. For example, they rank companies on how well — or how poorly — they fulfill their deforestation promises (which resulted in Kellogg's issuing a revised palm oil and deforestation policy). And they secured a palm oil sourcing policy from PepsiCo Inc., which pledges that their supply chain will no longer include any deforestation, peatland destruction, or human/labor rights abuses.
