Save The Rainforest: Background Information

Save The Rainforest, Inc
Background Information

Save The Rainforest (STR) is a charitable 501(c)(3)organization that was founded in 1988 by teachers and students in Dodgeville, Wisconsin. From its inception STR has involved schools from around the United States in projects that educate people about the rain forest. It has also provided opportunities for students and teachers to actively campaign for rain forest conservation. It has worked as part of the International Children's Rainforest Network, helping to create rainforest reserves in Costa Rica, Ecuador, Panama and Belize. STR is governed by a board of directors that consists primarily of practicing teachers throughout the United States.

In 1989 STR starting conducting educational trips to the rainforest for middle and high school students. Since that time many travel agencies and other non-profits have followed in its footsteps, with varying amounts of success, and ecotourism in general has flourished in Latin America. STR itself has sent over 6,000 people on courses to the tropics in Panama, Belize, Costa Rica, Honduras, Mexico and Ecuador. It has a perfect safety record, and a long list of people who praise the courses for their educational value, low cost and culture sensitivity. In each country STR works with a nonprofit partner organization. The partner organization provides staffing for teaching the course and handling logistics. Past course participants return home with a profound understanding of the issues effecting rain forest conservation, and a great enthusiasm to educate others.

The itinerary of the courses includes:

Learning about the ecology of the rainforest.
Interacting with the culture of the country visited and learning Spanish.
Seeing the rainforest that we have been saving, and learning about our conservation project first hand.
Learning about sustainable organic farming, craft making and selective logging that can offer local people a way to make a living in an environmentally friendly way.

In early 1992 STR received a $100,000 grant from the Althalie R. Clark and Joan Irvine Smith Foundation to further its education work. With these funds STR was able to help construct education centers in Panama and Belize. Improvements were made in existing facilities in Ecuador. The Clark-Smith grant enables STR to continue conducting courses at a very low cost to participants, and to improve the quality of the courses. It also makes facilities available for other uses when STR is not conducting courses. STR also received an annuity gift of $400,000 in 2001 from DyNse Pinkerton. These funds, when they become available, will be used to further develop courses and foster conservation in Panama, Ecuador, Belize and Costa Rica.

STR continues to accept donations for conservation projects, giving out certificates for contributions of $35 or more. One hundred percent of the contribution goes for conservation, currently in Ecuador. STR also provides opportunities for people to do volunteer work at some of the reserves it supports. Staffing and overhead are kept to a minimum by STR. Present staff consists of a part time secretary and the President/Director. Most of the funds generated by the courses are paid out to the conservation groups that host teacher and student trips, thereby supporting conservation on the ground in tropical countries where rainforests are found.