Save the rainforest

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Save the Rainforest eV
purpose Protection and preservation of forests, especially the tropical rainforest , together with the peoples living there
Chair: Dr. Bettina Behrend, Marianne Klute
Establishment date: 1988
Number of members: approx. 13,000 sponsoring members
Seat : Hamburg
Website: regenwald.org

The association Rettet den Regenwald eV is an environmental organization in Germany .

The organization, which describes itself as politically independent, is committed to the rainforest , its indigenous inhabitants and the preservation of their habitats and also supports this goal financially. With online petitions in seven languages ​​(German, English, French, Spanish, Italian, Portuguese, Indonesian) and the magazine Regenwald Report , the association draws attention to projects that destroy rainforests and criticizes the companies, banks and governments involved. The association also collects donations to support the work of local environmental organizations and human rights groups.

The thematic priorities of the association's work are monocultures ( palm oil , cocoa , soy , eucalyptus , sugar cane ), land grabbing / land grabbing , biofuel , major projects such as dams, resource exploitation through gold extraction , illegal logging , abandonment of tropical timber , poaching , factory farming . The association is committed to upholding human rights . Regional focuses are currently in Indonesia, Malaysia, Cambodia, the Philippines, southern Africa, Brazil and Peru. The work of the association is not limited to the tropics , but includes the local environment.

Foundation and financing

Reinhard Behrend, then chairman of the Rettet den Regenwald e. V., examined felled rainforest tree trunks in Africa (January 1, 1997)

The association was founded in 1988 by the former chairman Reinhard Behrend and is based in Hamburg. Behrend headed the club until he had to give up this position in May 2020 due to an illness. He died on June 5, 2020. According to its own statement, the association is financed almost exclusively through donations. In addition, income is generated from the marketing of T-shirts, CDs, books, children's items, stickers and posters through the company's own rainforest shop .

The association is recognized in Germany as non-profit and particularly worthy of support.

Rainforest Report

The Regenwald Report is the association's quarterly magazine. It contains reports on rainforest destruction, current protests and calls for donations. In addition, the magazine reports on successes in protecting the rainforests and on local environmental groups.

The magazine has been published since 1988. All issues from 1995 are available online. The print run is between 70,000 and 100,000 and the printing is done on recycled paper .

Working method

The lobbying and information work in Germany is a key focus of the association's work. The association informs the public about the German involvement in the rainforest destruction and shows the causes. He names Deutsche Bank , BASF , Bayer AG , Unilever , Nestlé , Procter & Gamble , PepsiCo , Monsanto , Cargill , Wilmar , Asia Pulp and Paper Company (APP) , APRIL and others as the cause . He influences politics in Germany and the European Union.

The association also addresses consumers in Germany directly, who can contribute to the protection of the rainforest with conscious purchasing behavior , protest campaigns and private commitment. The association is promoting a general avoidance of palm oil and has a positive list of palm oil-free products.

Employees are often interviewed by journalists from the print media, radio and television and by filmmakers (Der Spiegel, Natur, Silva, Bioboom, ZDF, Deutschlandfunk, Radio Lora, Radio Dreyeckland).

The second focus starts directly in the rainforest countries. There, the association supports people, advocates the forest, indigenous rights, social progress and sustainable development. If necessary, the association finances and organizes lobby visits in Germany by people who are fighting for the preservation of their rainforests in their homeland if their living space is threatened by the policies of German corporations, banks or ministries.

Campaigns

With its campaigns - mostly in the form of online petitions - the association draws attention to environmental destruction and human rights violations. The petitions are regularly signed by more than 100,000 people.

Rainforest Rescue takes part in or organizes demonstrations and protests. Signature lists are often handed over. Rainforest Rescue employees attend general meetings of companies such as Deutsche Bank, BASF, Bayer and speak to shareholders.

The association co-organized the alternative forestry congress CSAP in September 2015 in Durban.

Since 2014, the association has been helping environmentalists in Peru to buy rainforest plots in the village of Tamshiyacu on the Amazon and put them under protection. The rainforest is threatened by clearing by the company Cacao del Peru Norte.

The main topics of these campaigns are: (illegal) rainforest clearing z. B. for the use of tropical wood or the production of agricultural energy / biodiesel , palm oil or cocoa as well as the protection of the people and wild animals living there, land grabbing, factory farming and gold mining and their effects. Petitions with a particularly large number of signatures were, for example: the EU's biofuel policy, the destruction of the rainforest for palm oil and cocoa in Peru, the threat to orangutans from palm oil plantations, the threat to bees from pesticides, the CETA free trade agreement and tar sands from Canada, the wrong definition of plantations as forests .

Cooperation partner

The association cooperates with German and international environmental, one world and human rights groups. These include Pro Rainforest, Save Wildlife Conservation Fund and Robin Wood at national level and Rainforest Foundation (Great Britain), Amazonwatch (USA), Acción Ecológica (Ecuador), DECOIN (Ecuador), Fundación del Río (Nicaragua), Rainforest Information at international level Center (Australia), Rainforest Action Network (USA), Rainforest Relief (USA), Environmental Defense (USA), PanEco Foundation (Switzerland), Save our Borneo (Indonesia), JATAM (Indonesia), Walhi (Indonesia), Aldaw (Philippines ), Timberwatch (South Africa), SPDE (Peru), Biofuelwatch (Great Britain), Bruno Manser Fonds (Switzerland) and many others.

criticism

In 2002, the Öko-Test magazine gave the association a “very good” rating for handling donations . In an evaluation of donation organizations by the magazine test , the result for the reference year 2013 was insufficient in the group of “moderately transparent and organized” organizations - with income of 1.4 million euros.

literature

  • Öko-Test - November 2002 edition, published on October 28, 2002 under the title: Öko-Spenden - Between Biotop and Swamp
  • Silva-Waldmagazin.de-Issue 1/2015: Palm oil boom - to the end of the world and interview with Reinhard Behrend: Rainforest is indescribably beautiful ...
  • Silva-Waldmagazin.de-Issue 2/2015: Bitter Chocolate
  • Nature edition 2/2015: Good, bad palm oil
  • Bioboom summer 2015: Here was my forest

Web links

Commons : Save the Rainforest  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual references, comments

  1. Annual report 2014 (PDF)
  2. ^ Rainforest Report
  3. http://www.umweltblick.de/index.php/branchen/produkte-ohne-palmoel
  4. http://www.taz.de/!5201200/
  5. https://rdl.de/beitrag/kampf-um-die-regenw-lder-was-ist-mit-dem-palm-l
  6. http://latina-press.com/news/187573-peru-kampf-um-die-urwaelder-amazoniens-erreich-deutsche-gerichtssaele/
  7. http://www.ksta.de/frechen/frechener-quarzwerke-petition-eroben-schwere-vorwuerfe,15189184,27912560.html
  8. Forestry Congress CSAP saves-the-rainforest- / c1bq7
  9. http://news.mongabay.com/2015/09/cacao-plantation-ramping-up-forest-clearing-in-peru/
  10. Octavia Payne, Sarah Alix Mann: Zooming In: “Sustainable” Cocoa Producer Destroy's Pristine Forest in Peru. (No longer available online.) In: Blog. Global Forest Watch , June 9, 2015, archived from the original on March 4, 2016 ; accessed on August 2, 2019 .
  11. https://www.regenwald.org/spende/146/peru-helfen-sie-den-amazonasregenwald-zu-schuetzen
  12. Bitter chocolate. Cocoa threatens the Amazon , in: Rainforest Report 1/15 . Online (accessed March 20, 2015)
  13. https://www.regenwald.org/aktion/908/abholzen-fuer-klimaschutz-nein-danke
  14. https://www.regenwald.org/aktion/933/peru-abholzung-sofort-stoppen
  15. https://www.regenwald.org/aktion/914/sterben-fuer-palmoel-nein-danke
  16. https://www.regenwald.org/aktion/986/muss-mein-wald-fuer-biodiesel-sterben
  17. https://www.regenwald.org/aktion/953/aktion-die-bienen-brauchen-eure-hilfe-jetzt
  18. https://www.regenwald.org/aktion/968/stoppt-ttip-und-ceta-stoppt-waldvernichtung-fuer-oel
  19. https://www.regenwald.org/aktion/1013/sagen-sie-der-uno-plantagen-sind-kein-wald
  20. http://www.timberwatch.org.za/
  21. http://www.spde.org./
  22. https://www.test.de/Spenden-Diesen-Organisations-koennen-Sie-trauen-4633447-4633457/
  23. http://silva-waldmagazin.de/
  24. http://silva-waldmagazin.de/