Protecting vulnerable rainforests through acquisition
The Problem
All around the world, the rainforests face the same threats:
1. Destruction for cattle grazing
2. Destruction for farming
3. Destruction for lumber
4. Destruction for mining
Governments in developing nations often choose to not
protect their precious biomes because the quickest path to
economic growth is through exploitation of natural resources.
Our solution
After years of aimless effort, we have narrowed down our focus.
We exclusively do 2 things:
1. As an organisation, we acquire vulnerable rainforests to create protected preserves.
2. We aim to educate Governments on the vital benefits of establishing more protected preserves
about.
We are a non profit, US 501(c)3, organisation that focuses on maintaining and preserving continuous intact rainforests for a few important reasons. 1) The rich animal diversity is heavily dependent on roaming. 2) Rain production and overall climate is grossly altered once the forest become fragmented, which inevitably leads to biome collapse. 3) The rainforest is the largest fresh water producer. 4) The healthier the rainforest, the healthier the world.
By acquiring vulnerable rainforests we are able to ensure that they are in trustworthy hands. We deem any land to be Vulnerable if the owners/governments that have ownership are interested in selling said land. Most people interested in buying rainforests are only interested in doing so for exploitive economic reasons. Thus, we are always in a race to acquire land before a corporation or farmer does.
We have established connections with lawyers, local governments, scouts, and real estate professionals in the regions we focus on. Because of this, we are able to preserve rainforest, with a streamline process.
After acquisition, we have a multi-layered approach of continual surveillance of these lands. We take the protection aspect very seriously. We use scouts on the ground, cameras in the jungle, scouts along the rivers, routine satellite captures, and occasionally drones or aircraft for harder to reach areas.
Mundo Madre is primarily focused on acquiring rainforests in Costa Rica, Panama, Colombia, and Peru. All of which have very rich biodiversity but are currently in the hands of governments that do not value their preciousness. On paper many "protections" and policy initiatives may exist in these countries but they are just on paper. In practice the security of the rainforest is put into jeopardy on a routine basis.
FUNDING
Currently 90% of our financing comes from our founder, Ed Edge. As a Vajrayana Buddhist, Edge firmly believes that his wealth is not his and is to be used for the benefit of all sentient beings. We are currently working on diversifying our income streams in order to purchase and protect larger pieces of rainforest.