June 2007
This 26th of July, 2007, will mark the 12th Anniversary of the founding of The Rainforest Trust. For 12 long, hard years we have been working privately to stop the continuing destruction of our Planet’s rapidly vanishing Rainforests. For 12 long, hard years we have struggled to save the vanishing habitats of many endangered species of Wildlife now facing a cruel extinction. Make no mistake. It is an uphill battle. Here is a current update on our environmental programmes in several countries in Latin America and the Caribbean that we have been actively involved with during the past 12 years.

BELIZE
Belize is home to our main project, the Macal River Rainforest Preserve and Wildlife Sanctuary, which is the only privately owned Jaguar Sanctuary in the world. Our Sanctuary covers over 2,000 acres of pristine Rainforest located on the remote upper reaches of the Macal River and includes dense jungle, waterfalls, mountains, caves and ruined Mayan temples.

We make frequent trips back and forth to our Camp in Belize, at least once or twice every year, and the President of The Rainforest Trust, has been living there part-time for some years now. He is operating an organic farm on the site of a 19th Century coffee plantation that was founded by his family. The view from the verandah of his hilltop house is breathtaking and a must for birdwatchers.

We are currently planning to build a small cottage on the property, so that we will no longer have to camp in tents during our longer stays in Belize. In future visiting College Students who come to volunteer and do environmental research at our Sanctuary during the Summer will have somewhere dry to stay during the torrential downpours of the Rainy Season. The cottage will be completely solar-powered and totally eco-friendly, with rainwater showers and composting toilets. We will be appropriately naming it "The Green House".

Despite our remote location, our Preserve is now coming under increasing pressure from International logging companies and American cattle ranchers who are aggressively pushing for the right to cut down the Rainforest for timber and to make way for large-scale cattle ranching in this part of Belize. International oil companies are also illegally exploring the area in hopes of drilling for oil there. Their employees have been caught criminally trespassing on our Preserve, they have carried out illegal logging on our land and they have even been responsible for cruelly killing and mutilating animals within our Sanctuary. We have to stop these ruthless invaders from illegally trespassing on our lands and from wantonly destroying one of the most beautiful and untouched parts of Belize. We desperately need your help.

Your membership and financial support will help us to purchase additional land in the area to act as a buffer zone against these depredations and also enable us to hire and train local indigenous Mayan Indian people as Game Wardens to protect our Rainforest Preserve and Wildlife Sanctuary from these illegal incursions. We are also hoping to build a small ranger station on that part of the Preserve which is closest to the nearest jungle road. It wouldl provide much needed shelter and a safe place to work from for the Mayan Indian rangers we hope to hire and train. Please join us now.

The Rainforest Trust is also increasingly concerned about several other environmental issues in Belize, such as overdevelopment along the coasts of Belize. Thousands of acres of Rainforest and Mangroves along the coast are being bulldozed so wealthy foreigners can build hotel resorts and winter villas overlooking the beaches.

The establishment of large Banana plantations in the Big Creek and Mango Creek area means that the local rivers and streams are now being polluted by toxic agricultural run-off from chemical fertilizers. The Placencia lagoon, one of the largest lagoons in the world, has now been contaminated with detrimental results to fish and aquatic plant life inside the lagoon.

Rampant real estate development in the Cayo District is also causing concern, particularly in the Pine Ridge Mountains which is supposed to be a Forest Reserve. Other Reserves are being similarly encroached upon by unscrupulous Real Estate developers and brokers, intent on dismantling Belize’s Nature Reserves and cutting them up and selling them off piecemeal to rich foreign investors for profit.

The Rainforest Trust has been networking with several other Environmental Groups in an attempt to respond to these new Environmental threats in Belize.

JAMAICA
The Rainforest Trust has always had very close connections with Jamaica and we make certain that at least one of our Officers visits Jamaica every year to overlook our Environmental partnerships there. These partnerships have included the establishment of a small Botanical Garden in St. James, Tree-Planting in St. Elizabeth and Reforestation in the Blue Mountains.

The President of The Rainforest Trust, Brett Ashmeade-Hawkins, was in Jamaica again in April this year celebrating Earth Day and meeting with local Environmentalists. He stayed with biologists Michael Schwartz and Susan Koenig of the Windsor Research Centre at the historic Windsor Great House in Trelawny and was able to discuss in detail the Save The Cockpit Country campaign with his hosts while he was there. Michael and Susan have been doing an amazing job in rallying public support to stop Bauxite Mining companies from strip-mining and destroying Jamaica’s last extensive area of pristine Rainforest. They have our full-support. Susan Koenig, who just received her Doctorate from Yale University last year, is the world’s leading authority on Yellow-Billed and Black-Billed Parrots, which are endemic to Jamaica, and which are now endangered. Mining in the Cockpit Country will destroy their habitat and doom them to extinction. It will also destroy the ancestral lands of the local indigenous people, the Maroons, who have strong historical and cultural ties to the area. The Rainforest Trust is anxious to do everything possible to prevent this from happening and we need the support of as many people as we can get. If there are any Celebrities out there who want to lend their name to a good cause, please contact us. We need you.

The Rainforest Trust is also concerned about the growing deforestation that has been occurring in Jamaica over the last 12 years. Thousands of acres in Jamaica have been cut down, burned and cleared to make way for new coffee plantations and real estate developments. Particularly troubling is the destruction of thousands of Pimento (All Spice) trees throughout the Island. These are being illegally cut down to provide fuel for Jerk centres and shops, since the wood imparts a special flavour to meats and fish barbecued over it. However no one is replanting any Pimento trees in place of those trees that they have illegally cut down, so that the loss of these invaluable trees will be felt by Jamaicans for generations to come. Something must be done to stop this.

BRAZIL
The catastrophic destruction of the Amazon Rainforest continues today unabated, despite the claims of the Brazilian Government to the contrary. Every year millions of acres of pristine Rainforest are still being ruthlessly cut down, bulldozed and burned so that a few corrupt politicians and greedy businessmen can make huge fortunes from this terrible and senseless destruction. During a recent visit to Brazil in February, 2007, two of our Officers and a pilot flew over a large part of the vast Amazon Rainforest in a small twin-engine plane and were shocked by the enormous scale of the continuing destruction. Several hundred fires were seen burning in the Amazon and the smoke was so thick that it cast permanent haze over this entire part of Brazil. Thousands of people in the Amazon, particularly young children and the elderly are constantly becoming sick and dying from smoke-related health problems, yet the burning goes on.

We continue to witness vast areas of the Rainforest being completely destroyed by International logging companies, who clear-cut the land for timber which is then exported to countries overseas such as Japan. This cleared land is then used for vast cattle ranches which are given enormous subsidies by the Brazilian Government and this grazing further degrades the soil until it becomes worthless and uninhabitable. Worst of all is the damage continuing to be done in the Amazon by International mining companies who pollute not only the soil, but more importantly the water. The terrible loss of wildlife, both animals and plants is incalculable. Many animals caught in the fires as their habitats are destroyed are burned alive. Imagine the terrible agony of such horrifying deaths. We have seen many such gruesome and sickening sights during our visits to the Amazon Basin.

The Rainforest Trust is working with other Environmental groups and sympathetic elements within the Brazilian Government to try and stop this continuing destruction. The relentless burning of the Amazon Basin is an important factor in the increasing threat of Global Warming to our Planet and we must stop it before it is too late, for the sake of our own children.

HAITI
The troubled nation of Haiti, the poorest country in the New World, is nothing short of an Environment disaster and despite all our efforts during the last 12 years, the Situation in Haiti is worse than ever. Massive deforestation has denuded the mountains and resulted in soil-erosion on an epic scale, the resulting poor soil and lack of rainfall devastating the country’s agriculture. Wash-off from the mountains to the rivers have resulted in silt destroying Haiti’s coral reefs and ruining its fishing industry. Haiti is a stark warning of what will happen to the rest of the world, if it does not start to protect the environment. Reforestation is the key to beginning Haiti’s environmental rescue and The Rainforest Trust remains committed to such projects in Haiti, but political instability and violent crime have made it very difficult to maintain a constant presence there. However, we do hope to be able to try and continue our Reforestation efforts there again in 2008.

COSTA RICA
If Haiti is frequently described as the environmental basket-case of the world, then Costa Rica is definitely the poster child of the environmental movement. Costa Rica is a shining example of what can really be achieved by a combination of a sympathetic and visionary Government with sound environmental policies, a network of dedicated multi-national environmental activists and a comprehensive national environmental education programme that has resulted in an eco-sensitive population that is fully in tune with their environment. The motto of the Costa Rican people is simply “Pura Vida”, “Pure Life” and we can certainly learn a lot from them.

In mountainous Costa Rica, hundreds of thousands of acres of land exhausted by Coffee Plantations and Cattle Ranches have been reforested on a massive scale over the last 12 years and during that time Eco-Tourism has become Costa Rica’s main industry with over a million visitors a year. The only drawback is that Costa Rica is becoming a victim of its own success as an eco-paradise. Foreign real estate developers are buying up all the land along the Pacific and Caribbean coasts of Costa Rica and are bulldozing the Rainforest and rare wildlife habitats in order to build hotel resorts, condominiums and villas. In fact on our latest visit to Costa Rica in March, 2007, we were gleefully told by an American real estate dealer that, “The whole country is up for sale”. This rampant overdevelopment threatens Costa Rica’s future and has to be nipped in the bud before Costa Rica becomes another “Paradise Lost”.

The Rainforest Trust is buying land in Costa Rica for both preservation and reforestation and we urge our Members to get involved. Help us save Costa Rica, with its beautiful Rainforests, Waterfalls, and incredible Bio-Diversity of endemic Plants, Animals, and Birds from becoming another Miami Beach. Preserve Nature.

IN MEMORIUM
Last, but not least, we would like to belatedly mark the sad passing of one of our longtime Directors, Prince Egon Von Furstenberg, who died in Rome on the 11th of June, 2004. He was 57 years old. Internationally known as a Fashion Designer and Socialite, Egon sat on the Board of Directors of The Rainforest Trust for nine years and was always a source of great encouragement and support. He had a great love for Brazil and wanted to do something to help stop the senseless destruction of the Amazon Rainforest. Egon was just such an incredible person and he will be greatly missed by us all.

Earth Day 2009
The last year has been a very exciting time for The Rainforest Trust. Besides our long-time Campaign to Save The Rainforest in Latin America and the Caribbean, we are now also heading a Global Campaign to Save The Jaguar from Extinction in Latin America. We recently launched our Campaign on Facebook and already we have nearly 3,000 Members who have joined. We have also been closely networking with a number of other Non-Profit Environmental and Wildlife Organizations in Latin America and the Caribbean including the following:

The Cockscomb Basin Jaguar Sanctuary in Belize, which was the first and still is the largest Jaguar Sanctuary in the World. Kevin Peterson at The Eco Preservation Society www.EcoPreservationSociety.org, Replanting The Rainforests www.ReplantingTheRainforests.org and Saving Mono Titi www.Saving MonoTiti.com, all of which are based in Costa Rica. These three Organizations are working extremely hard to Save The Rainforest and its Wildlife, to Replant the Rainforests throughout the World and also to Save The Mono Titi Monkey from Extinction in Central America. Dan Telft at Tree Banking, Inc.(TreeBankingInc.com), which is currently heading a massive Reforestation Campaign in Latin America and the Caribbean. Michael Shwartz and Susan Koenig at the Windsor Research Centre www.CockpitCoutry.com in Jamaica, who are trying to Save The Cockpit Country, Jamaica's last Natural Forest Reserve, fom Destruction. Lastly but not leastly, we have recently teamed up with Wendy Lee at the Northern Jamaica Conservation Trust and The Seven Oaks Sanctuary for Wildlife, in Jamaica, who is leading a heartfelt Campaign to desperately try and Protect Jamaica's fragile Environment and Save Jamaica's Endangered Wildlife, all under the auspices of the Environmental Foundation of Jamaica www.EFJ.Org.JM. All of these worthy Causes mirror our own efforts to Save The Rainforest and Save The Wildlife in Latin America and the Caribbean. Please make a Donation now and help support The Rainforest Trust and its various Partners in our work. Look for us now on Twitter.com. Happy Earth Day, May 22nd, 2009.