They Set Out to Save Rainforests — and Could Help Prevent the Next Outbreak

A team of rangers primarily made up of women is protecting 620 acres of forest around their village in Damaran Baru, Indonesia. The rangers' main priority is having conversations with squatters to prevent them from clearing the trees to use the soil, but they also provide important ecological information to researchers and act as environmental stewards.

The government of the Philippines is working with the Masungi Georeserve Foundation to restore wildlife and forests in a 2,700 hectares area of degraded land. They use a technique that focuses on the nurturing of native trees through natural practices. While the method takes longer to reforest an area than traditional ways, the initiative has planted 60,000 trees and employed 100 park rangers from the local communities that help protect the reserve.

In an effort to decrease noise pollution in natural spaces across the country, Quiet Parks International is seeking to certify wildlife places that are noise-free. Using data collection, the organization is able to measure the noise level in places like the Hoh Rainforest in Washington, and if it falls within a certain parameter, give it the official certification. Doing so not only raises awareness of the effects of noise pollution, but attracts tourists with similar values.

An independent group in British Columbia is engaging young people with climate change adaptation and mitigation through its Youth Climate Corps programming. The programs work on projects specific to community needs, like green infrastructure installation, and prepare the participants for related careers.

The ADAMÂ Bakery trains and employs refugees in Uganda to make bread. This way they can earn a living while also feeding unaccompanied minors in the refugee settlements.

Communities in Ecuador are building a “bioeconomy” through ecotourism and sustainable agriculture instead of relying on oil extraction. This can help protect the country’s biodiversity and increase locals’ incomes.

A fishing cooperative at the San Ignacio Lagoon protects gray whales that use the lagoon as a nursery by not fishing at that time of the year. Instead, their income comes from ecotourism which brings people close to the whales during that season.

Alongside clean energy, wind farms built on property leased from locals in Nebraska are generating jobs, income, and local taxes that keep small towns like Petersburg afloat.

Off the coast of Grimsby, England, the largest offshore wind farm in the world created over 500 jobs for a deteriorating fishing town while providing enough clean, renewable energy to power over 2 million homes each day.

Under an innovative scheme in the Democratic Republic of Congo, indigenous communities are obtaining the legal right to own and manage the forests where they reside. This ownership has shown success in slowing deforestation of the Congo rainforest and creating new economic opportunities for residents in these villages. “Rather than just being an add-on, community forestry is now being considered as a mainstream model for forest management,” says a coordinator for the Rainforest Foundation UK.