COOL EARTH ANNUAL REVIEW 2015/16 COOL EARTH IS THE CHARITY THAT WORKS ALONGSIDE INDIGENOUS COMMUNITIES TO HALT RAINFOREST DESTRUCTION 3

CONTENTS

4 Introduction

6 Highlights

8 Achievements

18 Vision

24 Financial summary 4 Cool Earth

A MESSAGE FROM THE CHAIR

One of the biggest challenges that charities face is remaining true to their mission. As the years roll on, it’s easy to see that mission creep further away from fundamental objectives. Cool Earth’s answer is to do less.

We’ve stopped micromanaging and shifted the shield, we will double the amount of rainforest planning and implementation on to our partners’ protected there within a year. Our partnership in shoulders. Now more than ever, investment The Democratic Republic of the Congo goes from decisions are being made at the village level. This strength to strength, with the local community has reinforced our community focused model pioneering the design of energy efficient stoves, which has proven to be so effective at keeping reducing the demand for fuelwood and the number threatened rainforest standing. of respiratory problems caused by noxious fumes. Community initiatives like these will be launched As a result, 2015 has been our most accomplished on a global scale next year when we kick off our year to date. We have been able to expand the partnership exchange programme to propagate amount of rainforest we protect to 640,000 acres, smart ideas across all three rainforest regions. without adding to our overheads. Our success has not gone unnoticed, and with the launch of the Finally, in 2015 Cool Earth’s simple idea of Queen’s Commonwealth Canopy, we are set to village-centric conservation drew more support work across every type of rainforest across than ever and an array of awards, including the the world. Environmental Charity of the Year award. If nothing else, we have proved that doing less can Launched by Her Majesty the Queen in November achieve so much more. 2015, the QCC will celebrate forest conservation across the Commonwealth, with the aim of all 52 member states dedicating indigenous forest to support the initiative. As founding collaborator of the QCC, Cool Earth will lead the way in developing community-led partnerships that show the most effective forest protection starts at ground The Rt Hon. Frank Field MP, Chair level.

In Papua New Guinea, we have a queue of villages waiting to partner with us, dedicated to halting the advance of palm oil plantations. By linking up these neighbouring villages to form a contiguous

6 Cool Earth

2015/16 HIGHLIGHTS

MORE RAINFOREST SAVED THAN EVER BEFORE With over 640,000 acres protected by our partners, neighbouring villages have linked up to form a protective shield for the rainforest.

GOING GLOBAL With the launch of the Orangerie Bay partnership in Papua New Guinea, Cool Earth’s community-led approach is saving forest across three continents, spanning all the world’s major rainforests regions.

AWARD WINNING Cool Earth picked up the 2015 Charity of the Year Award for Environment and Conservation, and followed that up with a People, Environment, Action award for best International NGO.

THE QUEEN’S COMMONWEALTH CANOPY 2015 saw the launch of a new and ambitious initiative to protect indigenous forest across all 52 nations of the Commonwealth. Announced by Her Majesty the Queen, the QCC has Cool Earth’s community-led model at its heart. 7 8 Cool Earth OUR ACHIEVEMENTS

2015/16

Cool Earth is the only charity that focuses its work where the threat to the forest is greatest, on the front line of deforestation. Partner villages link up to form a shield protecting the neighbouring rainforest, making it inaccessible to loggers. 9

11

COMMUNITY INVESTMENTS

Cool Earth puts funds directly in the hands of indigenous communities so they can choose priorities.

In 2015 this saw two new school classrooms built, implementation of a fish farm programme delivering an urgently needed dietary protein source, transport to deliver sustainable forest produce to market, and hundreds of other investments. Better health, better education and better livelihoods all lead to forest kept standing.

RAINFOREST SCHOOLS In 2015, our Asháninka partners built a new school for Parijaro village, and supported six students with scholarships for further study. In Orangerie Bay, Papua New Guinea, a new school building was constructed for Gadaisu Primary School, providing urgently needed space for 145 students.

NEW ENERGY EFFICIENT STOVES Wood-fuelled stoves are highly dangerous to health. Globally, household air pollution from cooking fires kills more children every year than AIDS and malaria combined¹. The high consumption of wood also has a massive impact on the forest. Our partners in the Democratic Republic of Congo found an alternative. They installed 45 new energy efficient stoves and trained 164 community members to use them.

EMERGENCY AID December 2015 saw the worst drought in Papua New Guinea’s recent history. We launched an emergency appeal to support our partner villages, and raised enough money to help all 67 families in Orangerie Bay.

1. Practical Action, 2004.“Smoke: the Killer in the Kitchen” 12 Cool Earth

MATERNAL HEALTH With high rates of infant mortality, the mothers in our communities asked us to help set up a maternal health programme. After a community workshop in our Asháninka partnership, 15 women were elected to be health promoters. They’re now providing training to mothers and families in other villages on best practice for maternal health.

NUTRITION Malnutrition is one of the greatest health risks for our Asháninka partners, with as many as nine in ten children suffering from anaemia. To address the urgent need for protein, a fish breeding programme was started by the community. Our expert fish farming technicians in the Awajún, 500 miles to the north, visited the Asháninka to share their knowledge. They helped build a fish breeding laboratory in the village of Cobeja, providing fish fry to stock ponds across the partnership.

TRANSPORT LINKS In the coastal rainforest of Papua New Guinea, getting around isn’t easy. The village of Gadaisu decided to use funding for a new dinghy and engine, enabling better transport links between villages and allowing easier transportation of goods to market. The new dinghy also provides a vital means of emergency evacuations to get to the health centre further down the coast.

In the Asháninka partnership, the nearest hospital is a six to nine hour journey up-river. Funding is continuing to support emergency evacuations for villagers, providing lifesaving access to healthcare. A total of 30 emergency evacuations took place over 2015. 13

“The forest is my beautiful home. It gives me food, oxygen, water and beautiful scenery. We Asháninka are people with solidarity. I worry that we will lose our Asháninka culture if we do not preserve our forest.”

Adelaida Bustemante Sagastizabal Health Coordinator, Asháninka Partnership “Our greatest achievement has been to form an association. We are supported by Cool Earth and we find it amazing that we can sell our jewellery abroad.

quote for this page We have more (placeholderwork shown) and are happy to have benefitted,”

Balbina Paukai, President of AMARNO board, Awajún Partnership 15

LIVELIHOOD DEVELOPMENT

Boosting local livelihoods relieves the pressure on the rainforest and creates strong self-determining communities.

From supporting the establishment of artisan cooperatives in Awajún, to constructing cacao stores and solar dryers in Asháninka, our partners are out- pricing forest destruction.

In May, we carried out a social impact survey in our Awajún partnership to assess the impact on communities of working with Cool Earth. 92% of AMARNO cooperative members reported considerably increased levels of self-esteem, and 97% of women felt more empowered.

RAINFOREST ARTISANS In our Awajún partnership, women from the AMARNO jewellery cooperative collaborated with scientists at the Museum of Natural History at the University of San Marcos, Lima, to research sustainable forest materials to use in their jewellery designs. AMARNO also used Cool Earth funds for computer training, giving them the skills they need to be able to access new markets and improve their business practices.

CULTIVATING COFFEE Our Asháninka partners planted new coffee seedlings in dormant food gardens in the higher altitude villages of Parijaro, Tangoari, Manitiari and Taroveni. Sixty- four growers produced their first community harvest of half a tonne of coffee beans.

CACAO PRODUCTION Cacao stores and solar dryers were constructed in the Asháninka villages of Tinkareni, Coveja and Cutivireni, with 20 fermentation drawers built across other cacao producing villages. 16 Cool Earth 17

GROWING THE SHIELD

In 2015 Cool Earth concentrated on strengthening our partnerships across all three of the world’s major rainforest basins, ensuring the long-term protection of more than 640,000 acres of at-risk rainforest.

THE QUEEN’S COMMONWEALTH CANOPY November 2015 saw the launch of a new and ambitious initiative to protect forest across all 52 nations that make up the Commonwealth. The QCC has the model of community-led conservation at its heart and will enable us to meet communities from all over the world and expand our model to new countries.

RAISING AWARENESS In the Democratic Republic of the Congo, 86 community members held a workshop to raise awareness of climate change and the use of sustainable hunting and fishing practices. The village members decided to abandon the use of firearms for hunting in favour of traditional, more sustainable hunting methods. Biodiversity monitoring in the area has highlighted the importance protecting the forest, with the discovery of three new families of the critically endangered Grauer’s Gorilla.

PATROLLING THE FOREST The village of Parijaro in our Asháninka partnership appointed a forest monitoring team to watch out for illegal logging. This has contributed to the protection of the forest canopy, with zero incidents of illegal logging in the seven year history of the partnership.

GOING GLOBAL 2015 saw the launch of a new partnership in Papua New Guinea, meaning Cool Earth now works in all three of the world’s major rainforest biomes. OUR VISION 19

21

FIVE PROMISES FOR THE FUTURE

1 3

We’ve spent the last eight years developing and We’ll continue the maternal health programme testing our model of village support for forest in the Asháninka. The trained volunteers are protection. We’ve proven that working alongside planning to take the techniques they’ve learnt indigenous communities is the most effective way to improve health and sanitation to women to keep forest standing. across the partnership. This will reduce incidents of diarrhoea, a needless killer of children in That’s why in the next 18 months we will develop the community. an open source guide to our tried and tested community-led model of forest protection, so that more communities can be reached more effectively 4 and efficiently in rainforest areas in most need of protection. With the successful launch of our partnership in Orangerie Bay, Papua New Guinea, we will extend support to neighbouring villages further along 2 the coast, protecting even more of the incredibly biodiverse rainforest and mangroves. Having seen the success of knowledge sharing from our Awajún partners in Northern Peru to our Asháninka partners in Central Peru, we will enable 5 more sharing of the incredible knowledge and skills our partners have. Next year cacao growers We will train community forest-watch-teams in from the Asháninka and Awajún partnerships will biodiversity monitoring skills. This will enable visit Honduras to learn how to improve soil quality community-led surveys of the wildlife in the forest, with a remarkable plant called Inga. for long-term tracking of forest health. Located in one of Peru’s worst deforestation hotspots, we’re partnering with six Awajún villages Protected 64,000 acres of forest by ensuring to defend their vulnerable forest. Our first partnership outside of the Amazon is Helping 16 villages turn down the offer of a two communities along the blackwater rivers of working with five villages in eastern DR Congo to palm oil contract to prevent 140,000 acres of Manicore and Madeira benefit from keeping the LOCATION form a buffer for two neighbouring national parks. primary forest being converted into monoculture. NORTHERN PERU forest standing. LOCATION LOCATION THREAT LOCATION DR CONGO PAPUA NEW GUINEA LOGGING, EXTRACTION BRAZIL THREAT THREAT LIVELIHOOD FOCUS THREAT MINING PALM OIL FISH FARMS, SEED JEWELLERY CATTLE RANCHING LIVELIHOOD FOCUS LIVELIHOOD FOCUS POPULATION LIVELIHOOD FOCUS ENERGY EFFICIENT STOVES COCONUT OIL 2,213 BRAZIL NUTS POPULATION POPULATION POPULATION 12,900 771 AWAJÚN 2,400 ACTIVE MADEIRA LUBUTU ORANGERIE BAY ACTIVE ACTIVE COMPLETE Secured the long-term protection of 55,000 acres of highly vulnerable Chocó rainforest in Ecuador and formed a corridor to link more than 900,000 acres of forest.

LOCATION ECUADOR

THREAT CATTLE RANCHING

LIVELIHOOD FOCUS CACAO, HANDICRAFTS

POPULATION 865

AWACACHI COMPLETE

EL SIRA ASHÁNINKA COMPLETE ACTIVE

Our Asháninka Partnership in central Peru is working Completed capacity building on forest alongside 16 villages to form a shield to halt the management with 69 communities that surround advance of logging and protect millions of acres of the El Sira Reserve, creating a shield for Peru’s pristine rainforest. largest communal reserve.

LOCATION LOCATION CENTRAL PERU CENTRAL PERU

THREAT THREAT LOGGING, COCAINE ILLEGAL LOGGING

LIVELIHOOD FOCUS LIVELIHOOD FOCUS CACAO, COFFEE RUBBER, ACHIOTE

POPULATION POPULATION 2,803 11,000 Located in one of Peru’s worst deforestation hotspots, we’re partnering with six Awajún villages Protected 64,000 acres of forest by ensuring to defend their vulnerable forest. Our first partnership outside of the Amazon is Helping 16 villages turn down the offer of a two communities along the blackwater rivers of working with five villages in eastern DR Congo to palm oil contract to prevent 140,000 acres of Manicore and Madeira benefit from keeping the LOCATION form a buffer for two neighbouring national parks. primary forest being converted into monoculture. NORTHERN PERU forest standing. LOCATION LOCATION THREAT LOCATION DR CONGO PAPUA NEW GUINEA LOGGING, EXTRACTION BRAZIL THREAT THREAT LIVELIHOOD FOCUS THREAT MINING PALM OIL FISH FARMS, SEED JEWELLERY CATTLE RANCHING LIVELIHOOD FOCUS LIVELIHOOD FOCUS POPULATION LIVELIHOOD FOCUS ENERGY EFFICIENT STOVES COCONUT OIL 2,213 BRAZIL NUTS POPULATION POPULATION POPULATION 12,900 771 AWAJÚN 2,400 ACTIVE MADEIRA LUBUTU ORANGERIE BAY ACTIVE ACTIVE COMPLETE Secured the long-term protection of 55,000 acres of highly vulnerable Chocó rainforest in Ecuador and formed a corridor to link more than 900,000 acres of forest.

LOCATION ECUADOR

THREAT CATTLE RANCHING

LIVELIHOOD FOCUS CACAO, HANDICRAFTS

POPULATION 865

AWACACHI COMPLETE

EL SIRA ASHÁNINKA COMPLETE ACTIVE

Our Asháninka Partnership in central Peru is working Completed capacity building on forest alongside 16 villages to form a shield to halt the management with 69 communities that surround advance of logging and protect millions of acres of the El Sira Reserve, creating a shield for Peru’s pristine rainforest. largest communal reserve.

LOCATION LOCATION CENTRAL PERU CENTRAL PERU

THREAT THREAT LOGGING, COCAINE ILLEGAL LOGGING

LIVELIHOOD FOCUS LIVELIHOOD FOCUS CACAO, COFFEE RUBBER, ACHIOTE

POPULATION POPULATION 2,803 11,000 24 Cool Earth

FINANCIAL SUMMARY 2015/16

INCOME

BUSINESS PARTNERS £780,532 TRUSTS & FOUNDATIONS £489,511 INDIVIDUALS £268,581 OTHER £17,768

TOTAL INCOME £1,556,392 TOTAL EXPENDITURE £1,339,202

EXPENDITURE: DISTRIBUTION 8% FUTURE PROJECTS

23% OCEANIA 53% WESTERN AMAZON 16% CONGO BASIN

COMMUNITY CONSERVATION INVESTMENTS TRAINING This includes items like Our partners make a pledge water pumps, solar driers, to track their progress, food and transport. The ensuring the biodiversity of 43% villages vote on what they 17% the region is protected. 6% need most. FOREST PROJECT HEALTH AND ADVOCACY DEVELOPMENT EDUCATION We help secure the Project development enables Investing in maternal health rights of the people us to set up the basic programs, mosquito nets, we’re working with, so infrastructure essential for medication, schools, they can prove they own 19% starting work with a partner. 15% and more. their forest. THREE RARE GORILLA 45 ENERGY EFFICIENT FAMILIES FOUND IN STOVES BUILT THE LUBUTU FOREST

64 NEW COFFEE THREE NEW STAFF PRODUCERS HIRED IN PERU TO PRODUCE FIRST BUILD CAPACITY FOR HARVEST OF ½ PARTNER SUPPORT TONNE

30 EMERGENCY EVACUATIONS

OCEANIA

120 CACAO COFFEE SAPLINGS PRODUCERS PROVIDED PLANTED TO PRODUCE WITH GROWER’S 11 TONNES BY 2017 TOOLKITS

2.4 TONNES OF TWO NEW SCHOOL CACAO PRODUCED BUILDINGS CONSTRUCTED 26 Cool Earth

image spread 27 WWW.COOLEARTH.ORG Registered charity: 1117978 | US 501 (c)(3) Printed on 100% recycled paper.