LETTER FROM THE CHAIRMAN OF THE BOARD
Dear Friends , For Rainforest Trust , 2019 was a year of global challenge , local success , constancy of mission , and organizational change .
The global alliance to end deforestation , New York Declaration on Forests , reported that “ tropical deforestation continued at an unsustainable pace since 2014 ” and the world was not on track to end deforestation by 2030 . In Brazil deforestation leaped 45 %, and record forest fires spread across the Amazon as beef and soy profiteers slashed and burned rainforest , often illegally .
We kept to our mission of saving rainforests and endangered species by creating protected areas , confident that this remains the ultimate solution . In the Peruvian Amazon , we launched our newest multi-year , $ 4.5 million program with our partner CEDIA working with 220 indigenous communities to provide them land title and stewardship rights to 6.1 million acres of pristine rainforest . In Gabon , we launched a project with the Gabon National Parks Agency to expand the flagship Plateau Batéké National Park by 344,460 acres . This area is a stronghold for the Critically Endangered Western Gorilla and the Endangered Chimpanzee .
Again in 2019 , Rainforest Trust delivered extraordinary conservation results for your investment . We safeguarded more than three million acres in new protected areas or expansions of existing ones : establishing a two million acre reserve in Bolivia ’ s extraordinary Beni grasslands ecosystem ; creating the first and only reserve for the conservation of the Critically Endangered Dahl ’ s Toad-headed Turtle in Colombia ; establishing a reserve to protect Endangered Bonobos , one of our closest living relatives and one of Congo ’ s most iconic and threatened species .
Proof that our approach works came from an analysis of data from the Global Forest Watch platform showing that 92 % of the protected areas we have established since our founding in 1988 have seen less than 5 % total deforestation .
Our second CEO , Paul Salaman , moved on after eight years of visionary leadership . Mark Gruin , who rejoined Rainforest Trust in 2017 , agreed to stand in , ably leading the organization through a year of record fundraising driven by public concern about the fires in Brazil and across the world ’ s rainforests . And we launched a professional search for the next CEO .
2020 is a year of even greater significance for the world and for Rainforest Trust , and I look forward to reporting to you on our appointment of James Deutsch as CEO , our new strategic plan , our achievement of the five-year SAVES goal of raising $ 50 million to match the challenge grant of our most generous donor , and our continued extraordinary conservation success .
Through it all two things stay constant : our mission and your committed support . The one depends on the other . With your continued help , and with increasingly strong global partnerships , we can slow and stop the destruction of rainforests and of the exquisite and irreplaceable species that depend on them--very much including our own . Thank you , and stay safe .
Yours faithfully ,
Dr . Eric Veach Chair , Board of Directors