50 Million Acres Safeguarded
Rainforest Trust’ s approach to land conservation is one of successful collaboration. Every acre protected is possible only with the support of our generous donors, the on-the-ground work of our partners, and the dedication and commitment of our own experienced staff. Together, we safeguarded our 50 millionth acre in 2024.
From the largest antelope migration on Earth to some of the rarest of songbirds, Rainforest Trust— together with our partners and supporters— has helped safeguard more than 3,000 threatened or endangered species around the world.
We do this by protecting the places these species rely upon. Since 1988, we and our partners have worked together on more than 457 projects that each safeguard essential acres throughout the world’ s tropical and subtropical regions.
In April 2024, those acres added up to a milestone number: 50 million acres protected around the world. That’ s roughly the same size as England and Scotland combined. The impacts are immense. These 50 million acres support 3,089 threatened species, safeguard 34.6 billion trees, and store an estimated 7.5 gigatons of carbon dioxide equivalents.
Our work hasn’ t slowed since then. As of June 2025, we have helped safeguard 56.5 million acres, with another 66.8 million acres in the process of being protected.
It all started 37 years ago with a frantic phone call.
Magali Rey Rosa, then director of the Guatemalan conservation group Defensores de la Naturaleza, had been approached with the opportunity to purchase 11,000 acres of cloud forest in Guatemala’ s Sierra de las Minas mountain range. The land was undeveloped, supported an incredible diversity of species, and would only be available to purchase for a short time at a cost of just $ 4 per acre.
With this offer in hand, Magali Rey Rosa called one conservation organization after another, seeking funding to buy the parcel and protect the land. Again and again, she was met with disappointment. Then she reached out to Rainforest Trust founder, Byron Swift. At the time, Rainforest Trust was only an idea. But, with this one phone call, that was about to change.
What followed was a whirlwind few weeks of officially launching Rainforest Trust— then called World Parks Endowment— finding donors, and securing the property before it could be sold for development or agriculture.
In the end, 11,000 acres were protected and a new conservation organization was born. Except this was not the end. It was only the beginning. In the months and years and decades that followed, we kept going. With the support of our donors, we built partnerships, identified key priorities for conservation, grew our expertise, and always remained committed to our mission to protect threatened tropical habitats and wildlife by safeguarding the land they rely upon.
Again and again, we have proven this approach works— almost 97 % of our projects successfully protect acres, and approximately 99 % of the forests safeguarded within those acres remain standing today. This includes those first 11,000 acres, which are now a part of Guatemala’ s 594,379-acre Sierra de las Minas Biosphere Reserve. Almost four decades since our founding, safeguarding critical habitat is still the most effective way to protect species.
4 Rainforest Trust 2024 Annual Report