Rick and Theresa’s Community Forest

Wilderness International is a non-profit environmental organisation with a single goal: to protect the Earth’s last remaining unique forests and wilderness areas for ever. To this end, Wilderness International purchases plots of land through registration in the land register, thereby ensuring their legally secure and permanent protection. The land purchases are funded by donations towards so-called ‘wilderness sponsorships’. Wilderness sponsors receive a personalised certificate stating the exact geographical coordinates of the protected forest area.

WI Germany and WI Canada were founded in 2008 by 25 people from six countries, representing 24 different professional fields and aged between 18 and 69. In 2019, the Peruvian organisation dedicated to protecting the tropical rainforest joined the initiative. Today, Wilderness International consists of three sister foundations: 

In addition to the founding donors, Wilderness International Germany is supported by eight members of the Foundation Board, three members of the Executive Board, our operational team, many volunteers and countless donors, partners, sponsors and supporters. You can find out more on the “Wilderness International Germany” page.

At Wilderness International Canada, alongside Tobias Hürten and Kai Andersch, Marco Lou, Tyler Bruce and Stephen Gabrysh also work directly on the ground to manage our partnerships, land acquisitions, expeditions and the protection of our forest areas. Volunteers, donors and supporters are also actively involved here. You can find out more under “Wilderness International Canada”.

At Wilderness International Peru, the seven founders form the board of trustees. On the ground, the organisation’s president, Dr Chris Kirkby, works alongside a team of forest rangers and the rest of the operational team to oversee the protected areas, carry out research and biodiversity monitoring in the forests, the search for and purchase of new plots of land, and projects with local schools, communities and partners. You can find more information on the “Wilderness International Peru” page.

We protect the areas we have selected exclusively by purchasing them and registering them in the land register, in countries with a high degree of legal certainty. All three international foundations (Peru, Canada, Germany) are registered as owners in the land register. The forest areas we have purchased as foundations can no longer be bought from us, and we are also no longer permitted to sell them. 

The foundation’s organisational structure prevents the rights to dispose of the property from resting with a single individual and ensures its long-term survival. You can find out more about the longevity of the foundation concept here. Our articles of association stipulate that the plots of land must be left undisturbed and may only be visited for research and documentation purposes. 

In Canada: 

Due to their remoteness and the fact that the area is undeveloped, our protected areas in Canada can only be reached at great financial, material and time-related expense, and not without risk. Furthermore, the high level of legal certainty in Canada ensures that damage to land results in severe penalties. The British Columbia Trespass Act explicitly prohibits trespassing on private land. Violations are prosecuted in court upon complaint, even if no damage has been caused. Furthermore, we visit and monitor the areas as part of regular research trips and have partnerships with local companies that support us. In Canada, we also benefit from the fact that property is held in very high regard for its cultural and historical value and is respected.

In Peru:

In Peru, we have Forest Guardians on the ground whose day-to-day duties include monitoring our protected areas and preventing unauthorised entry. By using drones, the Guardians can survey a larger area, and special sensors trigger an alarm instantly if, for example, a fire breaks out or the sound of chainsaws is detected. In addition, we work there with the organisation ‘Fauna Forever’, which also has a permanent presence on the ground and, as part of its research projects, patrols and monitors our areas.

Furthermore, the Forest Guardians are in direct contact with the local population, promote our conservation objectives within the community, erect information signs and actively work on community projects – such as our current agroforestry project – to show the local population ways to benefit from the rainforest without clearing it. Should a conflict nevertheless arise, we report poachers and other individuals acting illegally to the local law enforcement agencies (such as the police, lawyers and authorities), and work closely with them.

The rainforests in Peru and Canada are among the last remaining intact wilderness areas on our planet – and are, sadly, under acute threat. 10–15 per cent of all annual emissions are caused by the destruction of these forests and their peatlands – which is why we must act now!

Numerous studies confirm the threat to the rainforests in Peru and Canada.

In Peru:

• According to the Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations (FAO), around 10 million hectares of tropical rainforest were lost annually between 2015 and 2020, with the Amazon region suffering the most damage (FAO and UNEP, 2020).
• There is no sign of this trend abating, as even in 2024 the destruction of primary forests remained well above the politically set targets (Forest Declaration Assessment, 2024). In 2024 alone, an area of primary forest larger than the whole of Belgium disappeared in Latin America (Forest Declaration Assessment, 2024). Peru holds the grim distinction of ranking third in this regard (Jong, 2024).
• In the Tambopata region in particular – where our conservation areas are located – there has been significant pressure on the forest for agricultural development and gold mining since the completion of the motorway to Brazil. On this online map, you can see the deforestation that has taken place over the last 20 years in the region around Puerto Maldonado, where we are active. 
• You can also see the deforestation in the region on this online map, which shows our protected areas. The historical development of deforestation is also very well illustrated in the video by YouTuber Tomary, who was with us in Peru.
• In his independent expert report, Rainer Kant of BAUM e.V. has also confirmed that the areas we protect in the Madre de Dios region would no longer exist today, or in the coming years, were it not for our work.

In Canada:

Everyone is aware of the value of the Amazon rainforest and the threats it faces. Yet hardly anyone speaks of the forgotten ecosystem of the temperate rainforest in British Columbia: 

• This is home to the world’s last large contiguous area of temperate rainforest (DellaSala, 2010). And yet British Columbia, of all places, is one of the last jurisdictions in the world that still permits the large-scale felling of ancient giant trees aged between 600 and 1,800 years (Wu, 2019). 
• The main causes of this are the timber industry, agriculture and the construction of infrastructure. 
• The Ancient Forest Alliance’s online map (2016) provides a striking visualisation of how deforestation in south-eastern BC had progressed by 2016.
• In his independent expert report, Rainer Kant of BAUM e.V. has confirmed that the last remaining undisturbed areas of temperate rainforest in Canada are under threat from logging companies seeking timber, agricultural corporations expanding farmland, urban sprawl, construction and infrastructure, and Canada’s withdrawal from the Kyoto Protocol – and therefore require our protection.

If we lose the last remaining intact rainforests, this will have catastrophic consequences for our planet. The concept of planetary boundaries states that there are certain ecological limits; exceeding these endangers the stability of the Earth’s ecosystem and, consequently, the future of humanity. Numerous studies show that we are well on the way to exceeding at least five of the nine planetary boundaries, also known as ‘tipping points’. One of these is the loss of the tropical rainforest. We are already feeling the effects of climate change, but we still have the chance to avert the worst consequences, as the summary of the book ‘Earth for All’ shows.