World Parks Endowment/World Land Trust-US

A unique fund to conserve rainforests and other critical areas worldwide by buying land and through effective management.

Why do we exist?

World Land Trust-US protects habitat for critically endangered species, primarily rainforest in the New World Tropics.  WLT-US acts principally by enabling local NGOs such as Fundación Jocotoco in Ecuador to buy and manage private reserves.  Currently these local organizations (unlike international organizations) are able to acquire land for approximately $100 per acre.

What have you accomplished?

Since its founding in 1989, the World Parks Endowment has raised more than $3 million, of which only 2% has been used for administrative and fundraising overhead. We have played a central role in the creation of new protected areas in several countries, working with local organizations to purchase and conserve lands high in biodiversity.

• Belize: We created an endowment of $100,000, allowing the government to create the Bladen Reserve, a 97,000 acre Sanctuary protecting humid rainforest in the highest biodiversity region of Belize;
• Chile: We funded the land purchase of 1000 acres to create the Cani araucaria reserve;
• Ecuador: We have provided funding to help Fundación Jocotoco establish eight private reserves in Ecuador, protecting some 20,000 acres of critical habitat for bird species that were on the verge of extinction
• Guatemala: WPE purchased the initial 11,000 acres of cloud forest (at $4 per acre) which formed the core of and catalyzed the creation of the Sierra de las Minas Biosphere reserve.

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