39 million trees and 200 families at risk from loggers
Logging companies show up with thick envelopes of cash. In exchange, they want one thing. Rainforest.
In Papua New Guinea, nine communities face the same pressure. Loggers have waited for months. They arrive with promises of better roads, schools, health centres. All it takes is a signature.
Five communities, Opuopu, Sanalaki, Gogosiba, Niesa and Maibonabona, chose differently. They reached out to Cool Earth themselves, asking for support.
Cool Earth has worked in Papua New Guinea since 2015. Its partner communities receive direct cash support and forest monitoring data, letting families afford food, medicine and school, without selling their forest. Your support will extend that same lifeline to these five communities.
Loggers are sweeping across the south-western tip of Papua New Guinea. Help these communities stand strong against them.
Why it matters beyond Papua New Guinea
This rainforest is the world's third-largest. It stores nearly 7 billion tonnes of carbon and shelters 7% of all species on Earth. What happens here doesn't stay here. It shapes a climate we all depend on, wherever we live.
The climate crisis has no borders. Carbon released by logging in Papua New Guinea affects a summer in Prague just as much as it affects rainfall on the other side of the world. If this forest falls, we lose one of the last great allies in the fight against warming. Protecting a rainforest thousands of kilometres away is also protecting our own future at home.
Why donate now
For these families, cash isn't something they see every day. When a logger puts an envelope of money on the table, it can look like the only way to pay for food, medicine or school. We can offer them another way. One that leaves the forest standing.
Supporting five new communities also creates a connected network of protected rainforest. It closes the path for loggers deeper inland, where hundreds of thousands more hectares would be at risk.
One example is the Waduada community. They signed the forest agreement and used the cash for biomass stoves and street lighting, changes that have been transformative for their daily lives.
Your donation will help:
- Give families the means to say no to logging offers
- Equip communities with data and tools to monitor their own forest
- Bring in legal support where it's needed
The people who call this forest home are the ones deciding its future. Your donation gives them the strength to say no. 🌳💪
