The safety of our planet is at risk every single day from climate change, and at Brother we believe that protecting our last remaining rainforests is vital to stopping and reversing some of the damage that has been done. That is why we partner with Cool Earth and are proud to be their longest serving commercial partner.
Rainforests are natural carbon sinks – they absorb carbon dioxide, helping to prevent rising temperatures on Earth, so protecting them in vital, as is supporting the people that live in them. We need to ensure the communities that reside in these vital ecosystems have the knowledge, support and equipment needed to protect, thrive and ultimately save the rainforests we still have left.
It is vital that we support this climate action. Since our partnership with Cool Earth began, Brother has helped to protect over 78,000 hectares of rainforest: around 32 million trees with the capacity to store over 50 million tonnes of carbon. This protects a wealth of biodiversity and keeps the world’s carbon sinks intact.
We will all feel the impacts of the climate crisis, but it is not a level playing field when it comes to tackling the challenges it brings. People living in the rainforest are on the front lines of climate change and are already bearing the brunt of extreme weather, sea level rise, and much more. Most of us use a smartphone and rely on Google Maps and Wi-Fi in our daily lives, but not everyone has easy access to this data.
Cool Earth's Rainforest Labs programme has been designed to address this gap. By combining technology with the ancestral knowledge of Indigenous peoples, we can ensure the people with the best track record of protecting rainforests are equipped to do so, and that the necessary steps towards finding solutions can be taken.
After the success of Rainforest Labs in Peru, we are excited to support the building of Cool Earth's first Rainforest Lab in Papua New Guinea, in Wabumari. This lab will provide local forest monitors with the technology and training they need to track threats to the rainforest, such as illegal logging and wildfires, and take quick action. Since the first Rainforest Lab launch in Peru in 2022, the Asháninka have responded to 100 forest loss alerts thanks to their access to data and technology.
Through a new partnership with Central Asháninka del Río Ene (CARE), Cool Earth provides advocacy support to lobby local governments to secure vital funding for fire prevention initiatives. This covers four key programmes: prevention (legal, physical); preparation and control; information dissemination; and advocacy and finance.
The long-term goal is to give people the training they need to identify and monitor changing forest conditions in order to combat fires before they even start.
The Asháninka have a long history of using controlled burning to combat wildfires. Adapting to climate change by reimagining the Asháninka's traditional land management practices will create new ways of conserving the rainforest. This protects homes, livelihoods and the health of our planet.
You may not think that regular hand washing helps fight deforestation, but it really does.
In Papua New Guinea, Brother is supporting Cool Earth to provide 24 hand washing stations to rainforest communities. But how does that save trees? Hand washing is the first step in a domino-effect of positive actions that ensure that the forest and its communities stay healthy. It supports a culture of health and hygiene.
Clean hands mean less illness. Less illness ensures that there are more resilient people living in the rainforest to protect it. More healthy people mean fewer trips to expensive medical centres. Less expenditure on medical treatment means more cash security. And more cash security means less economic pressure to fell and sell rainforest timber.
Built by local people in schools, markets and health centres, the hand washing stations have vastly improved life for over 2,500 people. And, in addition, further sanitation training has also been provided for 33 volunteers from eight villages.