Conserving 240,000 acres of natural forest

In 2020, we connected with The Nature Conservancy to touch-base on two key private forest parcels that were rumored to be coming available in Belize. Over the next 12 months, more than a dozen organizations - including ClimatePath and our International Tropical Conservation Fund - came together to ask "How might we work together to protect this forest land in perpetuity?" In mid 2021, the new Belize Maya Forest protected area was acquired, and will be added to the Selva Maya conservation area - the largest remaining tropical forests in the Americas outside of the Amazon. This new 240,000 acre protected area is contiguous with and nearly doubles the size of the adjacent Rio Bravo Conservation Management Area, together representing 9% of the landmass of Belize. It helps secure a vital wildlife corridor in Central America’s dwindling forests, and will sequester as much as one million tons/year of carbon.

More and more, driving impact requires large-scale collaboration and partnership. What’s exciting about the Maya Forest Project is not just the impact it will have on endangered species and climate. But also demonstrating what collective and collaborative efforts can accomplish. So thanks to the Nature Conservancy, Rainforest Trust, World Land Trust, Wyss Foundation, The Bobolink Foundation, Global Wildlife Conservation, The Government of Belize, and the many other organizations and individuals (you know who you are!) involved in guiding this effort.

It is exciting to see so much collaborative commitment emerging to save forests, as well as reduce plastics and toxins, cut emissions, and pursue other ecological and social goals. New groups, partnerships, and pre-competitive collaborations are popping up faster than I can keep track of. But now the challenge is shifting - especially in the corporate/NGO sectors - from motivating action to managing collective commitments and partnerships for results.

Read more about the project here.

Why every footprint counts.

The world is a big, heterogeneous, and complex place. Changing it for the better is a collective effort, and far more than any organization, group, or individual can take on alone. But if we each commit to finding a specific area where we can have impact, then together we will build a better future.

As the late Wangari Maathi said: “We are constantly being bombarded by problems that we face and sometimes we can get completely overwhelmed.  The story of the hummingbird is about this huge forest being consumed by a fire. All the animals in the forest come out and they are transfixed as they watch the forest burning and they feel very overwhelmed, very powerless, except this little hummingbird. It says, ‘I’m going to do something about the fire!’ So it flies to the nearest stream and takes a drop of water. It puts it on the fire, and goes up and down, up and down, up and down, as fast as it can.

In the meantime all the other animals.. they are saying to the hummingbird, ‘What do you think you can do? You are too little. This fire is too big. Your wings are too little and your beak is so small that you can only bring a small drop of water at a time.’  

But as they continue to discourage it, it turns to them without wasting any time and it tells them, ‘I am doing the best I can.’