Rainforest Trust

Rainforest Trust is a US-based nonprofit environmental organization focused on the purchase and protection of tropical lands to strategically conserve threatened species.[3] Founded in 1988, Rainforest Trust was formerly known as World Parks Endowment. In 2006, then World Parks Endowment affiliated itself with World Land Trust, a UK-based nonprofit environmental organization, and became World Land Trust-US, as both organizations were dedicated to minimizing their costs in order to allow donated funds to flow to habitat conservation projects on the ground.[4] On September 16, 2013, as part of celebrating the organization's 25th anniversary, the World Land Trust-US changed its name to Rainforest Trust.[5]

Rainforest Trust

Formation	December 8, 1988 (1988-12-08)[1]
Founded at	New York[1]
Headquarters	Warrenton, Virginia, United States
Revenue (2016)	$15.7 million[2]
Website	www.rainforesttrust.org
Formerly called	World Parks Endowment World Land Trust-US

Rainforest Trust supports the purchase of large tracts of land by local NGO's working across tropical Asia, Africa, and Latin America for the purposes of protecting it, in a fashion similar to the Nature Conservancy by making use of land trusts. The organization also seeks to help in-situ conservation measures by providing training, capital and equipment for environmental stewardship in economically impoverished areas.

Most acres are permanently protected for an average of less than $100 per acre. As of 2017, Rainforest Trust has helped protect 18,000,000 acres (73,000 km²) of habitat.[6]

Byron Swift was the CEO of the organization from 1988 until 2012 when Paul Salaman became the CEO. In 2020, James C. Deutsch became the CEO.[7]

Robert S. Ridgely, President Emeritus, is an expert on neotropical birds, on which he has published several books, is a longtime conservationist, and is the co-discoverer of the jocotoco antpitta.