How your ticket sales have helped prevent illegal rainforest logging in Cameroon

If you’re new to Ticket Tailor, you might not know that we donate 1p (1.3c) to important causes for every single ticket sold on our platform. One of those causes is Rainforest Foundation UK (RFUK) – a trailblazing, three decade-strong initiative that carries out critically important work in the protection of our planet’s rainforests and the people that live within them. 

Paving the way for policy makers and other organisations, RFUK leverages innovative technology to help indigenous and local communities protect their own ancestral lands. One such type of technology is ForestLink, which enables rainforest communities to send alerts of potentially illegal activity on their land from mining to logging. We’re thrilled to be able to say that Ticket Tailor donations specifically go towards supporting this game-changing piece of tech – and that RFUK recently shared a success story linked directly to ForestLink.

A success story: Forestlink alerts result in the suspension of two logging permits in Cameroon

In April 2023, RFUK reported that alerts sent by local communities in the Yoko district of Mbam-et-Kim, Cameroon have resulted in two logging companies having their permits suspended. (Because of reasons including “fraudulent documents and non-respect of social responsibility agreements by logging outside of permitted boundaries.”)

What’s so brilliant about this tangible result is that it proves the effectiveness of providing communities with the ability to report suspicious activity on their own lands. L’association Écosystèmes et Développement (EcoDev), a partner organisation of RFUK, has also been busy training civil-society actors in Mbam-et-Kim on forest monitoring – something that’s lead to the region seeing the highest number of ForestLink alerts sent in 2021-2022. (ForestLink has been active in the region since 2019.)  

Chrétien Belibi, Project Manager at EcoDev, says:

"The impact of real-time monitoring in the district of Yoko is being felt. It is clear that this suspension comes in response to ForestLink alerts and the independent external observation report sent to the Ministry of Forests and Wildlife (MINFOF). The platform for managing natural resources put in place by us formalises the activity of monitoring forestry activities at the local level, and we need to maintain this momentum because there are green lights for collaboration at the local level." 

The critical work of RFUK

RFUK is committed to protecting both human rights and the environment through challenging destructive industries, helping local forest communities gain land rights, and campaigning globally to influence national and international laws. Through this work, they’re proving that one of the most effective ways to preserve our planet’s rainforests is to protect and empower the inhabitants within them.

So far, RFUK has helped indigenous and local communities protect more than 84 million hectares of rainforest. That’s an area bigger than Scandinavia! 

To help paint a clearer picture of the incredible human rights and rainforest protection work carried out by RFUK does, here are some stand-out stats from their 2022 report:

• 3,000,000 – the number hectares of forest in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) that is now controlled by indigenous and local communities.
• 6.5 metric tons – the amount of cocoa that’s been sold directly by community members to a buyer in Kinshasa… at almost double the local price. 
• 130,000 – the number of hectares of Indigenous Lands that now have a recognized land use plan.
• 868 – the number of illegal logging alerts received across Cameroon, DRC, Ghana and Peru.
• 115,000 – the ​​number of people who signed a petition against fossil fuel development in DRC.

The impact of the Ticket Tailor events community

We want to give a huge shout-out to every single person who’s sold a ticket through our platform since we made our pledge back in 2021 to donate 1p for every ticket sold. Your choice to use Ticket Tailor has helped impact genuine, critically important change for many Indigenous Communities and their land.

What we love so much about RFUK and success stories like this ☝️is the how they highlight the importance of not just acting to fight climate change, but fighting to protect the people, livelihoods and cultures that our planet’s rainforests are home to. And you, as a Ticket Tailor user, are a part of that. Thank you 🙏.

🌍 Did you know… Ticket Tailor is a certified B-Corp 

Our work with RFUK and other important causes is one of the ways we aim to stay true to our mission, as a socially conscious company, to play a vital role in making the world better. If you want to know about more about our commitment to having a material positive impact on both people and the planet – check our latest impact report >

And to learn more about the other environmental organisations we – and your ticket sales – support, check out these blog posts:

• How your ticket sales are helping to protect our oceans’ seagrass meadows
• Charity takeover with the Cumbria Wildlife Trust