What makes Wilderness International different from other NGOs?
We want to do something very concrete, highly effective and directly traceable and give every single person the opportunity to participate: to protect a unique piece of precious nature for all times.
- Concrete impact of our work and donations
Every donation protects a very specific square meter of ancient primary rainforest for all time. We work out of enthusiasm for the protection of the forests we love. Our gain is every square meter of virgin forest more that we can protect for all time. - Transparency
Thanks to coordinates, the use of the donation can be tracked down to the square meter. We also know the areas we protect very well because we visit them regularly on expeditions. Direct involvement is very important to us. We take students and partners on expeditions so that they can see the areas they protect for themselves and experience them first-hand. We also use technology to create transparency by taking high-quality, georeferenced aerial photos. - Effectiveness, urgency & irretrievability
Primeval forest is habitat for a huge biodiversity and thus incredibly important for biodiversity conservation. It is also important for climate (CO2 storage, cool environment, clean air, water storage, regular rainfall, nutrient-rich soils, etc.). It is for us place for rest&recreation etc.. Thus, the virgin forest is an all-round weapon for the environmental problems of our time. Furthermore, only 2.8% of the earth's surface is still wild nature. That means it is incredibly urgent to protect it. Once it disappears, it is irretrievably lost. - Long-term
It is important to us that protection is absolutely secure and long-term, because we are guided by the life span of ancient ecosystems and trees that can survive for hundreds, if not thousands, of years. The organizational form of the foundation makes this long-term and secure protection possible. In this way, we protect forest areas in an absolutely sustainable way and not merely for the next 30 years (as many conservation concessions do) or only during our human lifetime. We only buy forest areas with land registration. This ensures the maximum permanent legal security of the protection. - Positive focus of our work, positive motivation
Instead of a guilty conscience, we focus on positive communication, on inspiration, motivation and enthusiasm. We don't try to make you feel guilty by showing you again and again all the bad things that are happening in the world and that we are responsible for. We rather want to show you solutions what you can do concretely and effectively to do something concrete and effective now and today and to contribute something for a future worth living. We want to motivate you positively by getting you excited about wild nature and informing you about its importance. - The scientific foundation of our work
The diverse professional backgrounds of our active staff ensure a multidisciplinary approach. We ensure the quality of our work through cooperation with scientific partners such as the Environmental Research Center Leipzig, the Senckenberg Natural History Collections and Fauna Forever. We also conduct long-term studies on biodiversity and CO2 storage in our protected areas on scientific expeditions. - Everything from one source
From research, purchase of land and long-term protection to documentation in pictures&films, CO2 calculations, expeditions etc. there are no middlemen with us. We do everything ourselves and thus have full control over and responsibility for the process. In addition, we save costs this way. - Small and flexible organization
Volunteering is a mainstay of our work. Wilderness International's administrative costs have always been below 10% since our founding, and in most years even below 5%.