In 1989, famed musician Sting and Trudie Styler, along with Dr. Franca Sciuto, backed a rainforest foundation following a promise they made to an indigenous chief, Chief Raoni of the Kayapó tribe. The foundation was made to focus on the Amazon region of Brazil. What started off as a simple meeting in the Amazon rainforest in 1987 turned into something so big that years later, the foundation has helped provide protection to the Amazon region in Brazil and has funded more than 300+ projects over the past few decades.
In 1987, Sting met with Chief Raoni of the Kayapó tribe
The meeting between the rock star and the tribal chief happened following the release of his album, ‘Nothing Like the Sun.’ At the time, Sting was introduced to Belgian filmmaker Jean-Pierre Dutilleux, who then invited him to visit the Brazilian Amazon. There, Sting ended up meeting with Chief Raoni Metuktire, who was an elder leader of the Kayapó people recognizable by his ceremonial lip plate (labret).According to the fund’s official website, during their meeting, Raoni made a humble request to the singer, rather than asking for monetary donations. During the Rainforest Foundation Launch & Press Conferences in 1989, Sting shared more details about what happened and said, “Raoni didn’t ask us to build him a hospital or a school. He asked for one thing: ‘Help us mark out our land.’ He knew that without a border, without legal title signed by the government, they would be wiped out. It wasn’t about sending money; it was about giving them the legal tools to defend what was already theirs.”At the time, illegal gold miners, loggers, and a proposed massive hydroelectric dam complex along the Xingu River were all heavily affecting the well-being of the Amazon River, along with the surrounding regions, which were being destroyed day by day. The chief had reached out to Sting to help them with the legal issues that arose in trying to protect their land. As to why the popular star stood by the movement? Sting shared in an old interview with the BBC that “The native people are the best guardians of the forest. They don’t need us to tell them how to look after it; they’ve done it for thousands of years. They just need the law on their side.”After he met with the tribal community, he returned to Europe with a newfound determination to help Raoni’s people, along with the entire rainforest that was slowly being affected by illegal miners and industrial projects. After their return, Sting, his partner Trudie Styler, filmmaker Jean-Pierre Dutilleux, and Italian doctor Franca Sciuto co-founded the Rainforest Foundation in 1989. To raise awareness about the issue, Sting even organized a 60-day, 17-country world tour and brought Raoni with him on tour.During their tour, they met with a lot of political leaders, such as Pope John Paul II, French President François Mitterrand, and King Charles III, and held a lot of press conferences during the tour to raise public awareness about the issue. Following this, the organization was also able to raise millions of dollars through individual donations to fund the physical survey and boundary marking of the land.
Trudie Styler talks about the Rainforest Fund and why they started it in the first place
In 2011, in a Huffington Post blog, Styler opened up about why she and Sting invested in creating the Rainforest Fund. In her post, she shared that while they had been aware of the statistics about the damage that the rainforest had undergone, seeing it all up close changed their perspective. She added, “Observing the destruction from a distance of several thousand feet was bad enough. The global consequences were plain to see from our bird’s-eye view. But what was even more heart-wrenching was landing the plane and meeting some of the indigenous people whose land was being ruined.”She commented on how people do not care for things like global warming and deforestation, even though in the long run all of it will have a major effect on the world altogether. She provided more details on the kind of work the organization does, sharing, “On a human level, the Rainforest Foundation provides financial support for people living in and around the world’s rainforests, helping them to preserve their environment and protect their rights to land, life, and livelihood. We help indigenous groups become more independent and self-sustaining, and as a priority we support them to gain legal rights to the lands they live on.”
The Rainforest Fund has helped hundreds of projects and NGOs
Ever since its inception, the organization has provided a lot of funds and other kinds of support for multiple organizations and NGOs across four continents. From community organizations to providing legal aid and human rights protection.They also extended their support to many other countries, including Belize, Kenya, Costa Rica, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Bolivia, Myanmar, Ecuador, Mexico, Guyana, Honduras, Indonesia, Panama, the Philippines, Madagascar, Papua New Guinea, and Peru.