The Rainforest Solutions Project Wins Fuller Challenge

The award follows the ideas of Buckminster Fuller, who strove "to make the world work for 100% of humanity in the shortest possible time through the spontaneous cooperation without ecological offense or the disadvantage of anyone." The Challenge started in 2008 and has awarded projects around issues of sustainable transporation, environmental performance in buildings, and the preservation of marine environments, among others. The 2016 winner was one of six finalists that were announced in August, which included Cooperación Comunitaria in Mexico, CommuniTree by Taking Root, Waterbank Schools by PITCHAfrica, Una Hakika by the Sentinel Project, and The Urban Death Project.

According to the website of Rainforest Solutions Project (a project of Tides Canada), their ongoing efforts have led to "a new legal and policy framework that concurrently advances First Nations governance and economic aspirations over their territories, high levels of conservation, and logging activity which respects nature’s limits. Eighty-five per cent (3.1 million hectares) of the region’s coastal temperate rainforests will be permanently off limits to industrial logging. The remaining 15 per cent (550,000 hectares) will be subject to the most stringent legal standards for commercial logging operations in North America."

Rainforest Solutions Project, which won the Fuller Challenge with member groups Greenpeace, Stand.earth (formerly ForestEthics) and Sierra Club BC, will receive the award at a celebration in Brooklyn, New York, on 16 November 2016. Tickets to the event can be obtained here.