Welcome to the Rainforest Information Centre
RIC supports The Voice
The Rainforest Information Centre is a grassroots, volunteer-based not-for-profit organisation dedicated to the protection of the Earth's remaining rainforests, in partnership with Indigenous and local communities who depend on them.
Over four decades we have coordinated campaigns, supported frontline activists and helped communities to build sustainable alternatives to rainforest destruction, in Australia and all over the world.
If you are using phone view, hit the three little green lines for a menu of our campaigns, projects, history, deep ecology events, newsletters and how to get involved!
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Protect Sarawak's Rainforests - Support SAVE Rivers
Tiny grassroots Malaysian NGO, SAVE Rivers, is supporting Indigenous people to protect the largest remaining stand of primary rainforest in Borneo, home to numerous endangered and threatened species including gibbons, pangolins, clouded leopards, binturong, otters, and 6 different hornbill species.
Unfortunately, logging companies in the area are not happy with being called out on their exploitation of lands set aside for an Indigenous-managed forest reserve. Not only have they continued to log these protected areas without community consent, but they have hit SAVE Rivers with a strategic (SLAPP) lawsuit to silence them and hold up local actions indefinitely.
In partnership with the Borneo Project, we have set up a crowdfund to contribute towards the costs of what is likely to be a protracted legal battle. The court hearing for SAVE Rivers to defend their case is now in September 2023 after several postponements.
If you are in Australia and would like to make a tax deductible donation towards the costs of this upcoming hearing, you can do so via our crowdfund link here!
If you would prefer to contribute by cheque or directly to a bank account, you can find the details here. Email us at [email protected] to say you’d like your donation to contribute towards Sarawak, and to receive your tax receipt if you need one.
Critically endangered Sunda pangolin. Photo credit: Chien C Lee Photography
Another Rights of Nature case win in Ecuador!
April 2023 - the Provincial Court of Imbabura has ruled that a mining company must immediately cease its controversial Llurimagua copper project.
This mine, if ever constructed, could destroy hundreds of hectares of cloud forests and waterways in the region of Intag.
The Court stated that the company's environmental impact statement, completed in 2014, was invalid due to violations of the rights of nature and the rights of affected communities to consultation.
This win marks a major milestone in a legal battle spanning three years to stop the mine from going ahead. Intag's local communities have been fighting one company after another since the 1980s.
Over the past five years, the Rainforest Information Centre and Melbourne Rainforest Action Group have been helping out with funds for community assemblies and mobilisations, scientific expeditions, and legal costs around the Llurimagua battle.
Last year, one of these scientific expeditions discovered an entirely new species of frog in the area slated to be mined - named the "Resistance Rocket Frog" by local vote!
This is the second time in less than two years an Ecuadorian court has utilised the rights of nature to stop mining. In December 2021, Ecuador's Constitutional Court decided in favour of protection for the Los Cedros Reserve.
We are actively supporting several Ecuadorian frontlines right now to protect forests in the world's number one biodiversity hotspot.
For more information, lots of photos from a RIC campaigner's recent field trip, and how you can help, visit our Ecuador Endangered page here!
A young Resistance Rocket Frog. Photo by Carlos Zorrilla
We need your HELP to SAVE BULGA FOREST!
The logging of Bulga Forest is destroying the homes of Koalas and Greater Gliders that are already in danger of extinction. It is wrecking the upper catchment leading to downstream erosion, landslips, and muddying of the creeks and rivers. It removes the most effective carbon capture and storage technology we have- trees, in a time where we most need to draw down carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. More information about this campaign is here.
Locals in solidarity with Santa, who was positioned in a tree sit. Photo provided by Susie Russell
Our Partners and Friends
RIC is proud to be collaborating with and supporting like-minded organisations and projects in Australia and internationally.
These include ...
Marrow of the Mountain documentary
North East Forest Alliance (NEFA) NSW
Our History
The Rainforest Information Centre has been a central link in the radical environmental moment for nearly four decades. It was born out of the successful struggle to save the sub-tropical rainforests of New South Wales, Australia (now a World Heritage Area) in 1979-to 1981.
His initial experiences to save rainforests, beginning at Terania Creek, inspired John Seed to establish and lead the organisation in its participation in the struggles to save the temperate rainforests of Tasmania in 1982 (Franklin River Blockade) and the tropical rainforests of Far North Queensland in 1983-84 (Daintree Blockade).
Visit here for more about John, his far-reaching work, books, interviews, and upcoming events.
Visit our old website for decades of archives and stories about our work, and for Deep Ecology materials!
September 11, 2023