For over 16 years, we’ve been supporting thousands of people who live in the rainforest through unconditional cash transfers.

Unconditional cash transfers are direct payments we send to people living in the rainforest so they can purchase what they see as most essential for their community. The payments are sent frequently, and there’s no catch or requirements on how the cash is spent.

We do this in two ways. The first way is by transferring unconditional finances to rainforest communities in the Amazon, New Guinea and Congo Rainforest. The whole community comes together to decide together how to invest the funds. The second way is a more direct approach where we send money directly to individuals in the Amazon rainforest as part of our Basic Income pilot.

Autonomy and Trust

In a challenging place like the rainforest, only the people who live there know what’s best for them. We respect and trust their ability to decide how best to spend the cash based on the unique circumstances they face living in the rainforest.

Life in the rainforest

Living in the rainforest comes with unique challenges. Indigenous communities can lack basic necessities such as safe drinking water, reliable buildings, healthcare facilities, and stable sources of income.

Without income to pay for essentials like food and medicine, they can be forced to sell their land to the likes of illegal loggers and miners. Once these extractive industries make their way in, the rainforest begins to fall, and the climate crisis becomes even worse.

Whilst illegal loggers offer communities money to leave, we provide financial support to help communities stay.

Cash, rainforest and people

Rainforests are essential carbon sinks. Their preservation is critical to mitigating climate change, protecting biodiversity, and supporting the livelihoods of millions of people around the world.

Whilst Indigenous peoples and local communities comprise less than 5% of the world’s population, they manage at least 25% of the planet’s land surface and protect an estimated 80% of global biodiversity.

Despite this, rainforest communities receive less than 1% of all development funding to address climate change. Worse still, their contribution to the protection of Earth’s most vital resources and climate mitigation has been effectively ignored.

We believe it’s time to shift control, decision-making and power to the people at the frontline of deforestation. 

Cool Earth Resources

Below are the findings from our unconditional cash projects over the last few years. We predict a variety of findings because each village and each person has different needs, priorities and visions for a thriving future.

These articles reflect the ever-evolving dynamics and realities of living in the rainforest, so undoubtedly at times will contradict and challenge the previous versions.

• Working in partnership with AidKit to deliver our Basic Income pilot. (May 2024)
• Unconditional Cash Transfers (UCTs) for Rainforest Protection strategy (February 2022)
• Internal intellectual context & rationale for cash giving (2021)
• Is conservation basic income a good idea? A scoping study of the views of conservation professionals on cash giving programmes (Callum Sheehan, 2022, MSc dissertation – collaboration between Cool Earth and the University of Leeds)
• Can a basic income for people who live in the rainforest save the rainforest? – Abstract for conferences (2022)
• Review of cash giving in Peru 2008-2020 (2021)