conservation and education by NGOs

• the third type of international action is by non government organisations (NGOs), such as WWF, fauna and flora international, birdlife international and the world land trust
• all of them are charities that rely on volunteers and donations
• they are not just interested in the tropical rainforests, but operate anywhere in the world where they think ecosystems are being seriously threatened
• these organisations: promote the conservation message largely through education programmes in schools and colleges, provide training for conservation workers, provide practical help to make programmes more sustainable and buy up threatened areas and create nature reserves
• it is vital that those involved in the exploitation and management of the rainforest should be made to understand the consequences of their activities
• important initiatives about conservation can also be undertaken at national and local levels
• WWF has worked in the amazon rainforest for 40 years, they work with local communities and liaise with governments to identify solutions
• in brazil, through the 'amazon protected areas program', WWF works to create a network of parks covering 150 million acres of the rainforest
• the parks are designed to be well managed areas that use sustainable methods of resource management, preventing deforestation
• the partnership began in 2004 and WWF donated $500,000 to establish and manage the parks
• by july 2006, a total of 21 million hectares of new protected areas had been created in the Amazon, more than doubling the area under protection prior to the programmes initiation