Celebrating Earth Day is an important tradition at Rainforest Trust. Our offices at International Conservation House in Virginia are the same historic location where U.S. Senator Gaylord Nelson met with students in 1970 to discuss the concept of establishing Earth Day, which is now recognized every year on April 22nd to promote environmental protection.

This Earth Day, Rainforest Trust announced a new conservation project in Sumatra that will create a protected area the size of New York City, saving crucial rainforest habitat for the island’s critically endangered species – including the Sumatran Rhino, Sumatran Tiger, Sumatran Orangutan, Sumatran Elephant, and Helmeted Hornbill. In celebration of Earth Day, our supporters helped us raise over $1.7 million to protect 178,958 acres for these imperiled species!

In addition to protecting a massive block of rainforest for critically endangered species in Sumatra for Earth Day, Rainforest Trust’s corporate partner Endangered Species Chocolate donated funds to help us save 961 acres in Côte d’Ivoire with the My Chocolate Acre campaign throughout the month of April. For every social media post using #MyChocolateAcre, Endangered Species Chocolate saved one acre of forest in Cote d’Ivoire – habitat that contains some of the highest biodiversity levels in West Africa and one of the locations where Endangered Species Chocolate sources their sustainable cacao.

Header photo: Sumatran elephant in the wild. Photo by Vincent Poulisen.