damnit e.V. is committed to protecting endangered wilderness areas.

Wilderness International purchases primary rainforest areas with land title and legally protects them for all future. Donations refinance the purchases and at the same time finance long-term protection as well as environmental education and research. Donors receive a personalized certificate with the exact geo-coordinates and aerial photograph of the forest area they are protecting. Thus, the use and impact of the donation is tangible and directly traceable. We are currently working in the temperate rainforest of Western Canada and the Amazon rainforest of Peru, where we are protecting ancient primary rainforests.

It is important to protect the rainforest because this is the only way we can stop species extinction and climate change. They are home to the world's greatest biodiversity and store huge amounts of CO₂. It is also important to protect rainforests because they are the basis of our existence: they provide us with clean air, clean water and stable rainfall. They also cool the environment. 

Together with our conservation experts and scientific partners such as the Environmental Research Center Leipzig (UFZ), the Senckenberg Natural History Collections and others, we select the land according to its particular need for protection. The decisive factors are species diversity, biomass and acute threat.

Rapid Assessments

Find out more at “How we protect forests”

In Canada, good legal security helps us, as well as the legal situations and sanctions that even prohibit trespassing.

In Peru, we have additionally started a forest guardian program with local people. To ensure long-term protection, we also have several other measures in place. In general, we visit the areas on regular expeditions to check on them. We also work with local partners who inform us of any irregularities if necessary. The donations per square meter also already include the costs for property taxes.

Like no other, the legal form of the foundation allows a (charitable) purpose to be realized permanently and independently of outside interests, thus achieving the desired effects in the long term. It is thus the most long-term organizational construct currently known. Not even states, companies or national parks are designed for such a long term. This makes the foundation the only one that is oriented toward the lifespan of the ecosystems we protect.

Strictly speaking, you don't "buy" the forest. We, the three foundations Wilderness International in Peru, Canada and Germany, buy the forest. Your donation refinances the purchase and enables us to protect the area in the long term. The forest remains in the possession of the foundations, the sponsorship is a symbolic one and shows you transparently which concrete piece of forest we were able to protect with your donation.

The primary goal of Wilderness International is the concrete protection of wilderness areas. Environmental policy measures often require very lengthy, resource-intensive processes to achieve, and experience shows that their success is often not lasting. That is why we engage in practical environmental protection, directly preserving ecologically valuable habitats. In addition to purchasing wilderness areas, we work together with the indigenous population (e.g., the Cowichan and Gwich'in). We support local actors in drawing attention to environmental problems and raising them to a global level. For example, we succeeded in securing the protection of the Peel River Watershed, a wilderness area the size of Austria in northern Canada.

95% of your donations go directly to forest conservation and related environmental education and research. Our administrative cost ratio is only 5%.