Wilderness International is a nonprofit environmental organization with a single mission: to protect the Earth’s last remaining unique forests and wilderness areas forever. To achieve this, Wilderness International purchases land through land registry entries to ensure its legal and permanent protection. These land purchases are funded by donations for so-called wilderness sponsorships. Wilderness sponsors receive a personalized certificate with the exact geographic coordinates of the protected forest area.

WI Germany and WI Canada were founded in 2008 by 25 people from six countries, representing 24 different professional fields and ranging in age from 18 to 69. In 2019, the Peruvian organization dedicated to protecting the tropical rainforest joined the group. Today, Wilderness International consists of three sister foundations: 

In addition to the founding donors, Wilderness International Germany is supported by eight members of the Board of Trustees, three members of the Executive Board, our operational team, many volunteers, and countless donors, partners, sponsors, and supporters. You can learn more about this on the page “Wilderness International Germany”.

At Wilderness International Canada, alongside Tobias Hürten and Kai Andersch, Marco Lou, Tyler Bruce, and Stephen Gabrysh work directly on the ground to manage our partnerships, land acquisitions, expeditions, and the protection of our forest areas. Volunteers, donors, and supporters are also actively involved here. You can find out more at “Wilderness International Canada”.

At Wilderness International Peru, the seven founders serve on the board of trustees. On the ground, the organization’s president, Dr. Chris Kirkby, works alongside a team forest guardian and the rest of the operational team to oversee the protected areas, conduct research and biodiversity monitoring in the forests, identify and acquire new land parcels, and manage projects with local schools, communities, and partners. For more information, visit “Wilderness International Peru”.

There are no further obligations for you. The donation is one-time, and enables us as a foundation to ensure the long-term protection of the area. The sponsorship is a symbolic one. The forest area remains the property of the Foundation.

We protect the areas we select exclusively by purchasing them and registering them in the land registry, and we do so only in countries with a high degree of legal certainty. All three international foundations (Peru, Canada, Germany) are registered as owners in the land registry. No one can buy the forest areas we have purchased as foundations from us, and we are also prohibited from selling them. 

The foundation’s organizational structure prevents any single individual from having sole authority over the disposition of its assets and ensures its long-term existence. Learn more here about the longevity of the foundation model. Our bylaws stipulate that the land must be left undisturbed and visited solely for research and documentation purposes. 

In Canada: 

Due to their remoteness and undeveloped nature, our protected areas in Canada can only be reached at great financial, material, and time-related cost—and not without risk. Furthermore, the high level of legal certainty in Canada ensures that damage to the land results in severe penalties. The British Columbia Trespass Act clearly prohibits trespassing on private land. Violations are prosecuted in court upon complaint, even if no damage has occurred. Furthermore, we visit and monitor the areas during regular research trips and have partnerships with local companies that support us. In Canada, we also have the advantage that property holds great cultural and historical value and is respected.

In Peru:

In Peru, we have forest guardian on the ground whose daily tasks include monitoring our protected areas and preventing unauthorized entry. By using drones, the guardians can survey a larger area, and special sensors trigger an alarm instantly if, for example, a fire breaks out or the sound of chainsaws is heard. In addition, we collaborate there with the organization “Fauna Forever,” which also maintains a permanent presence on the ground and, as part of its research projects, patrols and monitors our areas as well.

In addition, the Forest Guardians maintain direct contact with the local population, advocate for our conservation goals within the community, put up informational signs, and actively participate in community projects—such as our current agroforestry project —to show the local population ways to benefit from the rainforest without clearing it. Should a conflict nevertheless arise, we report poachers and other individuals engaged in illegal activities to local law enforcement agencies (such as the police, lawyers, and government authorities) and work closely with them.

The rainforests in Peru and Canada are among the last remaining intact wilderness areas on our planet—and, unfortunately, they are under serious threat. 10–15% of all annual emissions are caused by the destruction of these forests and their peatlands—which is why we must act now!

Numerous studies confirm the threat to the rainforest in Peru and Canada.

In Peru:

• According to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), approximately 10 million hectares of tropical rainforest were lost annually between 2015 and 2020, with the Amazon region suffering the most damage (FAO and UNEP, 2020).
• There is no sign that this trend will abate, as the destruction of primary forests in 2024 remained well above the politically set targets (Forest Declaration Assessment, 2024). In 2024 alone, an area of primary forest larger than the entire country of Belgium disappeared in Latin America (Forest Declaration Assessment, 2024). Peru holds the sad distinction of ranking third in this regard (Jong, 2024).
• Especially in the Tambopata region, where our protected areas are located, there has been significant pressure on the forest for agricultural development and gold mining since the completion of the highway to Brazil. On this online map you can see the deforestation that has occurred over the past 20 years in the region around Puerto Maldonado, where we are active. 
• Also on this online map, which shows our protected areas, you can see the deforestation in the region. The historical development of deforestation is also very well illustrated in the video by YouTuber Tomary, who was with us in Peru.
• In his independent expert report , Rainer Kant of BAUM e.V. also confirmed that the areas we protect in the Madre de Dios region would no longer exist today or in the coming years without our work.

In Canada:

Everyone knows about the value and the threats facing the Amazon rainforest. Yet hardly anyone talks about the forgotten ecosystem of the temperate rainforest in British Columbia: 

• That is where the world's last large contiguous area of temperate rainforest is located (DellaSala, 2010). And yet British Columbia, of all places, is one of the last jurisdictions in the world that continues to allow the large-scale logging of 600- to 1,800-year-old primeval giants (Wu, 2019). 
• The main causes of this are the timber industry, agriculture, and infrastructure development. 
• On the online map of the Ancient Forest Alliance (2016) you can see a striking visualization of how deforestation in southeastern BC had progressed by 2016.
• In his independent expert report , Rainer Kant of BAUM e.V. confirmed that the last remaining undisturbed areas of temperate rainforest in Canada are threatened by logging companies seeking timber, agricultural corporations expanding farmland, urban sprawl, construction and infrastructure development, as well as Canada’s withdrawal from the Kyoto Protocol, and therefore require our protection.

If we lose the last remaining intact rainforests, it will have catastrophic consequences for our planet. The concept of planetary boundaries holds that there are certain ecological limits; exceeding them jeopardizes the stability of Earth’s ecosystem and, consequently, the future of humanity. Numerous studies showthat we are well on our way to crossing at least five of the nine planetary boundaries, also known as “tipping points.” One of these is the loss of the tropical rainforest. We can already feel the consequences of climate change, but we still have a chance to avert the worst effects, as summarized in the book ‘Earth for All’ shows.