Celebrating a remarkable journey

Our charity partner Rainforest Concern, which has helped to protect over 5 million acres of rainforest since it was founded, is celebrating three decades of dedicated conservation work.

Founded by former businessman Peter Bennett, Rainforest Concern began with a small project protecting threatened leatherback turtles on the Caribbean coast of Costa Rica. Since then, Peter and the Rainforest Concern team have worked tirelessly to protect some of the most diverse and critical ecosystems on our planet, working in 13 countries on over 30 international conservation projects with 24 partner organisations. Their work couldn’t be more vital as more than a million plant and animal species are facing extinction, many within decades.

According to the World Economic Forum, over half of the world’s GDP is moderately or highly dependent on nature and its services, including pollination, water supply and medicines. The declining health of our natural ecosystems, which we all depend on for our survival, is the greatest threat to our planet today. Rainforest Concern has a wide range of wildlife and habitat conservation projects which include;

• Creating ecological corridors to protect spectacled bears, pumas and eagles at the Neblina Cloud Forest Reserve in the Tropical Andes – the most biodiverse region on the planet
• Creating a 1,000-hectare rainforest reserve linking Costa Rica’s highest mountains with lowland Caribbean forests to protect rare cats, tapirs, birds and amphibians
• Preserving rare ‘monkey puzzle’ forest and its inhabitants, including the pudu (the world’s smallest deer) and the tiny monito de monte marsupial, at Rainforest Concern’s 1,500 hectare Nasampulli Reserve in Chile
• Supporting women in Kerala, India, to collect and nurture thousands of rare endemic plant species and to turn barren former tea plantations into lush jungle where tigers and elephants are being seen for the first time in decades
• Protecting endangered leatherback turtles and orphaned and injured rare cats, sloths and monkeys in Costa Rica
• Working with local communities in Colombia to plant native trees and encourage sustainable business enterprises and visiting isolated rainforest schools on specially adapted motorbikes to provide environmental education.

Our partnership

Solarsense has partnered with the Bath-based charity Rainforest Concern and has been supporting the charity since 2022. For every square metre of rooftop solar panels installed, Solarsense are sponsoring ten times the square meterage of rainforest to support the charity’s vital conservation work. As a client of Solarsense you can rest assured that your clean energy system is helping to fight climate change far beyond your local community.

Solarsense Managing Director, Stephen Barrett, said: “As a solar energy specialist we have always been passionate about protecting the environment and building a more sustainable future. We are delighted to be able to support Rainforest Concern in protecting endangered species and conserving the rainforest, which has a critical role in absorbing carbon and mitigating climate change. While we certainly need leadership to tackle the climate crisis at a national and international level, it’s also down to all of us as businesses and individuals to play our part. I hope that our partnership will make a real difference to the charity and might also encourage other businesses in the region to support their vital work.”