James C. Deutsch on protecting rainforests

Back in 1972, when I was a kid at summer camp, I remember a counselor making a drawing in the dirt to explain a concept he’d just read about called “the greenhouse effect.” To a 9-year-old, the idea that something worrying was happening on a global scale was shocking. Today, that childhood boogeyman still looms large, but the difference is we now have the tools to confront it—if we can muster the will.

Ambitious, achievable, and measurable goals can move the world. When I joined Rainforest Trust, most of our work focused on purchasing land for relatively small private reserves—still essential in biodiversity hot spots like the Tropical Andes. But to help meet 30x30 goals, we’ve expanded to support Indigenous-managed territories and much larger protected areas. And through efforts like ARPA Comunidades, we’re helping ensure those protections are not just created but financed and sustained for the long term.

We work with Indigenous partners not just because conservation requires local buy-in, but also because they know best how to manage their landscapes. I saw that firsthand in Suriname while visiting Indigenous and Maroon communities—descendants of enslaved Africans who escaped into the forest and built new lives there. They were using slash-and-burn methods I’d seen damage forests elsewhere. But at low population densities, and with deep local knowledge, this method can be sustainable—a reminder that these systems are shaped by generations of experience, not guesswork.

We tend to think of conservation in long time horizons, but this is the most difficult period we’re likely to face. Pressures from land use, climate change, and resource demand are all peaking at once. That’s daunting—but it also means our actions now matter more than ever. If we can protect the right places and scale up the solutions that work, we don’t just slow loss—we change the trajectory.