What we do?
But these Forests are under threat!
Only 11% of forests in the Western Ghats are currently being protected within government reserves. The remaining 89% of forests are found on private lands and are currently unprotected! Landowners and Farmers living in apt poverty sell their forests to logging agencies to make ends meet. Thousands of acres of forests are cleared every year so that sugar industries and cloth mills can run their boilers. The time to act is now!
Protecting the unprotected
We work in the most threatened part of the Western Ghats. Since 1994, the Applied Environmental Research Foundation(AERF) has been working in the Sahyadri-Kokan region(district of Raigad, Ratnagiri and Sindhudurg), within the north Western Ghats. Only 2% of this region is currently protected and roughly 5000 acres of forests are cleared every season.
Why we work?
The AERF is committed to forest conservetion. Through the Sponsor a Forests Programme, the AERF establishes legally binding agreements with landowners to ensure the protection and re-growth of forests on their lands. In return, a steady stream of incentive payments is offered through the Sponsorship Programme. Your donation will be directly used in sponsoring such agreements with landowners.
Sponsor Now
The pilot phase of this initiative-sponsorship for the first 100 acres and the development of this website was supported by the Rufford Small Grants Foundation.
