Earth Island Institute

The Earth Island Institute is non-profit environmental group founded in 1982 by David Brower. Located in Berkeley, California, it supports activism around environmental issues through fiscal sponsorship that provides the administrative and organizational infrastructure for individual projects. As of 2010, Earth Island Institute's total net assets were $7.1 million.

Earth Island Institute publishes a quarterly periodical entitled Earth Island Journal. Content is largely dedicated to investigative pieces and showcases environmental grassroots movements. The publication has received industry awards for "uncovering stories ignored by larger media outlets." Funding for the journal is sustained through subscriptions and the Institute’s Green Journalism Fund.

Earth Island Journal has been published by the institute for 20 years. It includes environmental reporting and commentary from around the world.

Earth Island has presented the Brower Youth Awards, named for founder David Brower, to six young environmental leaders since 2000.

The Earth Island Institute has taken on a number of projects, one of which is The Borneo Project, at the helm, director Jettie Ward. The goal of the project is to provide international support for indigenous and locally led campaigns to protect rights in Borneo and to advocate for mechanisms that will support communities in conserving their forests.

The Borneo Project does not initiate its own campaigns, instead it responds to the needs of its local partners, to provide whatever support best suits their programmatic and campaign needs. This comes in the form of providing small grants, online actions, sign on letters, and international advocacy on forest and climate issues. The local partners and allies in Malaysia and Indonesia that The Borneo Project is in contact with include the Borneo Resources Institute (BRIMAS), Partners of Community Organisations (PACOS), Sahabat Alam Malaysia (SAM or Friends of the Earth Malaysia) and Uma Bawang Residents Association (UBRA).

One of the ongoing programs of The Borneo Project is conservation of the Earth's climate by supporting and working on international policy for Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation (REDD). In Borneo, forests are being destroyed through logging and burning, releasing the climate-changing greenhouse gas carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. The destruction of forests is responsible for up to a fifth of the world’s greenhouse gas emissions – more than every plane, car, truck, ship, and train on the planet combined. The Borneo REDD program is an effort to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in Borneo and alleviate poverty in the communities that live in and rely on the forests of Borneo.

...
Wikipedia