Rainforest Action Network
 |
|
| Abbreviation | RAN |
|---|---|
| Motto | Environmentalism with teeth. |
| Formation | 1985 |
| Type | NGO |
| Purpose | Environmental protection |
| Headquarters | San Francisco, California |
|
Executive Director
|
Lindsey Allen |
| Website | ran.org |
Rainforest Action Network (RAN) is an environmental organization based in San Francisco, California, United States. The organization was founded by Randy "Hurricane" Hayes and Mike Roselle in 1985, and first gained national prominence with a grassroots organizing campaign that in 1987 succeeded in convincing Burger King to cancel $35 million worth of destructive Central American rainforest beef contracts. Protecting forests and challenging corporate power has remained a key focus of RAN’s campaigns since, and has led RAN into campaigns that have led to transformative policy changes across home building, wood purchasing and supplying, automobile, fashion, paper and banking industries.
RAN campaigns for forests, their inhabitants and the natural systems that sustain life by transforming the global marketplace through grassroots organizing, consumer education and non-violent direct action.
RAN helped pioneer market campaigns against large multinational corporations in the 1990s, using grassroots activism and savvy media work to advocate for changes in environmental policies. Since then, RAN has had numerous successes in its campaigns against logging companies, banks, and vehicle manufacturers.
RAN drives change through grassroots organizing, media stunts, the use of non-violent civil disobedience, and inside-the-boardroom negotiations to confront and positively influence industry-leading corporations to publicly adopt environmental policies that address issues ranging from deforestation to global warming. Their corporate campaigning strategies have prompted a number of academic case studies reflecting on the relationship between activists and businesses.
RAN works in close alliance with an increasingly well coordinated movement of NGOs (non-governmental organizations). Along with Global Exchange and the Ruckus Society, RAN played a central role in organizing the 1999 mass actions against the WTO (World Trade Organization) summit in Seattle. Although the organization once had RAGS (Rainforest Action Groups) around the country, today its operations are centralized in San Francisco.
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