Financial Times Creates the FT Rainforest in Partnership with the Pearson Foundation and Children’s Tropical Forests

11 December 2009

London, UK – December 11 – The Financial Times today announced that it has teamed up with the Pearson Foundation and Children’s Tropical Forests UK (CTF) to invest in and raise funds for the purchase and protection of a substantial area of primary tropical rainforest in Costa Rica.

This newly protected area of forest, the FT Rainforest, has been incorporated within one of the largest protected rainforest national parks in Central America, the Area de Conservacion Guanacaste (ACG).

The initial phase of the project will see the Financial Times and Pearson Foundation invest to grow the area every year for three years to reach 50 hectares of protected forest. Together with CTF they will also be calling upon individuals, staff, customers, clients, and readers to help raise funds to expand the FT Rainforest to a target area of 100 hectares, the equivalent of 161 football pitches or 60,000 trees which would protect 30,000 metric tonnes of carbon in perpetuity.

The Pearson Foundation will also match $20,000 of individual donations made to the FT Rainforest each year during the campaign.

“The FT is proud to be working with the Pearson Foundation and Children’s Tropical Forests to create the FT Rainforest,” says Financial Times chief executive John Ridding. “The campaign underlines our commitment to reducing our carbon footprint and a desire to compensate for the trees we use to print our publications. The importance of fighting deforestation in combating climate change has never been clearer. The destruction of rainforests releases more CO2 than all the world’s cars, ships and planes put together.”

“Preserving and protecting our natural resources is something everyone can help do,” says Pearson Foundation president Mark Nieker. “Together with the FT, we know we can do more to help Children’s Tropical Forests UK to fight deforestation and combat climate change.”

More information on the FT Rainforest can be found at: www.ammado.com/community/110818/articles/12499

Individual donations, which will be matched by the Pearson Foundation, can be made at: www.ammado.com/community/110818/fundraising

Corporate partners should contact Robert Jolliffe at: