For rainforest preservation: CREDO Mobile makes a difference

Recently, we sent a grant to Rainforest Foundation US (RFUS), which will use the funding in its fight to protect the rainforests of Central America and the Amazon in partnership with Indigenous peoples, who are the best guardians of those vital, carbon-storing rainforests.

We’re longtime supporters of RFUS and we’ll continue to stand with them as they address some of the world’s most urgent challenges, including deforestation, biodiversity loss and land rights.

Working together, we’re making a difference

Donations from CREDO Mobile have powered a number of recent successes by RFUS. With support from CREDO Mobile and other partners, the nonprofit has helped secure rights to over 42 million acres of forests and lands since 1988. This is vital, because deforestation rates are lower on lands managed by Indigenous communities who hold rights and titles to their lands.

RFUS currently supports 200-plus Indigenous communities and organizations, because strong communities and organizations are more resilient and sustainable. RFUS provides direct financing and co-design strategies to its partners to assist them in protecting their lands —a nd our planet.

To date, RFUS has helped protect more than 19 million acres of forests through monitoring efforts through programs like RFUS’s Rainforest Alert, integrating newer technologies (like drones, satellite, and mobile phones) with traditional forest-monitoring practices to stop deforestation more effectively. In fact, in the first year alone, communities implementing Rainforest Alert saw a 52% reduction in forest loss.

RFUS is committed to growing participation by Indigenous women in territorial governance and in Rainforest Alert. Since Rainforest Alert was launched, the number of women monitors has grown from three to 26 (out of a total of 236 monitors), with women now actively training one another to further scale up their participation.

For more on women’s involvement in forest monitoring, read the RFUS blog post Indigenous Women Rising, which describes the ways Indigenous women are breaking barriers, taking their place on the frontlines and driving the effort to protect their forests, preserve their cultures and shape the future of our planet.

RFUS is working to stop destruction by miners

Gold mining is a threat to any rainforest. Illegal and unregulated mining in Guyana’s South Rupununi region is causing widespread environmental destruction, as well as a surge in malaria cases. RFUS is working with its partners to increase monitoring of mining activities and to secure long-term protection for the lands and waterways of the Wapichan Indigenous people of northern Brazil and southern Guyana, regions of extreme biological richness and diversity.

RFUS is securing land rights to sustain vital CO2 sinks

RFUS’s land rights work in Peru, Brazil, Guyana and Panama has helped preserve a net annual carbon sink of 9.8 million metric tons of CO2 emissions, which is equivalent to the annual emissions of 2 million gas vehicles. RFUS’s partnership with Indigenous peoples advances nature-based carbon sequestration. Forests protected by Indigenous peoples have lower rates of deforestation and remain strong carbon sinks.

RFUS is growing the campaign to protect rainforests

With support from CREDO Mobile funding and other sources, RFUS is now in the process of expanding land-titling efforts in Peru by approximately 1 million acres, among other programs. The Loreto regional government — a region that includes almost a third of Peru’s total territory—is working closely with RFUS and its partners to seize this moment and ensure Indigenous communities have legal recognition of their lands. With regional government changes anticipated in 2026, this is an ideal time to initiate these intra organizational and governmental collaborations     .

CREDO Mobile members are making it happen

Rainforest Foundation US is able to carry out this important work in part thanks to CREDO Mobile members who do one thing: use our service. And the more members we have, the more we can support RFUS — and the dozens of other progressive nonprofits we fund every year. These donations cost our members nothing but they mean everything to the groups that rely on us.

If you’re a CREDO Mobile member, thank you. If you’re not a member yet, please join us. You’ll get all you want from your mobile service: money-saving data plans, great deals on new devices and superfast coverage on the nation’s largest 5G network.

And you’ll get much more. You’ll get a powerful way to support the causes you care about whenever you use your phone. Causes like women’s rights, reproductive freedom, climate action and an economy that works for everyone.

Switching is easy. You can bring your current device and your current number. Go to CREDOMobile.com to learn more.

They’ve always been in the fight, but we’re helping elevate their voices