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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
SAVE YOUR WORLD AND CONSERVATION INTERNATIONAL SAVE 200,000 ACRES OF RAINFOREST
PORTLAND, OR, January 23, 2008 --/WORLD-WIRE/-- Save Your World™ and Conservation International have achieved a significant milestone by saving 200,000 acres of rainforest in Guyana for one year.
The goal of Conservation International’s renewable 30-year agreement with the Guyana Forestry Commission is to protect 200,000 acres of rainforest from logging and other destructive development–a conservation concession rather than a timber concession. Through contributions and product sales, Save Your World™ helps pay the annual lease fees required to maintain the agreement.
“We are pleased to accomplish saving nearly a quarter of a million acres of rainforest, and want to thank eco-conscious consumers and all our retail distribution partners including Whole Foods Market and Vitamin Shoppes, as well as local and regional partners Mollie Stone’s in San Francisco, Fruitful Yield Health Foods in Chicago, and Wild Birds Unlimited of Michigan and Florida for helping to achieve this goal,” said Save Your World’s President, Scott Cecil.
“The project has been an enormous success with the government and people of Guyana because, for the first time, they haven’t had to choose between conservation and economic development, which is a real plus for a country like Guyana, one of the poorest nations in the Western Hemisphere,” said Dick Rice, Chief Economist at Conservation International.
Rice recently visited Guyana with Save Your World’s President Scott Cecil to celebrate the 5th anniversary of the historic rainforest agreement, one of the first of its kind in the world. Attendees celebrating the event included Guyana’s Prime Minister Hon. Samuel A. Hinds, and Guyana’s Forestry Commissioner James Singh.
While in Guyana, Cecil and Rice discussed potential expansion plans for 2008. Save Your World’s new goal is to expand the area under protection to 500,000 acres by the end of 2010.
Dr. Phil Willink of the Chicago Field Museum’s Fish Division accompanied the group and observed, “The aquatic ecosystems of the Upper Essequibo Conservation Concession are one of the most pristine, if not the most pristine, on the planet. Biodiversity is high, with many species unique to the watershed or new to science. It is imperative that we act quickly as pristine areas are disappearing quickly around the planet, so it is critical to learn about them before they are altered.”
The South American rainforest sits on the world’s oldest geological rock formation and is one of the richest areas for plant and animal biodiversity. Rainforests contain about half the planet’s 5 to 10 million plant and animal species, and 70% (2000) or more of the plants identified as having anti-cancer characteristics by the U.S. National Cancer Institute.
Read more about Guyana biodiversity:
http://store.saveyourworld.com/SearchResults.asp?Cat=1130
See photos from Save Your World Guyana Trip:
http://store.saveyourworld.com/PDF/GuyanaRainforest.pdf
About Save Your World™
Founded in 2006, Save Your World™ is a green company made up of family and friends who share a passion for preserving the world’s natural resources. Save Your World™, under the brands Save Your Skin™ and Save Your Hair™, introduced the first pure organic yerba maté-infused, all-natural personal care product line in the U.S., with the mission to Save Your Rainforest™ through the product pledge “One Product = One Acre of Rainforest Saved for One Year™.” Products are available in a complete line of pure organic yerba maté and pure organic aloe vera-infused natural shampoos, conditioners, body lotions, shower gels, and exfoliating soaps with glycerin.
Save Your World™ goes to great lengths to ensure that its natural products are made in an environmentally sensitive manner and pledges:
- fair trade practices will always be our policy
- no animal by-products will ever be used
- we will not test our products on animals
- raw materials will be biodegradable
- packaging will be made of recycled or recyclable materials
Note to editors: Cecil and Rice are available for interviews; Guyana photos and video are available for review.
Contact:
Donna Morrison
VP Corporate Communications
862-576-0191
dmorrison@saveyourworld.com |