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Health In Harmony, an international, woman-founded nonprofit dedicated to reversing global heating has announced the Rainforest Exchange, a first-of-its-kind technology platform designed to scale the nonprofit’s successful model of rainforest regeneration through Radical Listening  and bring it to the digital space.

The Rainforest Exchange platform promotes indigenous people and local communities (IPLCs) solutions to deforestation and forest regeneration and enables donors to directly support them. The platform takes donation updates a step further and allows users to see the impact of their donation in real-time through advanced satellite data and machine learning technology that shows carbon sequestration levels, degradation status, and data on biodiversity and community thriving.

“Rainforest Exchange is revolutionary because it is a scalable solution to the climate crisis. It  highlights the genius of rainforest communities and enables the international community to directly finance their important work,” said Devika Gopal Agge, Chief Development Officer at Health In Harmony. “We have a short amount of time to make a difference, but now we have the path, the knowledge and the resources to bring forth the change the Earth needs. The future of forests, people, and the planet’s well-being rests in our ability to work together.”

The Rainforest Exchange platform features:

• Rainforest funding – through which users can learn about rainforests around the globe and invest in community-designed reforestation and protection programs. These solutions range from providing medical care so communities don’t have to cut down trees to pay for urgent healthcare needs, to providing sustainable farming and agricultural training.
• Real-time updates – It is the first application to center rainforest community solutions and show impact in one place. Leveraging satellite data and machine learning technology, users can monitor carbon sequestration levels and learn about the impact of their donation. Communities will also regularly receive status reports on the reduction in logging. In time, Health In Harmony will also include the capability to monitor health improvements through a community-defined well-being index, and return of fauna and biodiversity through bioacoustics monitoring.
• Carbon neutral – To reduce the environmental impact of technology, Rainforest Exchange is hosted on a carbon neutral server that meets the highest standards of social and environmental impact.
• Radical Listening education – through which users can join the movement and learn more about Health In Harmony’s model of Radical Listening by signing up for free and accessible sessions.

By relying on the wisdom and expertise of IPLCs, who have lived, worked and protected the rainforest for centuries, and using technology to bring these solutions to the international donor community, Rainforest Exchange will be able to reduce forest loss, regenerate rainforests, stabilize biodiversity loss, while also improving the health and well-being of the IPLCs who are at the forefront of climate change.

For nearly two decades, and across three continents, Health In Harmony has worked to reverse global heating by partnering with rainforest communities and implementing their solutions, which range from healthcare access to improved agricultural education.

This process is known as Radical Listening and has been successful and effective in reducing deforestation in the Indonesian Borneo, Terra Do Meio region in the Brazilian Amazon Rainforest, and the Manombo Forest in Madagascar. A study by Stanford University found that Health In Harmony’s model of Radical Listening led to a 70% reduction in deforestation.