Rainforest Foundation Benefit Concert

To actually demarcate a huge piece of land in Brazil and protect it gave us the confidence to carry on. Today we're a human rights organization more than anything else. ~ Sting

May is Rainforest Awareness Month. On Thursday Sting is celebrating 20 years as an eco-activist and holding a benefit concert at Carnegie Hall for The Rainforest Foundation in New York with James Taylor, Billy Joel, and other notables. The concert is called 'Some Kinda Legacy' and the annual event is the largest fund raiser for the charity.

What empowered Sting, the lead singer for The Police which has sold more than 100 million records, occurred in 1993 when the foundation won legal recognition for more than 37,000 square miles of land inhabited by the Kayapo Indians in Brazil. Since then, it has sought land ownership rights for the Mayangna people in Nicaragua and the Shuar in Ecuador.

Anyone who has been in a virgin growth forest knows that once it has been logged it is impossible to regain its original biodiversity, beauty, and reverence. A trip to San Francisco last year took us on a side trip to Muir Woods. The visit led to a remote section of a valley which loggers had neglected in the 1800's. John Muir, a conservationist, had the foresight to acquire the land to protect it for future generations. Some of the red woods there grow as a family with the mother in the middle and her children around her. These families are over 500 years old.