Each year, Big Canopy Campout selects a grassroots organisation to focus all fundraising efforts on.

Money raised from sales of custom BCC products, campout events and personal donations are collected over one year to support the work of those dedicated to protecting native forests.

At the heart of BCC is connection and communication and we make every effort to tell the stories as they are told from the people on the frontline of resistance.

Fundraising for Forests

Donate

OUR 2025 CAMPAIGN

For 2025 we are focusing on threatened environments and ecosystems within our home countries, this year we move from tropical rainforests in Ecuador to a temperate rainforest in Scotland.

Throughout Europe there are only a handful of countries which can support Temperate Atlantic Rainforests, a classification of environment which is relatively rare in comparison with the vast tropical jungles that come to mind when we hear the term “rainforest”.

Scotland boasts a collective coverage of about 30,000 hectares (approx. 300km²).  In spite of this coverage, the rainforest of Scotland’s West Coast is incredibly fractured and diminished, reduced to less than a third of its potential coverage due to generations of damage done by invasive plant species, disproportionate numbers of herbivorous fauna, and profit-driven land ownership which is all too common a theme in woodland habitats.

“These remnant oak, birch, ash, native pine and hazel woodlands are small, fragmented and isolated from each other. They are over mature and often show little or no regeneration. They are in danger of being lost for ever.”

Read about Scotland’s rainforest here from Woodland Trust

Scotland is the last stronghold of this globally important and rare habitat that once spread along the Atlantic coastline of Europe

Glenan Wood, situated on the Cowal peninsula of Argyll, is a small fragment of Scottish Atlantic Rainforest (also known as Celtic Rainforest), a rare ecosystem currently safeguarded through community ownership with the help of charitable donations and grants.  The organisation spearheading the work here is Friends of Glenan Wood, acting on behalf of the community to ensure that this special place is not only preserved, but can also be a place of learning and access to nature. 

Friends of Glenan wood is an excellent example of a small community who has taken the initiative to safeguard an area of rainforest that sits right on their doorstep.  In 2019, this small charitable organisation secured community ownership of the land, and has been working tirelessly to maintain it ever since. 

The land in question covers 146 hectares of native Scottish woodland, and requires consistent work to weed out invasive flora and protect the land from the risks of overgrazing.  There is a strong sentiment among Friends of Glenan Wood that such a special place should be accessible to the public, to educate and promote the importance of healthy ecosystems.  There is a range of forward-thinking ideas in the works for using this area of rainforest as a place of learning, and to conserve the rare variety of nature that exists here, but with every new initiative comes a new expense needing covered. 

Friends of Glenan Wood

WATCH THEIR STORY HERE

Video by Tom Webster

 

Past campaigns

  • After the success of our 2021 & 22 campaigns, BCC were delighted to continue supporting the SËRA Foundation in 2023.

    in 2023, Big canopy Campout successfully raised $20,000 for the SËRA Foundation. $12,000 of this was used to fund the creation of the first indigenous owned laboratory. The rest of these funds were used to supply the community with necessary climbing equipment and training to achieve sustainable harvesting of the morete fruit.

    The training and equipment BCC provided through sponsorship and fundraising will now help the community to generate their own funds and avoid selling their native land.

    BCC will continue to follow and support the SËRA Foundation as a thank you for allowing us into their inspirational lives.

  • In 2020 BCC were DELIGHTED to support Bob Brown Foundation and join them in the fight to protect one of the last remaining areas of temperate rainforest in the world, takayna / Tarkine.

    As a constant source of inspiration since BCC began in 2017, Bob Brown Foundation continue to encourage the community of forest ambassadors with their consistent and determined frontline action protecting the environment.

    Their grassroots activism based on a solid foundation of science and research is exactly the kind of organisation that BCC wishes to stand alongside in our bid to promote people and projects protecting the future of our forests.

  • In 2017 Big Canopy Campout was created in response to a World Land Trust project protecting primary rainforest in Borneo. For the next two years BCC raised funds towards the preserving of these natural habitats.

    World Land Trust (WLT) is an international conservation charity that protects the world’s most biologically significant and threatened habitats.

    Working through a network of partner organisations around the world, WLT funds the creation of reserves and provides permanent protection for habitats and wildlife.

Do you have a local forest you’d like to share?

We are always looking to share stories from those working to protect our native forests and all that live amongst them. Whether it’s a story of ongoing resistance, success, disappointment or hope please get in touch so we can support, feature and share your work.