Frequently Asked Questions

Sacred Forests is an internationally operating conservation enterprise that empowers pioneering impact brands to partner with leading Indigenous Peoples, together preserving and restoring the world’s essential forests and guardian cultures, for all, forever.

In these sacred alliances, Sacred Forests weaves the role of project developer, storyteller, keeper of integrity, and bridge between worlds—rooting each endeavor in deep cultural respect.



Our mission is to lead the rising interest in Indigenous-led forest protection by supporting Indigenous partners to buy back, rewild and protect their own sacred lands, with projects that set the standard in care and reverence for the Earth.



Our objectives align with the world’s dire need to protect her forests:

Sacred Forests is a social enterprise incorporated as a Dutch BV (Private Limited Company) in Amsterdam, The Netherlands. The three founders have always believed in and built up social businesses that put impact first without losing sight of adding value to customers.

Financing Forever Forests, for the Sacred Forests project, is about weaving a vital partnership between Indigenous Peoples and impact-driven brands, a collaboration born of urgency and reverence for the Earth's most essential, life-giving forests. Indigenous-led Rewilding stands as the most potent, time-honored method to protect these biodiverse interconnected landscapes.

In the face of illegal occupation, we step in to reclaim what is sacred. We assist in buying back usury rights, ensuring the full return of land to the Indigenous Peoples, who know it as home and sanctuary. The funding flows not just into land reclamation, but into the roots of regeneration: replanting trees, assisting natural regeneration, and implementing the Life Plan, or Plan de Vida, of the Arhuaco people, our first Sacred Partners, who safeguard the long-term health of the land through dedicated monitoring.

This is not just about forests; it’s about honoring ancient custodianship, restoring what has become imbalanced, and protecting the world’s wild future.

Established in 2022 from the vision of three environmental trailblazers—the founders & CEOs of a groundbreaking eco-energy company, the world’s most sustainable chocolate brand, and a former director of one of the planet’s greenest bank.
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The wider team combines Indigenous wisdom keepers, UN veterans, anthropologists, regenerative scientists, and business minds, harmonizing across continents with one shared purpose: Indigenous-led rewilding at speed & scale.

Indigenous Rewilding is the process of restoring and conserving ancestral lands, where the wisdom of Indigenous ways meets the insights of modern science in a quiet, profound dialogue.

A truly holistic process, where cultural and ecological systems intertwine, each enriching the other - as the land connects with its roots. Together, these forces restore not only the territory but the sacred balance between nature and those who have long understood her language.

A community of over 30.000, the Arhuaco people are of the forests, rooted in the mountains of North Colombia. For millennia their ancestors have guarded these sacred lands.

With intricate societal structures and a governance as ancient as it is forward-looking, the Arhuaco move between worlds. Some walk the halls of the UN, others study Quantum Physics at MIT, Law, and Medicine, but all carry with them the heartbeat of the forest. For the Arhuaco, La Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta is not just land; it is alive, a breathing entity whose lifeblood nourishes the entire world.

RITUALS COSMETICS
A Sacred Forests founding partner, Rituals Cosmetics has been inspiring customers to find balance in life since 2000, and is committed to innovating solutions for several burning societal challenges. 

Rituals recently introduced their 10% Profit Pledge, dedicating 10% of their annual net profit to causes that uplift both the planet and its people.

ORIGINAL BEANS
Ranked the World’s most sustainable chocolate company and driven by a mission of regeneration, Original Beans goes far beyond, or perhaps more accurately: deep into the craft and restorative power of chocolate. 
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As a founding brand partner of Sacred Forests, this collaboration, sprung from one of Original Beans’ chocolate origins and supported by their world leading agronomic team, has been essential in taking the project from an idea to a benchmark setting conservation startup. 

Sacred Forests’ approach to biodiversity conservation is simple: keep forests intact. And where they are not intact anymore, restore them with high integrity. Yet the impact of our work goes beyond the number of hectares conserved.


In 2024, our science team will journey to meet the Arhuaco People, where they will begin weaving together Indigenous wisdom with academic and observational science. This merging of knowledge—modern and ancient—is where the future of conservation lies.

With cutting-edge technology, we can monitor biodiversity through visual and acoustic lenses. But the Arhuaco offer something deeper: their own eyes and ears, attuned to every leaf, every whisper of the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta. Their observations span centuries, stretching back through time in ways no device could. To unite these streams of knowledge is to embrace one of the great promises of Indigenous-led conservation.

Stay connected to this unfolding journey and walk with us as we restore the wild.

The ambitions of Sacred Forests and the Arhuacos through 2028 are necessarily bold:

Stay updated on our progress and follow our journey on Instagram.

Sacred Forests’ true power lies in the uniting of ancient Indigenous wisdom, modern science, and the art of storytelling. We are bridge-builders, connecting oceans, cultures, and centuries in a shared vision of protection and renewal.

Our core values are grounded in life-affirming principles. We nurture a culture of deep connection, self-governance, open feedback, curiosity, slow and mindful productivity, and a commitment to lifelong learning. Alongside our diverse team of experts, we are on an unending journey to reestablish the sacredness of forests—and of life itself.

Indigenous peoples are guardians to the vast majority of the world’s biodiversity, yet they receive only a small fraction of global funding for conservation efforts. By Financing Forever Forests through Indigenous-led rewilding, we ensure conservation, protection and monitoring of these sacred forests, forever.

The forests we strive to protect are not only vital to all life—they are sacred to their Indigenous guardians. For our first Sacred Partners, the Arhuaco People of Northern Colombia, the mountains they call home are a living being.

In many cultures beyond the West forests remain sacred spaces. In Japan, rituals like tree bathing remain common. In India, Hindu Indigenous communities revere over 1 million sacred forests, each holding deep religious meaning. Encoded within these ancient stories is the wisdom of generations developed over eons of mutual interdependence with the natural world.

The perception of forests is correlated to the development of societies. As the West industrialized it became physically & psychologically detached from the natural world, and quickly lost reverence for the forests upon which all life depends. Research by Roux et al (Ecology & Society, Vol 27, 2022) distinguishes the next stage of Western forest perception as “Reconnecting with nature”: a revival of forest spirituality.

We live by the belief that spiritual reverence for nature is a force as old as time, one capable of bridging the gap between Western and Indigenous ways of being. It is in this shared sacredness that we find the possibility of true unity and renewal.

Like all deep relationships, the heart of a successful and enduring partnership lies in shared goodwill and aligned values. Our bold vision to protect the entire Sierra by 2028 calls for more brand allies to join this mission.

Though each partnership will be uniquely crafted, what binds them is something far greater. Partners will gain access to the Arhuaco People and the ancient techniques they use to keep their lands sacred, passed down through the ages. Just as crucial, partners become part of a living story—one that protects what matters most, in ways that are not only effective but profound.

This is a story the world is waiting to hear. Together, we can write it.

At present, our work is financed by visionary consumer brands, driven by a commitment to leave a legacy of positive impact. Sacred Forests channels to our Indigenous partners, who stand at the heart of everything we do.

Guided by their leadership, we forge a path toward the conservation and protection of ancestral lands. The vast majority of our funding—82.5%—flows directly to Indigenous communities, with the remaining 17.5% supporting Sacred Forests' project management and development efforts. This is a partnership grounded in trust, with every step ensuring that the land and its guardians thrive.

To date, the vast majority of funds allocated to our Indigenous partners has been dedicated to conserving native forests, reclaiming lost lands, and reforesting through agroforestry practices that honor Indigenous ways of tending to the earth. These ancient methods ensure that the land is both nourished and restored, creating a cycle of care that spans generations.

All financial execution is externally audited, ensuring complete transparency. Detailed financial reports are available upon request.

The ancestral lands of the Arhuaco are officially recognized as an Indigenous Reserve under Colombian law—a sanctuary for both people and nature. Through our project, any territory reclaimed from encroachers is returned to its rightful place within the Reserve, protected and forever removed from the market.

This land, is placed back into Arhuaco stewardship, where it belongs, beyond the reach of exploitation.

Beyond reclaiming sacred lands and returning them to their rightful owners, this project is rooted in the seamless integration of cultural and environmental values, honoring the deep connections between land and people.

The Arhuaco community has shown extraordinary dedication to this mission, with women leading the way in reforestation efforts and home gardening initiatives, nurturing both the land and their people. Working across eight communities, this project directly touches the lives of over 7.000 individuals.

It all began with cacao from the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta, Colombia. This precious crop became the cornerstone of a chocolate line produced by Original Beans, a company founded by Philipp Kauffmann, who would later co-found Sacred Forests. Through collaboration with the Arhuaco People, the profound effectiveness of their rewilding practices—rooted in ancestral wisdom and deep connection to the land—was revealed.

This partnership also illuminated the critical importance of the region, where the overlap of high-biodiversity protected areas and Indigenous territories forms one of the world’s most effective forest conservation strategies. The Arhuaco territory, a living sanctuary, is recognized as one of the planet’s most irreplaceable natural places, carrying the esteemed status of a UNESCO Biosphere Reserve.

To date, 80% of the funds allocated to our Indigenous partners has been dedicated to conserving native forests, reclaiming lost lands, and reforesting.

The remaining 20% is allocated to agroforestry practices that honor Indigenous ways of tending the earth. These ancient methods ensure that the land is both nourished and restored, creating a cycle of care that spans generations.

We maintain a strong policy of transparency between our funders and Indigenous partners. To reinforce transparency and strengthen our cooperation, we hold monthly operational meetings with AsoArhuaco. Additionally, StarVision provides satellite monitoring to track forest changes and ensure reclaimed land remains protected in the long term.

All financial execution is rigorously externally audited, ensuring complete transparency.

All financial figures are available upon request for any investors or impact partners interested, as well as our progress reports.

A widely cited study published in Science led the IUCN to rank the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta as one of the most irreplaceable regions on Earth. According to numerous global studies, the most effective forest conservation happens where state-designated parks, or “protected areas,” overlap with Indigenous territories.

Using the Forest Landscape Integrity Index and Anthromes datasets, research reveals that high-integrity forests are most often found within these overlaps—where protected areas and Indigenous lands meet. After accounting for location biases through statistical analysis, researchers found that these protected-Indigenous areas had the greatest protective impact on forest integrity and the lowest levels of land-use intensity, compared to Indigenous lands, protected areas, or non-protected regions across the tropics. (Sze et al., Current Biology, Vol 32, 2022).

The symbiosis between Indigenous stewardship and legal protection creates a powerful force for preserving these sacred landscapes.

Since 2002, guided by the wisdom and leadership of our Indigenous partners, our achievements have surpassed all expectations. In 2023 alone, the growth of over 2.8 million trees exceeded our original target of 1.82 million, and the momentum only continues to rise. With an overall trajectory set to surpass 6.67 million trees, we are on track to exceed our initial goal by an extraordinary 850.000 trees.

For a deeper dive into these accomplishments, explore our 2023 Narrative Report, and stay connected with our unfolding stories by following us on Instagram.

Sacred Forests’ approach to biodiversity conservation is simple: keep forests whole. Where they have been fragmented, guided by our Indigenous partners, we restore them. Through cutting-edge technology and the support of modern legal frameworks, we protect these lands, not just for today, but for generations to come.

We are also developing our Conservation as a Service (CaaS) strategy, where Indigenous Peoples and Local Communities take the lead in this vital work. This approach is designed to honor their knowledge and compensate them for their irreplaceable role as stewards of the Earth, ensuring their efforts are valued and sustained.

If you’ve got any questions or comments, wish to raise a flag or simply share something that’s on your mind - email us at press@sacredforests.earth

You can email us at info@sacredforests.earth or reach out to us via Instagram or LinkedIn.
 
(Also, to stay in line with governance requirements - for red flags, you can write to us confidentially at grievance@sacredforests.earth ).