Here are just a few of the milestones you and our allies made possible in 2016:

• We pressured the Indonesian government to issue a moratorium on palm oil and mining permits in critical rainforests.
• We forced Abercrombie & Fitch and their sub-brand Hollister to cut ties with wood-based fabrics linked to deforestation and human rights abuses. 
• We turned up the pressure on PepsiCo to “Cut Conflict Palm Oil” from their supply chains, directly challenging executives, dropping a 100 foot banner off the iconic Pepsi sign on the East River in New York City, and bringing organizers and media to their headquarters — and their home town!
• We raised the profile of the Leuser Ecosystem. RAN’s Lindsey Allen met with actor/environmentalist Leonardo DiCaprio at the COP 21 Paris climate talks — resulting in DiCaprio’s visit to the Leuser and his highlighting this issue in his climate documentary, Before the Flood, which quickly became the most-watched documentary film in history.
• We followed the money — all the way the forest. In 2016, RAN launched our Forest and Finance campaign, which now holds the world’s largest financial institutions accountable for financing large-scale environmental destruction.

• We froze new leasing on federal coal. Thanks to our coalition’s campaigns the Obama Administration and the Department of Interior announced an immediate moratorium and new assessment of the federal coal program.
• We revealed which banks were betting on catastrophe and “Shorting the Climate.” Our latest report on the financial industry and their role in profiting off climate change was our most ambitious report to date — focusing on coal, liquified natural gas (from fracking), extreme oil extraction, and the human rights impacts of these industrial sectors.
• We pushed Obama to protect key areas, like the Atlantic and Arctic, from offshore drilling.RAN and our allies generated more than one million comments on the U.S. offshore drilling plan — these comments and years of campaigning resulted in these oceans removal from the five year drilling plan.
• We organized nationwide Keep It In the Ground actions to fight fossil fuels. We worked with local communities and national partners to challenge nearly 30 federal lease sales across the country — from Alaska to Idaho, from Montana to Ohio, from Colorado to Louisiana.

• We changed the conversation on labor rights and human rights in the palm oil industry. Our groundbreaking report “The Human Cost of Palm Oil” — and our accompanying animated short — exposed the rampant rights abuses that are associated with Conflict Palm Oil. And for the first time, this year’s Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil was focused on these issues.
• In support of the Standing Rock Sioux’s fight against the Dakota Access Pipeline, we pushed out financial research on the banks funding the pipeline to drive pressure to the financial root of the problem. We stand in strong solidarity and deep appreciation with the Standing Rock Sioux leadership and the hundreds of other tribes and allies that fought against the Dakota Access Pipeline, through coordinated local action, media support, and direct support on the ground.

With 2017 right around the corner, we know the road ahead is rough. We are rapidly assessing what will be necessary to continue our work going forward. But we have been here before. For three decades — including during some very unfriendly administrations — Rainforest Action Network has made significant progress to protect people and planet.

We have decades of experience when it comes to taking on the logging industry, the banking industry, the coal mining industry, the biggest snack food companies on the planet — there’s never really an easy time to do this work. In order to elevate our efforts in the coming year to assure we continue achieving milestones and victories like those above, we need your support. Please consider ending 2016 with a tax-deductible donation so we can start the new year off like never before.

As always, thank you so much for your support. We need it now more than ever.

For people and planet,

Lindsey

Lindsey Allen
Exectuive Director
Rainforest Action Network
http://www.ran.org/