An Austin-based organization has been working to preserve tropical rainforests by working with Latin American rainforest communities for a year now.
Since then, they've helped to conserve almost 9,000 acres of land along the Peruvian Amazon through their conservation management plan.
According to Executive Director Niyanta Spelman, deforestation of tropical rainforests is responsible for almost 20 percent of carbon emissions.
"It is a pretty big deal," Spelman said. "I think of it as an economic issue because deforestation of the Amazon is affecting our rainfall here in Texas."
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Rainforest Partnership
News 8's Paul Brown sits down with Executive Director Niyanta Spelman to talk about how they will celebrate one year of being in business.
 
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The first partnership started in Peru.
"We have forestry engineers and a team of folks who are working in Peru, and we also have a team in Ecuador," Spelman said.
Both are Amazon rainforest countries.
"So the idea is we work with these communities [and] help them make an income that allows them to keep their forest standing," Spelman said.
She said this helps to give them a stake in protecting what's in their backyard, and then brings it back to Austin, which in turn gives Austinites a stake in helping those communities protect their rainforest because it actually benefits us too.
Thursday, at the Barr Mansion, the organization will be celebrating their one year anniversary of both their program and the partnership.
Michael Scott, an Austin-based documentarian, will be on hand for the event. He created a documentary based on the program. Organic food and music will also be served at the event.
For more information visit rainforestpartnership.org.
