Shiyang Li, Director of the Rare China office, distributes bulbs to the participants as gifts after a cooking contest.

Rare has distributed 20,600 compact fluorescent lights (CFLs) as part of a program to offset all of our carbon emissions from employee activity, a total of 744 metric tons of carbon.

Rare is a leader in community-based campaigns that inspires people to take pride in the natural assets that make their communities valuable and take action to protect them. Rare leveraged its “negative” environmental impact to make a direct positive impact on the work it does around the globe.

This program is advancing the mission of the campaigns by giving a means to reduce energy use and carbon footprint. By using less fuelwood and being more energy efficient, communities in these areas of high biodiversity are making less of an environmental impact. Rare was able to give communities a means to be more energy efficient and save money, while also offsetting their own carbon emissions.

The bulbs went to Rare Pride campaign sites in China and Indonesia and help local residents use less power and emit less carbon. Rare has distributed 15,600 bulbs in China and 5,000 in Indonesia. In China alone, more than 7,000 households received CFLs.

A woman from Pingzidi village got back from the field with pig’s food still in her hand and was so excited to get the bulbs that she phoned her neighbors.

How Rare’s program works:

• Rare staff voted to use its Employee Activity Conservation Fund to offset carbon emissions.
• CFLs use approximately 75 percent less energy than incandescent light bulbs.
• CFLs have a lifespan about 3-10 times as long as incandescent light bulbs.
• The bulbs are distributed at campaign sites, particularly at community events (like a Rare cooking contests to promote more energy efficient ways to cook that don’t harm local forests).
• The bulbs are distributed with informational flyers that explain that the light bulbs save energy along with other energy saving tips.

Several of the campaigns, such as Rare’s campaign in the Gaoligong Mountain Nature Reserve, are working to protect forests. Since CFLs use less electricity than incandescent bulbs, villagers are more able to afford to use electricity instead of cutting down trees to build fires. Rare is working in these areas of high biodiversity to promote electricity use instead of fuelwood consumption, and CFLs and energy-efficient electric stoves are helping villagers make less of an environmental impact.

In Indonesia, staff selected campaign sites to distribute the CFLs to that are specifically addressing sustainable energy issues and the UN’s Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation (REDD) program. In addition to handing out CFLs, Indonesia staff decided to hand out tree seedlings to promote reforestation and carbon sequestration and an informational flyer on the link between saving energy during daily activities and limiting global warming.

The final distribution of the bulbs was a tremendous success, not only for Rare but also for the local campaigns working to impact community behavior. The CFL’s were greatly appreciated by the communities and widely adopted.

A local villager was pleased to learn about and receive CFLs in China.

Rare Pride campaign sites where CFLs were distributed:

• Campaign for Sustainable Forest Use/Gaoligong Mountain Nature Reserve, Yunnan Province (Rare’s campaign will protect the White-eyebrows gibbon by inspiring community members to use energy efficient stoves and electric cookers in order to reduce wood harvesting for fuel.)
• Campaign for Sustainable Forest Use/Yuhe Nature Reserve, Gansu Province (Rare’s campaign will protect the Snub-nosed Golden Monkey in the Yuhe Nature Reserve by inspiring community members to use engery efficient stoves in order to reduce the consumption of fuelwood.)
• Campaign for Sustainable Forest Use/Baima Snow Mountain Nature Reserve, Yunnan Province (Rare’s campaign will protect the Snub-nosed Golden Monkey in the Baima Snow Mountain Reserve by working with community members to implement sustainable forms of energy in order to reduce consumption of fuelwood.)
• Campaign for Green Building/Meili Snow Mountain, Yunnan Province (Rare’s campaign will protect coniferous forest on Meili Snow Mountain by training local carpenters and community members in green building techniques in order to reduce unsustainable logging.)
• Campaign for Sustainable Grazing Methods/Dashanbao Nature Reserve, Yunnan Province (Rare’s campaign will protect the winter habitat of the Black-necked crane in the Dashanboa Nature Reserve by introducing grass-cutting to local farmers in order to reduce over-grazing.)
• Campaign for Wetland Preservation/Sungai Putri Swamp Forest, West Kalimantan, Borneo (Rare’s campaign will protect the Bornean Orangutan in Sungai Putri Forest by making the use of a credit union available to local communities in order to reduce illegal logging as a secondary income)
• Potorono Forest, Central Java, Java (Rare’s campaign will protect forest ecosystems of the Potorono Forest by inspiring local farmers to reduce the rate of forest conversion for agricultural use in order to reduce deforestation.)
• Bromo Tengger Semeru National Park, East Java, Java (Rare’s campaign will reduce the threat to the national park by reducing fuelwood consumption, while building greater support for park protection.)

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