BCC 2026: A Year for Storytelling
An important part of our work at Big Canopy Campout is to help the voices of different communities of forest defenders find a greater reach, sharing informative and inspirational stories to an international audience. Deforestation and the degradation of natural land is a global issue, and we plan to make 2026 a year of storytelling. Despite the inspiring work undertaken by the causes we support, they receive relatively little attention from mainstream media, and instead rely largely on those who support them to spread word of the challenges and successes they encounter whilst the fight to protect their land. Through the fundraising work that BCC engages in, we continuously bear witness to just how pervasive the threats to rainforest environments are around the world. In tandem with this, however, we see the extents to which local people and organisations go to in their attempts to combat against these threats. For a second year now we will be working with Friends of Glenan Wood, fundraising in support of their endeavours to protect one relatively small fragment of what remains of the Scottish temperate rainforest, and we shall be creating blog posts, video work and social media updates alongside stories of our previous causes; the Bob Brown Foundation and the SËRA Foundation.
Never before in our history have we been so acutely aware of the impact our species is having on the environment, and the detrimental impact that over-consumption and unsustainable extraction of natural resources is have on people, animals and ecosystems around the world. This knowledge alone, however, can only do so much to raise our concern and inspire us to demand or instigate change. Stories can do so much to inspire us. When we first heard about the peaceful activism of the Bob Brown Foundation, their message and means helped shape what we wanted our annual BCC Campout event to promote. Soon after, we read of the resistance of the Seikopai - spearheaded by the SËRA Foundation – to protect their land and indigenous culture in the Ecuadorian Amazon, and just last year we saw first-hand the steadfast work of Friends of Glenan Woods to bring community and protection of nature into unison. Stories of these very different, yet undeniably connected, communities of forest defenders, inspired us to help, and compelled us to share their inspirational stories far and wide in support of them.
Bob Brown Foundation - Campout 2022
In 2026 we will continue to tell the stories of causes we have worked with over the past 9 years, with a focus on the context of them all being part of a global concern, rather than isolated projects. There are countless communities across the world doing fantastic work to try and protect their land from threats such as extractive industry and invasive species, and BCC is in an incredibly fortunate position to be able to bring stories from these communities to an audience of tree climbers and nature enthusiasts from around the world. Our ever-growing BCC Campout event is also an excellent source of stories, as it brings together so many unique and inspiring campers representing different countries, joining us in solidarity for the protection and celebration of natural places.
Bob Brown Foundation
The Bob Brown Foundation was a natural choice for Big Canopy Campout’s first fundraising cause back in 2020. Their work to defend the rainforest of Tasmania, Australia, involves a blend of arboriculture and peaceful activism, camping up in the canopy to hinder the ongoing logging operations that threaten what remains of the native old-growth woodland there. As their occupation of the woodland requires them to camp out full-time, the Bob Brown Foundation welcome any and all donations, and this is one key way in which spreading the word of their work is useful to them. In addition to this, the ongoing government-sanctioned
logging work in Tasmania has sustained its momentum on account of this particular rainforest being relatively unknown globally. By sharing the story of Tasmania’s rainforest, and the continued work that the Bob Brown Foundation is engaged with, it is hoped that throughout Australia, as well as internationally, greater pressure will be put onto the government so cease logging operations here.
Even now, an area of rainforest known as Waykaywirinu where the Bob Brown Foundation held their 2025 BCC campout has just been given the go-ahead for industrial logging operations. Activists have now returned to peacefully occupy the canopy in a bid to derail this, intending that their presence in the trees will halt the movement of logging machinery into the forest. This development is a clear sign that their work is far from over, and that alongside support of their work, we need to keep spreading word of what the Bob Brown Foundation are up against.
Last year, the Bob Brown Foundation created a short video of their campout in Waykaywirinu, which has not come under immediate threat.
SËRA Foundation
Between 2021 and 2023, we focused our fundraising efforts towards the SËRA Foundation and became far more immersed in the role of storytelling and raising awareness. SËRA is an organisation formed by young indigenous forest defenders of Seikopai nationality. Despite the widespread destruction of the Amazon Rainforest being global news, it is only in recent years that SËRA have been able to spread word of their plight beyond Ecuador, and even then it was only in 2022 that the Seikopai were officially recognised as a distinct people.
Their continued resistance against oil and palm oil industries has been a beacon of hope in the seemingly unstoppable encroachment of extractive industry into the rainforest, and their doing so in a way that promotes indigenous culture alongside modern solutions inspired us to do what we can do help. This culminated in a dedicated BCC expedition to Ecuador in 2023, to live and work alongside the Seikoya Remolino community of Seikopai nationality, to help develop sustainable harvesting methods and begin work on the indigenous forest laboratory which we were in the process of financing. Our time with this incredible community gave us a first-hand insight into the challenges that they face, and the importance of retaining indigenous culture in a rapidly changing world. We also had the opportunity to produce a short documentary to help raise awareness of the Seikopai and the innovative ways in which they are establishing sustainable means of financial security for themselves, with an emphasis of holding true to their indigenous values.
Friends of Glenan Wood
This year we will once again be fundraising for Friends of Glenan Wood, community custodians of an area of Atlantic temperate rainforest found on the Cowal Peninsula, Argyl, Scotland. While searching for a new cause for 2025 we wanted to promote “looking local” to show how close to home our protection of the natural world can be. This is how we stumbled upon Glenan Wood, a fragment of Scotland’s remaining rainforest environment which has been community owned since 2019. This small area of woodland provides an intriguing window into the surprising ecological history of Scotland’s West Coast, despite also having a history of human habitation.
Rhyddian Knight, Glenan Wood Ranger
For anyone visiting Scotland today, even in Argyl, their first impression may be that of bare hills and moorland, with occasional clusters of wooded land. Step into Glenan, however, and we immediately see a landscape thick with trees, their trunks and branches heavy with lichens and bryophytes, and an understory bursting with life. In addition to the limited human impact here historically, the work of Friends of Glenan Wood is to thank for the ecological health of this woodland. By managing deer numbers and protecting the land from invasive species which are endemic to this part of Scotland, this unique and unexpected environment can continue to intrigue and inspire those who visit.
The relative obscurity of Scotland’s rainforest has been a real hindering factor in the past. Due to the extensive deforestation that Scotland as a whole has experienced over the course of centuries, there persists a certain perception of what rural Scotland looks like. This perception is so well entrenched that the idea of Scotland having a rainforest is unthinkable to the majority of the people who live here, and yet to see the woods of Glenan on a wet day, with rain driving in off the Atlantic, an environment such as this suddenly feels right at home. Awareness of Scotland’s rainforest is now building, largely thanks to community initiatives like Friends of Glenan Wood making the news with their conservation work, and more and more books and documentaries being released showcasing Britain’s remaining rainforests.
We are excited for another year working with Friends of Glenan Wood, and plan to bring more written and video content to help spread the story of Scotland’s rainforest, promoting better protections and resources for communities and organisations who endeavour to protect it. Be sure to read our guest blog on their website.
As we have seen with Glenan Wood, Siekoya Remolino, and the Bob Brown Foundation, protection of these precious natural places often falls upon a community who is passionate and coordinated towards the goal of a better future for their land. By telling stories of native old-growth forests such as these, and the communities who work tirelessly to protect them, the culture of unsustainable extraction can move closer to becoming a thing of the past. We are fortunate to have such a supportive international community rallying behind BCC and the causes we support each year.
Through our annual BCC Campout Event, too, we see first-hand the incredible tree climbers and nature enthusiasts who camp out with us in all sorts of environments around the world. This in itself can inspire people to get out into nature, becoming immersed in the natural places we wish to protect. Our annual campout has always been a driving force for raising awareness through a massive unifying event, and we want to incorporate our storytelling in with this. Through personal connections, as well as writing, photography and video work, we will continue to promote these amazing communities and the native woodland environments that they work so tirelessly to protect.