Cloud Forest Fund was created by our founder Rajeev Goyal in 2020
HE ALSO MET HUMBLE INDIVIDUALS THAT HAD DEVOTED THEIR ENTIRE LIVES TO THESE CAUSES WITH LITTLE EXPECTATION OF REWARD, SIMPLY BECAUSE THEY CARED FOR THEIR COMMUNITIES AND THE LIFE AROUND THEM.
RAJEEV FOUND IT UNBELIEVABLE THAT THESE INDIVIDUALS WERE STRUGGLING TO FIND FUNDS TO SAVE SOME OF THE MOST PRECIOUS BIODIVERSITY LEFT.
Cloud Forest Fund was created by our founder Rajeev Goyal in 2020
After working for two decades in Nepal building the "Vertical University," always with the "Begging Bowl" trying to raise funds, whether for the water project in Namje, pangolin conservation in Yangshila, or bio-intensive farms in Kurule-Tenupa, Rajeev felt there was a gaping breach between the people and grassroots NGOs seeking to protect biodiversity, and the funds they so desperately needed to do so.
He spent three years on the ground visiting 18 countries, from the limestone cliffs of Khao Ca in Vietnam, where the last families of Tonkin snub-nosed monkeys on Earth live, to the orangutan forests of Kinabalu in Borneo. He observed so much beauty and also huge threats that felt overwhelming—from land grabbing to haphazard road construction, palm oil intrusions to lack of livelihood alternatives.
He also met humble individuals that had devoted their entire lives to these causes with little expectation of reward, simply because they cared for their communities and the life around them. Rajeev found it unbelievable that these individuals were struggling to find funds to save some of the most precious biodiversity left.
After working for two decades in Nepal building the "Vertical University," always with the "Begging Bowl" trying to raise funds, whether for the water project in Namje, pangolin conservation in Yangshila, or bio-intensive farms in Kurule-Tenupa, Rajeev felt there was a gaping breach between the people and grassroots NGOs seeking to protect biodiversity, and the funds they so desperately needed to do so.
He spent three years on the ground visiting 18 countries, from the limestone cliffs of Khao Ca in Vietnam, where the last families of Tonkin snub-nosed monkeys on Earth live, to the orangutan forests of Kinabalu in Borneo. He observed so much beauty and also huge threats that felt overwhelming—from land grabbing to haphazard road construction, palm oil intrusions to lack of livelihood alternatives.
WITH FUNDING DONATED BY HIS PARENTS, DR. RAVINDRA AND MS. DAMYANTI GOYAL, WHO IMMIGRATED TO LONG ISLAND FROM RAJASTHAN TO THE UNITED STATES IN THE 1970’S, RAJEEV COULD HELP SUPPORT SMALL GRANTS TO IMPORTANT PROJECTS BASED ON CORE INDIGENOUS VALUES OF RECIPROCITY, TRUST AND BALANCE.
THE FAMILY’S REALIZATION WAS THAT THERE IS STILL SO MUCH WILD LEFT, SO MUCH STILL INTACT, AND THAT INDIGENOUS KNOWLEDGE, COSMOLOGIES, AND WAYS OF BEING WERE THE BEST BUFFER AGAINST THREATS. THAT PROTECTING BIODIVERSITY WAS NOT JUST ABOUT ‘SCIENCE,' BUT PROTECTING THE ANCIENT ARTS, DANCES, STORIES, MUSIC, FOOD SYSTEMS, OF INDIGENOUS PEOPLE. IT WAS ABOUT PROTECTING THE SACREDNESS OF LAND, OCEANS AND BIODIVERSITY BY GIVING FUNDS, TELLING STORIES AND ADVANCING POLICIES.
With funding donated by his parents, Dr. Ravindra and Ms. Damyanti Goyal, who immigrated to Long Island from Rajasthan to the United States in the 1970s, Rajeev could help support small grants to important projects based on core indigenous values of reciprocity, trust, and balance.
The family’s realization was that there is still so much wild left, so much still intact, and that indigenous knowledge, cosmologies, and ways of being were the best buffer against threats. That protecting biodiversity was not just about ‘science,' but protecting the ancient arts, dances, stories, music, food systems, of indigenous people. It was about protecting the sacredness of land, oceans, and biodiversity by giving funds, telling stories, and advancing policies.