Rainforest2Reef is a non-profit organization dedicated to the conservation of the biological corridor stretching from the rainforest of the Calakmul Biosphere Reserve to the Sian Ka’an Biosphere Reserve to the Mesoamerican Reef.

Rainforest2Reef’s mission is to protect biodiversity, maintain ecosystem services, and slow climate change by safeguarding tropical forests, coral reefs and the corridors connecting these threatened habitats. We do this by working in partnership with local communities to protect ecologically important lands through innovative mechanisms, using sound scientific research to manage and monitor protected areas, and developing non-extractive economic activities that improve livelihoods of local people.

The story of Rainforest2Reef started not in the rainforest, but in a two-story apartment in San Francisco. It was the spring of 2000 when David Leventhal and Sandra Kahn won the lottery of the internet boom. The couple had invested in the internet start-up of their downstairs neighbor, and when the company was sold for a record price, David and Sandra had a surprise payout.

Now, when Sandra and David had gotten married five years earlier, they had agreed to wait five years before having children. But when this windfall fell in their laps, Sandra turned to David and said, "I'm not bringing kids into this messed up world until we do something really big to make it a better place for them..." It was then that they decided to take this payoff and spend it all to make the world a better place. The only question left was where they would donate the money.

Deciding how to make a difference

The summer before this conversation, David and Sandra had met Dr. Gerardo Ceballos -- the then-curator of Mexico’s Cuixmala-Chamela Reserve. A year later, David and Sandra left to visit Dr. Ceballos and his family in Mexico. While riding horse back through the Cuixmala-Chamela Reserve, Dr. Ceballos told David and Sandra about his experience in another area of Mexico -- the Calakmul Biosphere Reserve. It was in the Calakmul Reserve that Dr. Ceballos was leading the largest study of Jaguars ever conducted. He described the beauty of this Reserve, its’ natural diversity, and the fact that, sadly, much of the Calakmul would soon be under heavy pressure from forestry, cattle ranching and other destructive pressures.

The beginning of Rainforest2Reef: Friends of Calakmul

The moment David and Sandra heard Dr. Ceballos describe the plight of Calakmul, they knew immediately what they would do. This was it, their big project, their effort to heal the world with the profits of their investment. Immediately after that trip, David and Sandra took all the funds they earned from the internet boom, hired a Dr. Alberto Szekely, the premier conservation attorney in Mexico, developed a conservation strategy, and the result was the founding of Friends of Calakmul – the organization that, years later, would be renamed Rainforest2Reef.

Success expands the mission of Rainforest2Reef

In just that first momentous year, thanks to the original strategy based on the creative model that Dr. Szekely designed, as well as his experience with "Friends-of" organizations, a lucky investment, a desire to make this a better world, and a dear friendship combined to create one of the most innovative, effective conservation programs in the world.

But this was to be just the beginning…

In just seven years, Rainforest2Reef signed agreements on more than 300,000 acres of previously unprotected rainforest and achieved its original goal of signing conservation contracts on all unprotected land within the Calakmul Biosphere Reserve.

Due to this phenomenal success, Rainforest2Reef has recently expanded its mission to include the protection a larger biological corridor within the Mesoamerican hotspot – the area extending from the Calakmul Biosphere Reserve to the Sian-Kaan Biosphere Reserve to the Mesoamerican reef. In the coming years, Rainforest2Reef plans not only to protect but also to help heal this vital biological corridor though reforestation.

Still driving the expansion and success of their work, David and Sandra remain active and dedicated leaders of Rainforest2Reef. They are also the proud parents of two children, as well as entrepreneurs and community leaders in the Silicon Valley.