Protecting the Amazon Rainforest before it’s cut down.
Planting new trees matters. But a sapling takes decades to store the carbon a mature rainforest tree is holding right now. So the fastest way to protect the climate is to keep the forest we already have standing.
That’s why SoftStep supports REDD+ forest protection in the Amazon: real, independently verified projects that pay to stop rainforest being cleared.
As an organisation, our one goal is to protect the world and give something back to the places that have given us so much.
Why cut a tree down and wait 20 years to grow another, when you can protect the one that’s already there?
Paying to keep forests standing.
REDD+ stands for Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and forest Degradation. The “+” adds conservation, sustainable forest management and growing the carbon that forests store.
It’s a framework agreed under the UN climate convention and written into the Paris Agreement. In plain English: the people who own or live on threatened forest are paid to protect it, so the forest is worth more standing than cut down.
Protection is funded by the carbon emissions it avoids. Each tonne of CO₂ kept out of the air is measured, checked by an independent auditor and recorded on a public registry.
One forest. A huge share of life on Earth.
- 6.7m km²covered by the Amazon, shared by nine countries and territories.Source: WWF
- 1 in 10of all known species on Earth live in the Amazon.Source: WWF
- 90–140bntonnes of carbon stored in its trees and soil.Source: WWF
- ~17%of the Amazon’s forest has already been lost.Source: WWF
The same land, 40 years apart.
Drag the slider to see what clearing looks like from above. Most cleared Amazon land ends up as cattle pasture or crops. REDD+ exists to stop the next patch going the same way.
Satellite imagery, 1985 and 2025. Source: NASA / USGS Landsat.
How a REDD+ project protects the forest
A forest under threat is identified
Experts map the area and work out how much of it would realistically be cleared without help. That forecast is the project’s baseline.
Landowners and communities are paid to protect it
The money funds patrols, fire prevention, monitoring and sustainable incomes, so local people earn more by keeping the forest than by selling it.
Results are verified and recorded
Independent auditors check the forest really is standing. Each tonne of avoided CO₂ becomes a credit on a public registry, and is retired once used so it can’t be sold twice.
The Amazon isn’t the planet’s lungs. It’s something better.
The myth
You’ll often hear that the Amazon makes 20% of the world’s oxygen.
It does make a huge amount, but the forest’s own plants, animals and microbes use almost all of it again. Our oxygen supply isn’t what’s at risk.
A giant carbon store
What is at risk is the carbon.
Billions of tonnes are locked in its trees and soil. Clearing and burning the forest releases it as CO₂, which is why deforestation is one of the biggest sources of emissions on Earth.
A rain maker
The forest makes its own weather.
Trees pump water vapour into the air that falls as rain across South America, feeding rivers, farms and cities thousands of miles away. Lose too much forest and that cycle starts to break.
A rare opportunity to protect something even rarer.
In 2019 we set out to help protect one of the largest carbon stores on the planet: the amazing Amazon Rainforest.
We work with a REDD+ partner verified under Verra’s Verified Carbon Standard (VCS), the world’s most widely used programme for checking carbon projects. That keeps the highest standards across all our verified routes.
A good REDD+ project has to prove:
- It’s additional. The forest really was at risk, and is only safe because of the project.
- It’s permanent. Protection is long term, with a reserve of credits held back in case of fire or loss.
- It doesn’t move the problem. Clearing isn’t just pushed to the next forest along.
- Local people agree and benefit. Communities give their consent and share the income.
- It’s independently checked. Auditors verify the results and every credit is publicly listed.
From £4.95 a month. Cancel online any time.
Protection works best alongside planting, not instead of it.
REDD+ has had its critics, and some projects around the world have overstated how much forest they saved. We think you should know that.
It’s why we only use independently verified, publicly registered routes, and why your membership also plants and protects real land you can find on a map, in the UK, in Africa and in the Amazon.
Don't just take our word for it
- ★★★★★Verified Review
“You guys felt different. I’m not guessing where my money goes. I can see the new patch my plan helped protect and watch restoration updates roll in. It’s tangible, which I love.”
ElizabethLincolnshire · Monthly customer since March 2025 - ★★★★★Verified Review
“Our kids track the meadow map in the update emails. It’s the first time we’ve been able to point to a spot and say, ‘we helped protect that.’”
Max & ClaireSouthampton · Proud family saving bees - ★★★★★Verified Review
“Transparent team, proper ecological guidance, and steady progress photos. Watching a tired field start to return with native flowers over the season was the proof I needed that this model works.”
James BBournemouth - ★★★★★Verified Review
“This made immediate sense: every new member means more work on the ground. Seeing exactly how it works gave me confidence.”
Nicholas D.Guildford - ★★★★★Verified Review
“I’m a retired farmer so I understand the effects caused by mass farming and over development. It’s nice to find a company trying to make an active change.”
AndyHeckington - ★★★★★Verified Review
“I’m not much of a nature loving person, even though I pretend to be when I put my welly boots on and go to the pub, but I have seen the places I’d usually walk my dog shrinking rapidly. So thought I’d do my part and sign up. A great idea to be honest.”
AdeleCoventry
Your plan helps expand wild habitat. #ExpandTheForest
Your questions
What does REDD+ stand for?
Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and forest Degradation. The “+” covers conservation, sustainable forest management and increasing the carbon that forests store. It’s a framework set up under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC).
Why protect forests instead of just planting new ones?
A newly planted tree needs decades to store the carbon a mature rainforest tree already holds, and an ancient forest’s wildlife can’t simply be replanted. Protecting standing forest stops those losses today. We do both: we plant and we protect.
Who is Verra?
Verra is a not-for-profit organisation that runs the Verified Carbon Standard (VCS), the most widely used programme for certifying carbon projects. Projects are audited by approved independent bodies and their credits are listed on Verra’s public registry.
Is this the same as carbon offsetting?
REDD+ projects are one type of carbon offsetting: each credit represents a tonne of CO₂ kept out of the atmosphere by protecting forest. The best way to use offsets is alongside cutting your own emissions, not instead of it.
How does my membership help the Amazon?
When you join, you choose the service you want. Your membership pays for forest protection services, including the Amazon through our verified REDD+ route, together with tree planting and land protection in the UK and Africa.
Help keep the Amazon standing.
Every month the forest stays standing, it keeps storing carbon, making rain and sheltering wildlife. Join today and be part of it.
Plant your first tree today