This is a place for donations in memory of the late Sarah Cunningham, in aid of Rainforest Trust UK. All donations will be doubled, so your gift will have twice the impact.

Sarah Cunningham had a huge impact on every life she touched. Part of a close, loving family, she would always go out of her way to help the people around her. Her caring nature, bright personality and humility are just some of the reasons why she will be missed by so many.

An international artist, she was the youngest person to be signed to Lisson Gallery after receiving an MA in Painting from Royal College of Art in 2022. Her work has been included in numerous exhibitions in Aspen, Berlin, Los Angeles, New York and Vancouver at Almine Rech, Max Hetzler and the CICA Vancouver among others. She is the recipient of the Ali H. Alkazzi Scholarship Award (2019) and the Djanogly Art Award (2019).

A proud, working-class girl from Nottingham, Sarah grafted incredibly hard to save up to attend Royal College of Art on a scholarship. Her work was heavily influenced by nature and environmentalism, with a huge source of inspiration coming from the time she spent on a research residency by La Wayaka Current, an artist-led non profit initiative, where she lived and worked with an indigenous group in Latin America, Panama, for three weeks, in collaboration with Guna Yala Indigenous Province.

Sarah delivered a series of workshops and biography sessions with the indigenous community, the Gunas, and learned about the significant threats to their habitat, resources, tropical forests and coastal marine ecosystems. Guna communities have long been recognised for protecting the forests along their coastline; despite significant threats from farming and industrial logging, they are proven protectors of their ancestral forests.

In Sarah’s memory, we are fundraising for Rainforest Trust UK’s project: 'Safeguard Spectacular Biodiversity in the Crown Jewel of Papua'.

The “Crown Jewel of Papua” on the Indonesian island of New Guinea lies within Earth’s third largest rainforest. Hosting spectacular biodiversity, this carbon-rich landscape of 13 distinct rainforest ecosystems ranges from high mountains to lowlands, savanna, peatlands, and mangroves. The carbon stored in this wilderness is equivalent to 55 billion pounds of coal burned, and the forests are being destroyed to make way for oil palm plantations. Logging and mining are also contributing to deforestation.

These brewing threats have sparked an urgent move to protect over 5.6 million acres across the West Papua and Southwest Papua provinces, where 93% of the primary forest remains intact. Rainforest Trust is partnering with Yayasan Ekosistem Nusantara Berkelanjutan (EcoNusa) to support the government of Indonesia’s social forestry program and establish 120,000 acres as Customary Forests (Hutan Adat) or Village Forests (Hutan Desa), legally recognizing the ownership and/or management rights of three Indigenous communities to their traditional territories.

The phenomenal rainforests here host thousands of species. The three areas chosen for conservation contribute to an integrated conservation landscape within the Crown Jewel of Papua, linked together by natural corridors. Threatened mammal species to be protected include Critically Endangered Western Long-beaked Echidna, a quill-covered, egg-laying mammal, and Black-spotted Cuscus, a large nocturnal marsupial. Endangered Spectacled Flying Fox and several tree kangaroo species also live here.

Customary and village forest designations will also protect endemic bird species threatened by hunting and habitat loss, including the Vulnerable Western Crowned-pigeon, the flightless Northern Cassowary, Vulnerable Pesquet’s Parrot, and birds-of-paradise.

Poverty makes local communities vulnerable to exploitation by outsiders, and this project is only possible after seven years of work by our partner with Indigenous communities on policy development, mapping, improving livelihoods and capacity building. Forest protection will be achieved in collaboration with the Indigenous tribe, Forest Management Units, and all levels of government. Commercial-scale logging, hunting, and mining will be prohibited.

Indigenous-based, forest-friendly business models and social innovation aligned with conservation will be the key to success, and local communities will participate in patrolling and research, drawing on traditional knowledge.

Find out more about the project here.

This is a chance to give money to a great cause that Sarah would be incredibly passionate about.

Thank you for your donation, for sharing, and for shining a light on the spirit of our dearly missed and beloved Sarah.