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The World Rainforest Movement (WRM) is a global network of citizens groups, both North and South, involved in efforts to defend the world's rainforests. It works to secure the lands and livelihoods of forest peoples, and support their efforts to defend forests from commercial logging, dams, mining, oil exploitation, plantations, shrimp farms, colonisation and settlement, and other projects that threaten them.

The WRM was established in 1986 and initially focused its activities on the flaws in the FAO's and World Bank's Tropical Forestry Action Plan and countering the excesses of the tropical timber trade and the problems of the International Tropical Timber Organisation (ITTO). In 1989 the WRM published the Penang declaration which sets out the shared vision of WRM's members. As well as identifying the main causes of deforestation and singling out the deficiencies of the main official responses to the forest crisis, the declaration highlights an alternative model of development in rainforests based on securing the lands and livelihoods of forest peoples.

In June 1998 the WRM published the Montevideo Declaration and launched its campaign against large scale monoculture tree plantations, which are increasingly appearing in many countries particularly in the South. Such plantations have already proved to have negative impacts at the local level, on both local communities and their environment.

The campaign aims to raise awareness about and organise opposition to this type of forestry development. 

The WRM distributes a monthly electronic bulletin to serve as a tool to disseminate information about local struggles and global processes which may affect forests and peoples. This reaches more than 800 individuals and organisations in over 60 countries.

The WRM's international secretariat is headquartered in Montevideo, Uruguay. With the Forest Peoples Programme, FERN  functions as the Northern support office, providing campaigning support to the movement's affiliates and keeping governments based in the North well informed. 

In May 2000 the WRM produced the Mount Tamalpais Declaration (May 2000, HTML) which sets out why the WRM believes Ôcarbon sinksÕ are leading to forest loss, climate change and social inequality.

See the WRM website www.wrm.org.uy for further details.