Businesses Getting Their Hands Dirty with Rainforest Rescue
The Daintree Rainforest — the oldest living rainforest on Earth, surviving for over 180 million years — needs more than our admiration. It needs people willing to get their boots muddy, their hands in the soil, and their hearts firmly rooted in restoration. Increasingly, it is the business community that is helping answer that call and getting their hands dirty.
Down Under Tours at the 2026 Annual Community Tree Planting, 110 Cape Tribulation Road 📷 Martin Stringer
Companies Putting Roots in the Ground
Rainforest Rescue’s Annual Community Tree Planting has become one of Far North Queensland’s most inspiring conservation events, bringing together businesses, volunteers, Traditional Custodians and local communities to restore one of Australia’s most important landscapes.
In 2026, our biggest planting day in history marked the beginning of an exciting new chapter at the Daintree Oxbow. Together, 126 volunteers planted an incredible 5,000 native rainforest trees across 1.59 hectares in a single morning—the largest single planting effort Rainforest Rescue has ever undertaken.
Leading the way was The Travel Corporation (TTC) together with Down Under Tours, who brought our largest-ever business contingent to the planting day. Their enthusiasm and commitment demonstrated how tourism businesses can play a powerful role in restoring the landscapes that inspire travellers from around the world.
Long-time Partners for Protection also returned to the mud, including Ambius Australia, celebrating its sixth consecutive planting, while B Alternative and Eco Wipes marked an incredible seventh year alongside Rainforest Rescue. Their teams once again helped younger volunteers build insect hotels from natural materials, creating habitat not only for rainforest trees, but for the insects that help entire ecosystems thrive.
This year’s event also welcomed Cisco Foundation, celebrating the beginning of an exciting new partnership supporting Rainforest Rescue’s biodiversity monitoring and conservation technology. Visitors also had the opportunity to experience more of the World Heritage-listed Daintree thanks to the generous support of long standing partner Daintree Discovery Centre and FNQ Nature Tours, whose local knowledge and passion help connect people with one of the most remarkable ecosystems on Earth.
Businesses including BioPak, Canon Australia, Daintree Eco Lodge, Forest Super Foods, Reforest, and many others continue to demonstrate that meaningful environmental leadership extends well beyond financial support. Whether protecting rainforest, restoring habitat or volunteering on the ground, every partnership is helping write the next chapter for the Daintree.
Ambius Australia at the 2025 Annual Community Tree Planting, NightWings 📷 Martin Stringer
From Knowing Nothing to Being a Proper Rainforest Protector
When outdoor apparel company Patagonia offered its Australian team the chance to apply for a volunteer internship with Rainforest Rescue, Elise Aston put her hand up.
I saw this as a once in a lifetime opportunity and it would have been a regret not to express my interest. Who wouldn’t want the chance to see first hand the oldest and most Jurassic rainforest in the world — let alone be a part of restoring it!
Over several weeks with the Rainforest Rescue team, Elise worked across both the nursery and land management teams. In the nursery, she helped with germination, propagation, sorting, watering and plant identification, often covering the entire cycle in a single day. Out in the field, she joined the land team on restoration site visits, helped prepare planting holes, placed fertiliser tablets, planted seedlings, and took part in seed collection across the amazing biodiversity of the Daintree.
What surprised her most was not just the scale of what the Rainforest Rescue crew achieves each day — thousands of plants across vast restoration areas — but the depth of their knowledge and the wholehearted dedication they bring to every part of the work.
Real heroes don’t wear capes — they wear a green khaki uniform.
Patagonia’s internship program gave Elise the transformative experience to connect with the Daintree. Arriving as a curious newcomer, she left as a fierce advocate, inspired not just by the beauty of the biodiversity but also the strong community of people working to protect it.
The Forest Needs Businesses — and Businesses Need the Forest
The Daintree is growing, thanks to the work of Rainforest Rescue’s dedicated crew, and the hands of hundreds of business volunteers, bare land is being transformed back into living and thriving rainforest.
Is your business ready to get its hands dirty?
We hope to see you at next year’s Annual Community Tree Planting Day!
Learn more about Rainforest Rescue’s Partners for Protection program & Tree Planting Days:
👉 https://www.rainforestrescue.org.au/make-an-impact/businesses/
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