[1] Rainforest Partnership was founded in 2007 by Niyanta Spelman, Hazel Barbour, Jordan Erdos, and Bob Warneke, facilitated by Beth Caplan.
Rainforest Partnership's first project, in Chipaota, Peru, involved creating a sustainable management plan for harvesting piassaba palms from which to make brooms.
[3] In protecting cloud forests, as the project in Pampa Hermosa aims to do by introducing alternatives to deforestation, local communities are faced with a "win-win" situation according to Ken Young of UT Austin's Geography department.
The organization functions on a "collective model" in which "much depends on the active consent and ideas of the Latin American partners" describes Michael Barnes of the Austin American-Statesman.
Richard Linklater has served as the primary judge for the competition every year since 2010 alongside guest judges including: Lisa McWilliams, Michel Scott, and Evan Smith (2010) Elizabeth Avellan and Ed Begley Jr. (2011) Elizabeth Avellan and Philippe Cousteau Jr. (2012) Philippe Cousteau Jr., Jay Duplass, and Dana Wheeler-Nicholson (2013) Sarah Backhouse, Dilly Gent, and Ginger Sledge (2014) Eloise DeJoria, Taylor Ellison, and Kenny Laubbacher (2015) Solly Granastein and Julio Quintana (2016) Michael Cain and Alonso Mayo (2017).