Frequently asked questions about Forestle
If you don't find the answer to your questions here please don't hesitate to contact us.- How does Forestle work?
- How do I know that Forestle really saves rainforest?
- What does the certificate "GREEN certified site" mean?
- Is Forestle a CO2-neutral search engine?
- How much money does Forestle spend on administration expenses?
- Why is it important to protect the rainforests?
- How does Forestle protect the rainforest?
- Where does Forestle protect rainforest?
- Why was The Nature Conservancy selected as partner organization?
- How do I add the Forestle search to my browser?
- Does Forestle also earn money with other searches like image search?
- Can I help Forestle by clicking on advertisements artificially?
- Can I help Forestle by conducting searches artificially?
- Why is it that Forestle saves 0,1m² per search, though money is only earned from clicks on advertisements?
- For how long does Forestle save my private data?
- Why has Forestle not partnered with Google instead of Yahoo?
- Is there also a black version of Forestle?
- Is there a version of Forestle for mobile phones?
- How can I add Forestle to iGoogle?
- Why is there no iForestle?
How does Forestle work?
Please visit our separate "how it works" section, which explains the basics about Forestle.How do I know that Forestle really saves rainforest?
We know that transparency is crucial for a project like Forestle. That's why we publish monthly reports, which list the number of searches and the amount of rainforest that has been saved by our donations.What does the certificate "GREEN certified site" mean?
The certificate "GREEN certified site" means that Forestle is a CO2 neutral search engine. You can learn more about this in the following question.
Is Forestle a CO2-neutral search engine?
Forestle does not only protect rainforest, but it is also a CO2-neutral search engine.
In cooperation with our partner co2stats we measure the CO2 emission that is cause by our own servers, the used network infrastructure and also your computer.
All this CO2 emission is afterwards being neutralized by the purchase of renewable energy certificates. Thanks to this your searches at Forestle are CO2 neutral. You can see the current CO2 statistics of Forestle here.
How much money does Forestle spend on administration expenses?
Administration expenses of Forestle are about 10% of our income. The money is mostly spend for the Forestle server, domains and also CO2 certificates.Why is it important to protect the rainforests?
Rainforest are the Earth's oldest and also most important ecosystems. To protect the rainforests, is one of the major challenges of the 21st century.Some rainforest facts:
- Rainforests are the most diverse ecosystems on the planet containing more species of plants and animals than all the earth's other ecosystems combined - possibly as many as 30-40 million species - two-thirds of the entire world's wildlife species.
- Tropical Forests are the Earth's oldest ecosystems. Fossil records show that the forests of South-East Asia have survived in their present form for at least 70 million years.
- A single hectare of tropical rainforest may contain 200 tree species. The same area of temperate forest typically contains only 10 to 15 species.
- Rainforests act as giant reservoirs of moisture and warmth, releasing water throughout the year as the perennial streams and rivers that support the lives of billions of people, meeting the needs of 40 per cent of the farmers in the developing countries.
- Rainforests worldwide are home to an estimated 50 million indigenous forest peoples.
- Tropical deforestation is the second largest cause of climate change.
- Rainforests contain medicines - an estimated one in four of all purchases from pharmacies in countries such as Britain contain an active ingredient derived from a tropical forest species.
- Many prescription drugs currently sold worldwide come from plant-derived sources. And while 25 per cent of Western pharmaceuticals are derived from rainforest ingredients, less than 1 per cent of tropical trees and plants have been tested by scientists.
- The US National Cancer Institute has identified 3000 plants that are active against cancer cells. 70 per cent of these plants are found in the rainforest. Twenty-five percent of the active ingredients in today's cancer-fighting drugs come from organisms found only in the rainforest.
- Despite their immense importance, the rainforest are highly endangered by logging operations. Within the last 50 years more than half of the rainforests vanished. Every year a rainforest area larger than England is cut down!
How does Forestle protect the rainforest?
Forestle donates all the profit earned by the search engine to the The Nature Conservancy – one of the world's most renowned environmental organizations. The Nature Conservancy is running various projects for the protection of rainforests and has many decades of experience in this field.The money Forestle earns is put into the Adopt An Acre program of the conservancy. Within this program endangered rainforest is being bought and converted into a nature reserve. Furthermore park rangers are trained, to protect the reserve from illegal logging and hunting.
The Nature Conservancy also involves the locals into the protection of the rainforest. They run information campaigns so that residents learn to recognize the immense value of their own environment. The organization also supports eco-friendly and sustainable economic projects in the reserve (e.g. eco-tourism).
All these measures help to protect the rainforest in sustainable way. In the long run not only flora and fauna benefit, but also the people who live in or close to the nature reserves. On a larger scale even people, who live far away from the rainforest, profit by the work of The Nature Conservancy, because the rainforests are known as the "green lungs" and the "air condition" of our planet.
Where does Forestle protect rainforest?
At the moment we help to protect rainforest in the south of Costa Rica on the peninsula "Osa". There a 40,000 hectare corridor is being created to connect two existing nature reserves. You can watch an image gallery of this area here.Why was The Nature Conservancy selected as partner organization?
Our partner organization The Nature Conservancy is one of the biggest and most renowned environmental organizations in the world. They received the best rating by almost all of the independent charity rating organizations.An big organization like The Nature Conservancy is always watched closely by public and thus has to spend money with due diligence. We selected The Nature Conservancy as partner organization to make sure that the money, which is earned by Forestle, is really spend on the protection of rainforests and does not end up in somebody else's pocket.
Wikipedia article about The Nature Conservancy
How do I add the Forestle search to my browser?
You can find a detailed installation guide for the Forestle search plugin here.Does Forestle also earn money with other searches like image search?
No. We only added these search functions to make Forestle more user-friendly.Can I help Forestle by clicking on advertisements artificially?
No. Please only click on our sponsored links if you are really interested in them. You harm Forestle, Yahoo and the advertising company with artificial clicking.Can I help Forestle by conducting searches artificially?
No. We filter search queries, which have been conducted artificially and don't add them to our statistics. Thus you don't help protecting rainforest with fake searches.Why is it that Forestle saves 0,1m² per search, though money is only earned from clicks on advertisements?
Indeed Forestle only earns money if click on advertisements while searching the web. On average Forestle still is able to save 0.1 m² of rainforest with each search, because about 5% of the searches result into a click on an advertisement.An example: An average user conducts about 1,000 searches every year at Forestle. In the cause of the year he clicks about 50 times on advertisements. These 50 clicks generate an income which is sufficient to protect 100 m² of rainforest. Thus one search protects on average 0.1 m² of rainforest.
For how long does Forestle save my private data?
The protection of your privacy is vital to us. Therefore we delete all private data we gather (ip address, search terms, ...) within a maximum of 48 hours. During these 48 hours we only sort out fake searches from real searches. Beyond that there is no further interpretation of your searches.
Thus your privacy is well protected at Forestle in comparison to other search engines, which might save your private data for many months and even analyze it.
Why has Forestle not partnered with Google instead of Yahoo?
Originally Forestle started in partnership with Google. Unfortunately Google ended the partnership with Forestle just a few days after the launch of the project without naming any reasons... After that we have been looking for alternatives and finally decided to partner with Yahoo. We were pleased to find out, that Yahoo search results can easily compete with the Google results. Another good thing about partnering with Yahoo is furthermore that we promote competition in the search engine market – Google has about 70% market share.(If you can't do without Google search results, we recommend using the eco-friendly search engine www.Znout.org. Znout stands for zero negative output. It is a search engine that neutralizes CO2 emission by buying renewable energy certificates.)
Is there also a black version of Forestle?
A black background consumes up to 30% less energy on older monitors than a white background does. Because of this we also offer a black version of Forestle. Click here to set up your background color.Please note that there is hardly any energy saving effect on today's widely used flat screen monitors.
Is there a version of Forestle for mobile phones?
Yes. If you enter www.Forestle.mobi you get a Forestle version that is optimized for mobile devices.How can I add Forestle to iGoogle?
We developed a Forestle search box for your personalized home page on iGoogle. Simply select your country below to add the Forestle search to your iGoogle page.
Why is there no iForestle?
Google offers a personalized home page named "iGoogle". Unfortunately we cannot yet offer a similar service on Forestle, because the programming of iForestle would be very time consuming.Google has more than 20,000 employees. But Forestle is run by a very small team. That's why we have to set priorities for the future tasks – "iForestle" does not have the highest priority.