Today we mourn the loss of our fearless ally Dame Anita Roddick, founder of the Body Shop, philanthropist, author and tireless activist who passed away at age 64. We send our deepest sympathies to Gordon, Sam and Justine. We loved Anita and we will miss her.

Many of us at RAN had our first education about rainforests at the Body Shop, which Anita founded in the UK in 1976 and grew into an international retail giant. She offered cruelty-free cosmetics and introduced first-ever beauty products sourced from diverse plants in remote rainforests. Anita and the Body Shop pioneered building economic alternatives to logging and agriculture for forest communities – many of these relationships still exist, meaning that old growth rainforests are standing today because of Anita’s work. With the Body Shop, she proved that it is possible to marry ecology with good business sense, while as an activist, Anita spread the simple idea that “businesses have the power to do good” to other corporate leaders, insisting that companies take responsibility for their actions.

As an outspoken advocate for environmental and social justice Anita had no fear for controversy- in fact just last week she was sending human rights dispatches from New Orleans. RAN supporters will never forget last year at Revel when Anita took the stage. I know I won’t; I stood with her while she entertained the crowd (and I added the occasional fact or statistic), and with her helped to raise tens of thousands of dollars to protect rainforests from agribusiness. And then to top it off, she, with husband Gordon Roddick, matched the donations.

Rainforest Action Network has lost an ally and a friend.

One of Anita’s most recent campaigns was to free the ‘Angola 3’, civil rights activists who have been imprisoned for 35 years. Here is a link to make a donation in memoriam of Anita Roddick.