Jacob Andrén, an ordinary kid going to school in the 80's, was, as at many schools in the western world, involved in fundraising actions to "save the rainforest". Their teachers urged them to help by "buying a tree".

Now a grown up young man he is wondering about what happened to all those trees that he and his classmates bought with the money they made by selling stuff on the flea market. He remembers getting a certificate, but that was 20 years ago. Jacob decides to buy a plane ticket to try to find his tree and to find out if their effort did make a difference.

He starts with looking for the old certificate but it is hard to trace. While searching, he learns that over 400,000 Swedish kids did buy trees in the rainforest as well, and even more kids in other countries. But is that forest of 20 years ago still there? And where? And what threats are these forests facing today. Jacob wants to find the answers. He manages to find his old teacher from primary school, who tells him the forest he helped saving is in Costa Rica. She tells him that the forest was said to be protected forever, but she is only a teacher and cannot promise him that it is still there. This is when Jacob decides to go tracing his trees and look for himself to see what has become of them. I BOUGHT A RAINFOREST shows that individual action can make a difference, it is at the same time a reflection on the freedom of childhood and about using that inspiration to make a change.

Jacob Andrén
Jacob is not an activist nor is he a specialist in environmental issues, he is just a young man who once bought a piece of rainforest and want to know if it's still standing. During his journey he gets more enlightened about what's threatning the rainforest. And therefore more uncertain that his forest still exists. Jacob gets to meet the people who have dedicated their life to save it, and learns that the deforestation not only affects the local population, but also his own future.

Father Andres Tamayo
Father José Andrés Tamayo Cortez is a charismatic Catholic priest leading the struggle for environmental justice in Honduras. He directs the Environmental Movement of Olancho (MAO), a coalition of subsistence farmers and community and religious leaders who are defending their lands against uncontrolled commercial logging.

Daniel Janzen
Daniel Janzen is an evolutionary ecologist, naturalist, and conservationist. He divides his time between his professorship in biology at the University of Pennsylvania and his research and field work in Costa Rica, where he is the head of a long-term project: Area de Conservación Guanacaste, one of the most successful restoration projects in the world.

Eha Kern
Eha Kern, a teacher from Sweden who in 1987 started Barnens regnskog (Children's Rainforest) after being persuaded to do it by school children. The organization collects a few million SEK every year, used to save the rainforest in Central America from deforestation, and to teach the importance of preserving the rainforest.

2010 Hot Docs, Canada

2010 Stockholm Junior Film Festival, Sweden

2010 BUFF Film Festival, Sweden

2010 Tempo Documentary Film Festival, Sweden

2010 Kino Bio Film Festival, Sweden

2010 Göteborg International Film Festival, Sweden