Rainforest Alliance

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The Rainforest Alliance is a non-governmental organization (NGO) founded in 1987, whose mission is to protect ecosystems and the people and wildlife that depend on them by transforming land-use practices, business practices and consumer behavior. It has offices and partner groups in 10 countries worldwide, providing on-the-ground programs that promote sustainable forestry, agriculture and tourism.

Rainforest Alliance has been criticized in the past years for creating a certification system dubbed "Fairtrade lite" by various observers and news sources,^[1] therefore offering companies such as Chiquita and Kraft a cheap way to tap in the ethical consumer market.^[2] The Rainforest Alliance has countered that its approach focuses on the long-term social, environmental and economic sustainability of the way farms are managed, teaching farmers the skills and practices they need to produce a premium, sustainable product and compete in the marketplace while encouraging businesses and consumers to make more responsible choices. ^[3]

Contents 1 Rainforest Alliance Programs 1.1 Rainforest Alliance Sustainable Forestry 1.2 Rainforest Alliance Sustainable Agriculture 1.3 Rainforest Alliance Sustainable Tourism 1.4 The Learning Site 1.5 The Eco-Index 2 Timeline 3 Criticism 3.1 Minimum or guaranteed price issue 3.2 Crop prefinancing issue 3.3 Other notable controversies 4 Response to Criticism 5 References 6 External links

[edit] Rainforest Alliance Programs

[edit] Rainforest Alliance Sustainable Forestry

The Rainforest Alliance launched the world’s first sustainable forestry certification program in 1989 to encourage market-driven and environmentally and socially responsible management of forests, tree farms and forest resources. The organization's SmartWood program helped found the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC), a non-profit organization that promotes responsible forest management globally, in 1993. SmartWood is accredited to certify forestry operations that meet the FSC's environmental and social standards. Operations that earn certification can use a seal on wood products so consumers know that the wood they are buying comes from forestlands that are managed in a way that conserves biodiversity and ensures the rights of workers and local people. SmartWood has certified more than 100 million acres of forest worldwide, making it the largeset FSC certifier of forestlands in the world. The organization's forestry program also provides training and technical assistance to small forestry operations on how to reach certification and educates consumers and people in the forest products industry about conservation and certification.

[edit] Rainforest Alliance Sustainable Agriculture

The Rainforest Alliance's sustainable agriculture program oversees the certification of farms that produce tropical crops, including coffee, bananas, cocoa, oranges, cut flowers and ferns. To obtain certification, farms must meet a set of environmental and social standards, including agrochemical reduction, ecosystem conservation, and worker health and safety. The Rainforest Alliance first devised its sustainable agriculture standards in 1991 and certified the first banana plantation, owned by Chiquita, in Costa Rica in 1994. By 2000, all Chiquita-owned banana farms in Latin America had earned Rainforest Alliance certification. Daniel Esty, professor of environmental science and policy at Yale University, and Andrew Winston, director of the corporate environmental strategy project at Yale University, report that Chiquita spent $20 million over ten years to bring its farms up to Rainforest Alliance standards. Esty and Winston call the Chiquita - Rainforest Alliance partnership “one of the most strategic and effective in the world.” ^[4] The Rainforest Alliance is the secretariat of the Sustainable Agriculture Network (SAN), a group including conservation organizations in nine countries in Latin America that work together to promote and increase the use of sustainable agricultural practices and manage the certification program. The Rainforest Alliance encourages businesses and consumers to support sustainable agriculture by buying products grown on certified farms. By February 2006, nearly 200,000 hectares (nearly 475,000 acres) of land on more than 4,500 farms and cooperatives in 12 countries had obtained Rainforest Alliance certification. ^[5]

[edit] Rainforest Alliance Sustainable Tourism

The Rainforest Alliance launched a sustainable tourism program in 2000 and is now providing small- and medium-sized tourism businesses in Latin America with the training and tools they need to minimize their impacts on the environment and local communities. The Alliance is also working to integrate sustainable tourism certification programs in the Americas, through the Sustainable Tourism Certification Network of the Americas.

[edit] The Learning Site

The Rainforest Alliance developed free, on-line curricula that offers complete lesson plans, stories (in English, Spanish and Portuguese), presentations, posters and articles about societies and flora and fauna in Latin America, plus on-the-ground conservation projects for kindergarten through eighth grade.

[edit] The Eco-Index

The Rainforest Alliance offers the Eco-Index, a free online searchable database of more than 900 conservation projects in the Neotropics in English, Spanish and Portuguese. Project profiles include summaries, achievements, anticipated achievements, donors, budget information and lessons learned. The site also features interviews with conservation leaders. It was created to allow people working on conservation projects to be able to share information and learn from each other. ^[6]. An additional site called the Eco-Index of Sustainable Tourism, launched in January 2006, is a free online searchable database of socially and environmentally responsible tourism businesses in Latin America and the Caribbean.

[edit] Timeline

1987- 1988 • Rainforest Aliance is incorporated. First major conference on rainforest destruction is held.

1989 • Rainforest Alliance’s SmartWood program is founded to improve forest management by providing economic incentives to businesses that practice responsible forestry.

1990 • SmartWood certifies its first forest in Indonesia. • Banana standards are introduced and sustainable agriculture program, initially called ECO-O.K is launched.

1991 • Forests in Honduras, Mexico and Belize are certified.

1992 - 1993 • Adopt-A-Rainforest is launched to channel donations to grassroots conservation projects in Latin America. • First Rainforest Alliance agriculture certification goes to two banana farms in Costa Rica and Hawaii. • Forest Stewardship Council, an international sustainable forestry management accreditation body, is established.

1994 • SmartWood expands to temperate and boreal forests in the US and Canada. • The first two Chiquita-owned banana farms are certified.

1995 • First coffee farms are certified in Guatemala. • The Rainforest Alliance receives the Peter F. Drucker Award for Nonprofit Innovation.

1996 • SmartWood Rediscovered for reuse of old wood is launched. • SmartWood certifies forestlands owned by indigenous peoples in Mexico and Wisconsin. • Work with Gibson USA results in the world’s first SmartWood guitars.

1997 • All Chiquita-owned farms in Costa Rica become Rainforest Alliance Certified. Chiquita commits to certifying all its farms throughout Latin America. • Cocoa program is launched in partnership with Conservación y Desarrollo. • First Rainforest Alliance certification of citrus groves goes to Del Oro in Northwestern Costa Rica.

1998 • The Conservation Agriculture Network, later renamed the Sustainable Agriculture Network, is formed to develop guidelines for sustainable farming. • First shade-grown cocoa certification awarded to El Progreso cooperative in Ecuador.

1999 • SmartWood certifies its first non-timber forest products operation. • The Coffee and Biodiversity Project is launched to address environmental degradation in El Salvador by using shade-grown coffee farms to buffer ecologically sensitive land. • Rainforest Alliance receives the American Society of Association Executives (ASAE) Gold Circle Award for excellence in nonprofit communications.

2000 • Daniel Katz steps down as executive director and becomes board chair. Tensie Whelan -- who has been involved with the Rainforest Alliance for over ten years, as a volunteer, consultant and board member -- becomes executive director of the organization. • SmartWood certifies all of New York State’s multiple-use public forestlands. In Guatemala’s Maya Biosphere Reserve, five community forestry operations are certified. • Fifteen percent of bananas are grown on Rainforest Alliance Certified farms. • SmartVoyager tourism certification is launched in partnership with Conservación y Desarrollo. • Eco-Index is launched.

2001 • SmartWood certifications grow to include municipal forests, state parks, maple syrup, pencils and snowboards. • Chiquita announces 100 percent certification of its company-owned farms and issues landmark corporate responsibility report. • Fern and flower certification program is launched in Colombia, Ecuador and Costa Rica. • Training Research Extension Education Systems (TREES) program is established to give small, community and indigenous forestry operations access to certification.

2002 • Twelve hundred companies and cooperatives have adopted Rainforest Alliance sustainable practices. • SmartWood expands certification to Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania. • First two banana farms in Southeast Asia. • The first nine fern farms are certified in Costa Rica.

2003 • Total area of certified forestland reaches 25 million acres (10 million hectares). SmartWood certifies its first US company , the first North America boreal forest, the first certification in Russia and the largest certified forest in Japan. • Sustainable Tourism Certification Network of the Americas is established to accredit tourism certification programs. • Rainforest Alliance Learning Site is launched.

2004 • Total area of forests certified reaches 33 million acres (13 million hectares). • Total combined area of certified coffee farms roughly doubles over 2003 levels--from 46,000 acres (18,600 hectares) to 93,000 acres (37,600 hectares). • Procter & Gamble’s introduction of Millstone Rainforest Reserve coffee in the US and Kraft’s launch of Kenco Rainforest Alliance Certified coffee in the UK. Gloria Jean’s entire line of flavored coffees is certified. Certified coffee becomes available in Belgium, Japan and Canada. • “Cupping for Quality” is the first formal coffee competition where the emerging field of "certified-sustainable" coffee receives gourmet evaluation by leading coffee experts [citation needed]. • Certified Sustainable Products Alliance is launched with the aim of bringing to market increased quantities of sustainable bananas, coffee and timber.

2005 • JP Morgan, Citigroup, Johnson & Johnson, McDonald’s, Nike, the HSBC Bank and others print their annual and corporate social responsibility reports on certified paper. • Certified coffee production doubles over 2004 levels. • Rainforest Alliance Certified coffee wins first place in the World Barista Championship and the second “Cupping for Quality” event. • Chiquita sells 50 million bananas bearing the Rainforest Alliance Certified seal each week in nine European countries.

2006 • The area of Forest Stewardship Council/Rainforest Alliance Certified forestland reaches 100 million acres (40.5 million hectares). • Certified coffee volumes double again for the third year in a row. • First African coffee farms are certified in Ethiopia. • Launch of African cocoa program in Cote d'Ivoire. • Launch of www.eco-indextourism.org, a database of sustainable tourism businesses. • Launch of Migratory Species Pathway. • Pineapple certification criteria are established.

[edit] Criticism

Rainforest Alliance has been criticized in the past years for creating a certification system dubbed "Fairtrade lite" by various observers and news sources,^[7] therefore offering companies such as Chiquita and Kraft a cheap way to tap in the ethical consumer market.^[8] Alex Nicholls, professor of social entrepreneurship at Oxford University, called it "an easy option for companies looking for a “flash in the pan at a cheap price”.^[9]

[edit] Minimum or guaranteed price issue

Rainforest Alliance sustainable agriculture certification, similarly to the Dutch certification scheme Utz Kapeh, does not offer producers minimum or guaranteed price. Ethical Corporation Magazine, in its January 2005 issue, compared the Fairtrade and the Rainforest Alliance Certification programs and concluded that coffee producers under the latter scheme received 21% less for their crop than under Fairtrade.^[10] This price difference makes sourcing Rainforest Alliance Certified products less expensive than Fairtrade. Companies such as Chiquita and Kraft interested in tapping the ethical market have therefore turned to Rainforest Alliance certification as an alternative.^[11]

[edit] Crop prefinancing issue

The lack of crop prefinancing has been another point of contention regarding Rainforest Alliance standards in the past years: Rainforest Alliance standards do not require importers to offer crop pre-financing, a key condition described by Whitni Thomas, head of the Access to Finance Initiative at NEF (New Economics Foundation), as a "cornerstone of the Fair Trade philosophy". Thomas further describes crop pre-financing in "Financing Fair Trade" as particularly critical for commodity producers, especially in the context of the recent collapse of formal lending programs in many developing countries.^[12]

[edit] Other notable controversies

The child labor issue has also proven itself controversial: opponents claim Rainforest Alliance standards lack strict guidelines on child labor while the organization argues no children under the age of 15 are permitted to be contracted as laborers, nor are children of any age permitted to do hard labor ^[13].

Issues have also been raised with regards to standards implementation: Rainforest Alliance requires that 50% of criteria in a certain standard be achieved, or 80% overall, as opposed to absolute minimums and progress requirements in the case of Fairtrade.^[14] The organization counters that there are several criterion that are "critical" and must be complied with for a farm to earn certification. They include an ecosystem conservation program, protection of wild animals and waterways, the prohibition of discrimination in work and hiring practices, the prohibition of contracting children under the age of 15, the use of protective gear for workers, guidelines about agrochemical use and the prohibition of transgenic crops.^[15]

Rainforest Alliance certification has been criticized for allowing the use of the seal on coffee containing a minimum of 30% of certified coffee beans, as opposed to 100% in the case of Fairtrade.^[16] The organization counters that this approach encourages larger purchases of beans from certified farms, having a greater global impact on the environment and livelihoods of farm communities as large roasters blend the beans into mainstream brands. ^[17]

[edit] Response to Criticism

The Rainforest Alliance has countered that its approach focuses on the long-term social, environmental and economic sustainability of the way farms are managed, teaching farmers the skills and practices they need to produce a premium, sustainable product and compete in the marketplace while encouraging businesses and consumers to make more responsible choices. ^[18]

[edit] References

[edit] External links

* Rainforest Alliance Official Web site