A Better Brazil Nut

Thousands of people in Peru’s Madre de Dios region earn their living by gathering and selling Brazil nuts, which grow wild in the Amazon rainforest. With support from the United States Agency for International Development and Fondation Ensemble, the Rainforest Alliance has helped hundreds of them to improve their forest stewardship, working conditions and incomes. By working with the Brazil-nut gatherers’ associations in eastern Peru, the Rainforest Alliance has strengthened the conservation of their forest concessions while raising their members’ standard of living.

The Bitter Side of the Sugarcane Industry

Throughout Central America, a puzzling new epidemic is threatening the lives and livelihoods of sugarcane workers. In Nicaragua, it causes more fatalities than HIV and diabetes combined, and in El Salvador, it is the second leading cause of death among males. Thousands of Central American men are afflicted with chronic kidney disease, and some epidemiologists and local doctors speculate that the disease is the result of overwork and exposure to dangerous agrochemicals. We recently spoke with Guillermo Belloso, a farm management specialist in El Salvador, about the epidemic and the Rainforest Alliance’s work with SalvaNATURA to improve conditions for sugarcane workers. [SalvaNATURA is an El Salvadorian conservation organization and a founding member of the Sustainable Agriculture Network (SAN), which manages the standard to which all Rainforest Alliance Certified™ farms are audited.]

Tell me a bit about the SAN’s decision to begin working with sugarcane farmers.

In 2008, the SAN looked at global land use projections and determined that there would soon be a significant increase in the area used to produce biofuels and foods, and — consequently — an increase in demand for palm oil to make diesel and sugarcane to make ethanol.  The following year, we developed an addendum to the SAN standard for sustainable agriculture, which is proving to be an important tool for minimizing the negative impacts of sugarcane farming and reducing pressure on biodiversity and communities.

What are some of the most challenging issues surrounding sugarcane certification?

At the farm level, we are working with farmers to eliminate the use of fire for harvest preparation and to reduce the excessive use of dangerous agrochemicals. To do so, we need to create awareness of the dangers surrounding fire and agrochemicals within local communities, and improve worker education and training.  And we also need to educate consumers about these issues and encourage them to buy sustainable sugar. Consumers everywhere must take an active role in caring for their own health, the health of workers around the world and the health of the planet.

Can you describe some of the health issues plaguing Central American farm workers, particularly sugarcane workers?

On Central American sugarcane plantations, many agricultural tasks are done manually and temperatures can reach 104◦ F (40◦ C). According to local medical surveys, high temperatures and inadequate fluid intake can trigger an increase in kidney disease — today, one of the major health issues facing Central American workers. Making matters worse, many workers have no access to health services and existing facilities lack the equipment or specialists needed to cope with such a serious ailment. The issues will only become more serious as we begin to see the effects of climate change — particularly increases in temperature – on farms in the tropics.

How does the SAN Standard attempt to address these issues?

The SAN Addendum includes these issues in the Standard, addressing them with specific criteria aimed at improving practices. Rainforest Alliance Certified™ farms must identify activities that can negatively impact health, improve rehydration practices, issue annual medical checkups, and work to eliminate medical disorders that might be caused by harvest or other dangerous practices.

What other issues does the Standard seek to address?

The SAN Standard works to ensure that Rainforest Alliance Certified farms protect high value ecosystems, develop renewable energy sources, restore ecosystem connectivity, protect threatened and endangered species, consider the impact of their actions on local communities, work to minimize greenhouse gas emissions, and eliminate the use of fire for harvest preparation.

Have we seen improvements in worker health and well-being on sugarcane farms that have earned Rainforest Alliance certification?

Currently, there are only two pilot sugarcane farms working with the Rainforest Alliance and the SAN. The first one is in El Salvador and the second is in Brazil. Conditions are very different in both places.

The El Salvador pilot farm is typical of a Central American sugarcane plantation, and local SalvaNATURA technicians and auditors have reported that community doctors have seen a decline in respiratory diseases. SalvaNATURA has also developed an on-farm diagnostic and training for workers and smallholder sugarcane producers. It’s still too early to see real results and determine the full on-the-ground impact.

Learn more about our work with sugarcane farmers.

10 Reasons to Travel Sustainably

The holidays are over, you’re stressed out and the winter blues have set in. It’s time to get away. As you start to plan your vacation, do you consider how much good your trip could do for others? Some of the world’s most breathtaking destinations are now being managed sustainably, which means that in addition to benefiting your own mental health, your next trip could also benefit the environment and local communities. Here are 10 reasons to travel sustainably:

1.     Make a Difference

One of the world’s largest industries, tourism employs more than 235 million people and generates 9.2 percent of the global GDP. The choices made by travelers like you can enormously impact community-run businesses, local cultures and biodiversity. Your decisions will have consequences, for better or worse, so why not choose better

2.     Conserve Natural Environments

When you follow designated trails, respect local rules about interacting with nature and pay entrance fees to parks and protected sites, you help conserve the beautiful environments that you’ve traveled all that way to visit.

 3.     Protect Wildlife

By participating in bird-watching expeditions and forest hikes, you send the message that those species and their habitats are worth protecting. On the flip side, refrain from buying clothing or other products derived from protected or endangered wildlife since those purchases encourage the continuation of harmful practices.

 4.     Reduce Consumption & Waste

Sustainable tourism companies—including those businesses that have earned the Rainforest Alliance Verified™ mark—are smart about managing their waste and reducing their consumption of resources such as water and energy. By choosing sustainable hotels and tour operators, you voice your support for responsible business.

5.     Support Local Economies

Choosing a sustainable tourism business keeps money in the community — these companies rely on local suppliers for goods and services, hire staff from neighboring towns and support community conservation, development and education efforts.

6.     We’re In This Together

People who operate sustainable businesses understand that well-trained, justly compensated staff members are loyal to their employer and often help improve a company’s efficiency. Well-treated employees also provide excellent service, which is a key component of a great travel experience.

 7.     Preserve the Past

Your visits to historic and cultural sites help maintain these local treasures by giving the local community a reason—and the means—to protect them. Plus, learning about the traditions and cultures of others is a great way to discover new things about yourself.

8.     Get the Inside Scoop

Who knows more about a place than the locals? Whether it’s through home stays, tips on the most scenic hikes and best regional dishes, or insights into cultural traditions, interacting with locals will only enhance your vacation experience.

 9.     Reduce Climate Change

Traveling by car, plane or train produces greenhouse gas emissions, which lead to climate change. But by choosing sustainable travel providers, you are supporting businesses that make an ongoing effort to mitigate these impacts. And if you also purchase carbon offsets, you’re really thinking ahead to a greener tomorrow.

 10.  Look to the Future

So you’re on your trip and you’re having a great time. Don’t you want the option of returning to that destination in the future? By supporting sustainable tourism businesses, you help ensure the long-term conservation of some of the world’s most spectacular places.

 Here are some practical tips for planning your next sustainable vacation. Go to www.SustainableTrip.org to locate responsible tourism businesses, and visit the nonprofit Local Travel Movement to share your stories about past trips.

A Day in the Life of an Ivorian Cocoa Farmer

While auditing a cooperative in Côte d’Ivoire, Rainforest Alliance trainer and auditor Noah Jackson was made king of a small village for the day. It’s a traditional honor that is often bestowed on visitors from outside the region and — much like auditing — provides a window into the daily life of community members. In a new slide show, Noah shares some behind-the-scenes images from small farms that belong to the cocoa cooperative.

 

Ready to learn more about our work with cocoa farming communities? Visit our website.

 

15 Things You Might Not Know About Chocolate

It’s amazing melted and mixed with milk. It’s the perfect addition to cake and cookie batter. It’s divine sweetened with a little sugar. We know it’s delicious (in all its forms), but there’s more to chocolate than great taste. A few fun facts to nourish your mind…

1.  It grows on (Theobroma cacao) trees! Like coffee, cocoa or cacao (pronounced kah-KOW) can flourish under the shade of the forest canopy, where it supports biodiversity — providing habitat for threatened plant and animal species, protecting natural pollinators and cocoa-pest predators, and creating biological corridors.
2. According to the Greeks, chocolate – or theobroma – is literally the “food of the gods.”
3. Rainforest Alliance Certified™ cocoa farms conserve forests and wildlife while ensuring that workers are provided with decent wages and safe living and working conditions, and their families have access to health care and education.
4. In South American civilizations, cocoa beans were once used as a form of currency — only eaten as their quality degraded. According to ancient records, a horse cost 10 beans and a rabbit could be purchased for four beans.
5. Approximately 70 percent of the world’s cacao comes from West Africa. Cacao trees grow across the lowland tropical regions of Africa, Asia and the Americas.
6. The Mayans were the first to grind up cacao seeds and use them to concoct a drink.
7. Cocoa is farmed on more than 28,000 square miles (18 million acres or 7.5 million hectares) worldwide. That’s an area about the size of Ireland or the state of South Carolina.
8. About 40 million people worldwide, including five million farmers, rely on cocoa for their livelihoods. Most cocoa is grown by “smallholder” farmers, who own one- or two-acre plots of land.
9. While cocoa — a rare and expensive commodity — was introduced in Spain as early as the 1600’s, it wasn’t until 1765 that the first chocolate factory was established in the United States. Two and a half centuries later, the average American eats about 12 pounds of chocolate per year.
10. Like turkey, chocolate contains tryptophan — a chemical that the brain uses to produce serotonin, which can generate feelings of ecstasy or love. Chocolate is also rich in antioxidants.
11. There are Rainforest Alliance Certified cocoa farms in 12 countries: Brazil, Colombia, Costa Rica, Côte d’Ivoire, the Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Ghana, Indonesia, Nicaragua, Nigeria, Peru and Tanzania.
12. In the infamous shower scene in Alfred Hitchcock’s “Psycho,” chocolate syrup is used as fake blood.
13. The Rainforest Alliance is working with farmers in Ghana to produce “climate-friendly” cocoa, helping farmers and their communities to adopt practices that help curb climate change and mitigate its impacts.
14. According to a 2010 study, two out of three women say choosing their own chocolate is just as personal a decision as selecting their own lipstick.
15. A cacao tree takes five years to produce its first beans.

Is your mouth watering yet? Visit Shop the Frog to find brands and stores offering Rainforest Alliance Certified chocolate goodies.

Curious about the people behind the chocolate products you love? Tour a Rainforest Alliance Certified cocoa farm with Noah Jackson.

One Seed at a Time: Saving, Sharing and Selecting

Following a short sabbatical in the US, Rainforest Alliance trainer and auditor Noah Jackson is preparing to return to his work with farmers around the globe. Here, he talks about the importance of saving, sharing and selecting the right seeds.

In North America and Europe, this is the time of year when bright seed catalogs begin to arrive in the mailbox. Full-page spreads highlighting green gardens and colorful harvest baskets lighten up the farm workshop while rain, mud or snow pile up outside. For any farmer, these catalogs are eye candy.

At my desk, I’m rifling through papers on seeds available to farmers. In addition to seed catalogs, these papers include literature from extension services and nongovernmental organizations in Ghana, Madagascar, Vietnam, Thailand and China — all places where the Rainforest Alliance works and is building relationships with farmers.

Noah Jackson washes squash seeds in his processing kitchen to save and share with farmers.

In both sets of documents, there are a high number of seeds that offer improved yields, resistance to diseases and pests, and offer long term storage. I pause at this. Many of the seeds are hybrid seeds.

The farmers that we visit often grow crops to sell (cash crops) and crops to consume (subsistence crops). The crops that feed families vary by location. In Ghana, it’s mainly maize (or corn), cassava and cow peas. In Madagascar and Vietnam, it’s rice.

As I look through these documents and think about the need to extend and strengthen food crop production, I’m struck by the realization that although these seeds may be high-yielding, they’re not necessarily a panacea for small holder family farms.

This farmer from Cote d'Ivoire shows off the cocoa seeds he has selected, harvested and is sharing with neighbors as part of a work trade system.

Most of the farmers that work with the Rainforest Alliance are charismatic, well-organized, and give freely of time and resources. Many of these farmers are seed collectors and traders. In places such as Ghana and Côte d’Ivoire, it is common for farmers to have their own work-trade programs, exchanging labor for maize seeds that can be grown out on small family farms.

Hybrid seeds are crossed between two “parent” seeds. This allows for traits like disease resistance and, sometimes, attributes like better yields. The disadvantage is that these seeds, if saved, cross pollinate with other neighboring crops. The resulting seeds don’t have the same traits.

Many of the farmers we work with realize this. However, I’m still amazed by the number of our farmers who purchase these seeds to grow to sell as market crops. When farmers speak with me about this, I explain that we believe in minimizing and monitoring risk for our farmers. In addition to purchasing seeds, especially when leading farmer training sessions, we talk about maximizing food security by allowing enough food garden space for growing, sharing and saving local varieties of seeds.

In Ghana, a farmer shows off hybrid maize seed which need to be purchased yearly.

One consultant friend takes only gifts of seeds; another farmer friend keeps mason jars full of seeds in his basement, his homage to protecting our global seed stock. During my upcoming travel, I plan to share seeds from around the world with the farmers I meet.

Happy New Year from the Rainforest Alliance!

Dear friends,

This year marks the Rainforest Alliance’s 25th anniversary. That’s a quarter of a century of devising, implementing, promoting and assessing tools that conserve biodiversity and foster the well being of families and communities around the world. Many thanks to all of our many friends and supporters for helping us to achieve our goals – we couldn’t have done it without you.

Rather than spend too much time reveling in past successes, we’ve already rolled up our sleeves and started working toward the next twenty-five years. So here’s to a happy 2012, during which we’ve resolved to…

● Ensure that more than 177 million acres (71 million hectares) of forestland are managed sustainably.
● Train community forestry enterprises in new regions, and help these businesses gain access to credit.
● Establish new projects that provide forest managers with opportunities to earn carbon credit payments.
● Protect more than 10,000 miles of freshwater streams by working with tourism businesses to implement water conservation practices.
● Train 1,000 farmers to implement climate-friendly agricultural practices.
● Apply the world’s first sustainable cattle ranching standard on farms in two countries.
● Work with tour operators to develop itineraries that include exclusively Rainforest Alliance Verified™ hotels.
● Broaden our education program’s reach by creating a Spanish-language version of our Rainforest Alliance Learning Site.
● Develop environmental education leadership teams in Florida, New York, Colombia and Guatemala – enabling our curriculum to reach 600 teachers and 10,000 students.
● Help to make a variety of new Rainforest Alliance Certified™ products available to consumers who are serious about making sustainable choices.

Thank you for being part of our sustainability journey and supporting our work around the world! Please take a moment to view “Our Collective Harvest,” a video that bears witness to the individuals, families and communities who are traveling on the road to sustainability with us.

Happy New Year!
Tensie Whelan

Portrait of Côte d’Ivoire: Exploring Communities and Crops

Noah Jackson — an independent trainer and auditor for the Rainforest Alliance — shares photos of farms and farm families throughout Côte d’Ivoire.

In addition to the regular work of planting and cultivating cash crops on their Rainforest Alliance Certified™ farms, the majority of smallholders in West Africa also plant, grow, harvest and store their own food.

In Côte d’Ivoire, rice and maize are the primary staple crops. This elevated hut of maize keeps out chickens and pests, and helps to feed a family through the dry season.

On a nearby farm, a family takes a break to snack on mango, coconut and pineapple – fruits that are grown on their cocoa farm.

On her way back from harvesting sweet potato and pineapple, this woman takes a shortcut through a neighbor’s cocoa garden.

An extended family shares locally raised chicken. The chickens feed off cover crops grown on the cocoa farm.

Dried okra, ready to be added to a pot of stew or stored away, waits to be traded at a Saturday market in a small village compound.

Nuts are an important protein source. Grown with the help of nitrogen fixing trees, they provide an additional source of income, crop diversity and another layer of shade for cocoa farms.

Wild mushrooms are collected from forests and farms, and serve as an additional food source. Trees can also be inoculated with spores to encourage production.

Cocoa yams, harvested from the farm, are dried using a time-tested drying method that relies on wind and sun, which help to preserve the tubers.

Tapioca (also known as cassava) grows along the edge of a Rainforest Alliance Certified cocoa farm. Rich in starch, both the tubers and their leaves are edible.

Cassava can also be processed into flour with a texture similar to couscous.

On another farm, a family separates palm fruit from their kernels to make soups, sauces and palm oil. While they’ll sell some of this palm oil, much of it will be stored and processed during the seasonal harvest.

An old, abandoned coffee farm waits to be cleared for garden land and cocoa land. Communities must grow commodity crops like cocoa to earn a decent living, but there is always a need to save land for subsistence crops.

In many parts of West Africa, it is becoming increasingly difficult to acquire seeds, which means that storing seeds for staple crops is more important than ever.

Avocados provide a rich source of protein during the fruiting season.

COP17 Fell Short: How Can Businesses Pick Up the Slack?

Head over to GreenBiz.com to see what Rainforest Alliance climate coordinator Mark Moroge has to say about COP17.

Last week, in Durban, South Africa, over 190 countries concluded negotiations to frame new international commitments to address global climate change. COP17 was a crucial gathering because time is limited to negotiate a successor to the Kyoto Protocol, the legally-binding international agreement to reduce greenhouse gas emissions that is set to expire in 2012.

In spite of the imminent deadline, a new global agreement was not reached. Developed, developing, and emerging economy countries are too far apart to reach a shared vision. In addition, the financing to achieve the scale of mitigation and adaption estimated to be needed by 2020 isn’t forthcoming.

Continue reading the post on GreenBiz.com.

Slurping for Sustainability: An Exploration of the Specialty Coffee Tasting World

Maya Albanese, coordinator of sustainable value chains for the Rainforest Alliance’s agriculture team in North America, writes about her eye-opening experience hosting the Rainforest Alliance’s 2011 Cupping for Quality in Long Beach, California.

The louder the slurp, the better the cupper — and last week, I was graced with a symphony of impressive slurps. I learned this and many other facts about the intricacies of specialty coffee tasting as the hostess of the Rainforest Alliance Cupping for Quality in Long Beach, CA.

Maya taking part in the Long Beach cupping.

The main goal of this event was a mission I wholeheartedly support: to illustrate the link between environmental, social and economic sustainability and high quality production in the coffee industry. In various discussions with companies that source from Rainforest Alliance Certified™ farms, I have heard that their farmers are happier, outputs are larger and crops are of a higher quality.

I arrived at the Specialty Coffee Association of America (SCAA) Lab with scoring sheets, aprons bearing the Rainforest Alliance Certified™ seal and boxes of salt-less Saltines. Who beyond the coffee tasting community even knew that those oxymoronic crackers existed?

Previously, I had participated in a few smaller, informal tastings in New York, San Francisco and Seattle, but this event was the real deal Cupping for which I’d been waiting. A select group of top notch tasters, called “cuppers,” were invited to participate in this two-day sampling of coffees from certified producers in Indonesia, India, Papua New Guinea, Peru, Brazil, Kenya, Tanzania and Hawaii. We sampled from these specific origins because coffee harvest cycles vary across different regions of the world. In the spring, we’ll host a Cupping in New York City that aligns with the harvest season of coffees from other well-known origins such as Costa Rica and Colombia.

Two participating cuppers, Adam and Jeff.

The cupper group represented coffee importers, roasters and retailers large and small from across North America, including major Rainforest Alliance collaborators Allegro of Whole Foods, Second Cup and Java City, the supplier of all American Airlines flights.

Each cupper is armed with a special spoon, spittoon and apron, in order to sample about five different coffees at a time. After each round of intense slurping, sniffing and silent contemplation, they record scores for aspects such as acidity, uniformity, aroma and balance. Every session is followed by a roundtable discussion on scores and noshing on salt-less Saltines to cleanse the pallet before the next round of tasting. If you know a bit about wine tasting, some of this may sound familiar to you.

After the first few rounds, I was well on my way to becoming a full-blown coffee geek, thanks to Shawn Hamilton of Java City, who not only gracefully led the cupping but also patiently acted as my coffee professor du jour.

In the specialty coffee world, there are seemingly infinite tastes, patterns, origins and roasting techniques to learn, but dogma does not have a home. As Shawn explained to me, there will always be coffees that shatter your expectations, bringing an unforeseen aroma or flavor from an origin that you thought you knew well. And this is the part that excites cuppers the most: a table of varied tastes from a single origin proves that one can only count on expecting the unexpected when it comes to coffee.

One of the popular coffees.

Peru is one origin that continues to blaze new trails in the industry and amaze connoisseurs of specialty coffee across the globe. During the cupping, some of the best coffees by popular vote came from Peru. Official scores and the winners of the Cupping will be publicly announced in early January 2012.

The bottom line is that a sense of curiosity is absolutely essential to becoming an accomplished taster. So with an open mind, I venture into the specialty coffee tasting world, hoping to become a guru myself, and in the process, influence experienced tasters to embrace sustainability and certification as a means to achieving reliable quality and positive impacts at origin.

Learn more about coffee, conservation and quality on our sustainable coffee website, Seal Your Cup.