4 Reasons to Follow the Frog

During Follow the Frog Week, we’re asking all of our friends and followers to show their support by watching our video, spreading the word and following the frog when they shop! Naturally, we wouldn’t ask you to step up to the plate if we didn’t have proof that our global conservation efforts are transforming land-use and business practices around the world — and forging a path to a sustainable future for us all.

Need a little convincing? Here are some highlights from our new 25^th anniversary report, Protecting Our Planet: Redesigning Land-Use and Business Practices.

1) We have pioneered comprehensive transformation in the agriculture and forestry industries by introducing rigorous sustainability standards to a growing number of farms and forestry operations, and establishing protected reserves around the world.

• The Rainforest Alliance has certified more than 177 million acres (72 million hectares) – an area larger than Texas! — of sustainably managed forestland to the standards of the Forest Stewardship Council, which we co-founded in 1993. On Rainforest Alliance Certified farms and forests, more than 28 million acres (11.4 million hectares)  – an area nearly the size of Ohio — have been set aside as protected reserves – part of the “landscape mosaic” that is central to our certification programs.

2) For more than 4.7 million people – including nearly 1 million workers and their families – the Rainforest Alliance’s work has resulted in measurable, on-the-ground benefits.

• On Rainforest Alliance Certified farms and forestry operations, workers receive decent wages and have the right to organize and collectively bargain.
• Rigorous safety standards, protection from pesticides, and access to education and healthcare for workers are critical components of our programs. In 2007, we tied for the top position in an evaluation by the UK branch of the international Pesticide Action Network that compared protections required by various agricultural certification programs.

3) Our programs have resulted in positive, quantifiable impacts on plant and animal biodiversity.

• Rainforest Alliance Certified farms have become refuges for wildlife, including endangered species. One 2009 study in Gabon found that great ape populations are significantly higher in FSC-certified forestry concessions.
• Our certification requirements have had positive impacts on waterways and the flora and fauna they support. Rainforest Alliance Certified coffee farms in Colombia, for example, scored significantly higher than noncertified farms on a stream health index.

4) Farm, forestry and tourism businesses that adopt the Rainforest Alliance’s sustainability methods see tangible economic and social benefits, and so do surrounding communities.

• Numerous studies of farm and forestry businesses that work with the Rainforest Alliance have shown that economic performance improved alongside environmental and social performance.
• Rainforest Alliance Verified™ tourism businesses increased their local sourcing and spread profit across their communities, according to a 2010 study.
• Our certification program has improved relations between forestry companies and indigenous communities in Canada, where more than 1.23 billion acres (500 million hectares) of forests are home to nearly one million indigenous people.

To learn more about the benefits of 25 years of work around the globe, read the new report online: Protecting Our Planet: Redesigning Land-Use and Business Practices.