In tropical countries like Ghana, smallholder farmers are on the frontlines of climate change. They are seeing firsthand the effects of changing weather patterns, including a heightened dry season and a shortened harmattan–a West African trade wind that brings dry, dusty air and cool temperatures to an otherwise sweltering region.

However, many communities lack access to climate change education—a vital tool to help them understand, mitigate and adapt to climate change. The Rainforest Alliance is working to change this with a comprehensive  project to educate and train cocoa farmers in Ghana’s Bia-Juabeso region.

Farmers from Asempanaye, Nkra, Breman, Eteso and Dominebo gather to learn about climate change during an education workshop facilitated by the Rainforest Alliance.

Since 2009, we have worked with 36 communities across 60,000 acres (24,000 hectares) of farmland in the Bia-Juabeso region, implementing sustainable agroforestry techniques that generate benefits for the community and the local and global climate.  To date, 1,259 farms have been Rainforest Alliance Certified against the Sustainable Agriculture Network (SAN) Standards. These farms are also pursuing verification against the SAN Climate Module, which promotes practices that reduce greenhouse gas emissions, increase on-farm carbon sequestration and help farmers identify and adapt to a changing climate.

This work marks a huge milestone in the global cocoa market. Ghana’s cocoa farmers will be the first to undertake certified, climate-smart agricultural practices–bringing to market the world’s first climate-friendly cocoa. The cocoa will be distributed by Olam, an internationally recognized leader in processing and sourcing agricultural commodities.

Education and training that allows farmers to understand how climate change is meaningful and relevant to their everyday lives is a critical element of the Rainforest Alliance’s efforts in Ghana.  Building off of our previously developed climate change curriculum for students and teachers, we’ve sought to build the adaptive capacity of farmers through community training that takes into account local conditions and farmer perspectives.  This approach includes:

• Focusing on local climate change impacts
• Assessing the impacts of climate change on cocoa farming
• Discussing specific climate-smart practices that farmers can implement on their own, such as composting and protecting shade trees
• Using visuals, posters and local examples to reinforce scientific concepts
• Hosting workshops that accommodate farmers’ busy schedules
• Allowing ample time for discussion, debate and knowledge-sharing

By focusing on local conditions and the direct impact of climate change on farmers’ lives, these workshops help farmers to grasp the personal and global implications of climate change. This provides a foundation upon which to explain the science behind climate change and the contribution of local activities (like deforestation) to the problem.

Materials that focus on local climate impacts and local drivers of deforestation help farmers understand how climate change personally affects their communities and farms.

We’re already seeing some great examples of the ways that education can be used as a tool to empower farmers. I had the opportunity to attend a community workshop and witnessed farmers making commitments to educate their friends and families about climate change, and to do their part to help mitigate climate change by protecting shade trees and composting on their farms. These education efforts also serve as a way to reinforce the practices and concepts farmers implement by becoming Rainforest Alliance Certified, helping them better adapt to shifting climatic conditions.

In the coming months, the Rainforest Alliance will facilitate education workshops for dozens of lead farmers in Ghana who recently achieved certification. These farmers will then go on to hold workshops for hundreds of other farmers within their communities. Collectively, through increased education about climate change, community agroforestry and Rainforest Alliance certification, cocoa farmers in Bia-Juabeso will be equipped with the technical skills and knowledge needed to understand climate change, adapt to its impacts and cultivate continued, sustainable livelihoods.

Learn more about the Rainforest Alliance’s climate work with cocoa farmers in Ghana.

Two-thirds of students in the US report that they have not learned much about climate change.

Fortunately, that is about to change. After three years of consultation and research, the National Research Council, the National Science Teachers Association, the American Association for the Advancement of Science and Achieve will unveil the Next Generation Science Standards this week. “For the first time, the proposed education standards identify climate change as a core concept for science curricula and focus on the relationship between that change and human activity,” reports the Los Angeles Times.

In the US, each state has the power to determine their educational priorities and accept or reject recommended standards. Experts anticipate that 40 states will choose to adopt the Next Generation Science Standards—a huge win for the field of education and the environment.

In the past, many states have been reluctant to teach climate literacy. It is now widely recognized that scientific evidence needs to be used to link knowledge, skills and actions to tackle climate change. With its impacts felt locally and internationally, educators are committed to strengthening society’s ability to understand changes in our environment.

The Rainforest Alliance’s Role

Because many educators lack the resources and knowledge to teach climate literacy, the Rainforest Alliance has been working to introduce teachers to our Climate Educator Guide since 2010. Developed in conjunction with Project Learning Tree, the free curriculum is available in English and Spanish and provides easy-to-use lessons for middle school students.

Through these lessons, pupils learn climate science basics and discover how these concepts relate to the importance of reducing carbon emissions from deforestation. “In the community of Carmelita, Guatemala, we saw firsthand how environmental, social and economic concerns are interconnected with the day-to-day life of local people,” explains the Rainforest Alliance’s climate director Jeff Hayward. “Students learn how carbon credits can support communities who protect and manage forests sustainably while fighting climate change.”

In addition to this free online Climate Educator Guide, the Rainforest Alliance provides in-person professional development and community training related to climate change domestically and internationally.

Now more than ever, we need leaders in education to ensure that students are prepared to use scientific evidence to make informed decisions and take responsible actions. Together, we can foster the development of climate literate nations that contribute to a sustainable future and a prosperous planet.

Learn how the Rainforest Alliance’s climate program is helping communities and business through training, certification and verification.

Projects like this IFM project can avoid the release of hundreds of thousands of tons of CO2 into the atmosphere while helping polluters to offset their emissions.

California’s Cap-and-Trade Program and the CAR Standard

In 2006, California became the first state to pass legislation aimed at reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and mitigating the effects of climate change. Under Assembly Bill 32 (AB32), California plans to reduce its GHG emissions to 1990 levels by 2020 and then to levels 80 percent less than those of 1990 by 2050. As part of these efforts, California will implement a cap-and-trade program managed through the California Air Resource Board (ARB). Cap-and-trade schemes set a “cap” on allowable GHG emission levels for covered entities, such as polluting industries.  Covered entities can then buy, sell and trade GHG offsets to “offset” a portion of their emissions to remain within the levels set by the cap. Polluters will also have the option to offset eight percent of their emissions through the purchase of carbon credits.

CAR began in 2001 and was in many ways a precursor to ARB’s protocols. It has greatly influenced California’s approach and four of CAR’s protocols have been adopted for use in ARB regulation. CAR is also an approved Offset Project Registry (OPR) under ARB, which means that CAR projects can now generate credits that can be used by industries being regulated under the ARB offset scheme.

California is also pursuing agreements to utilize carbon credits from international Reduced Emissions from Deforestation and Degradation (REDD+) projects and has established a REDD Offset Working Group (ROW) to further explore sourcing credits from Chiapas and Acre in Mexico. ROW has released its “Draft Recommendations from the REDD Offset Working Group” which describes options for linking jurisdictional REDD+ projects to California’s cap-and-trade program and is available for public comment until April 30, 2013. Although no final decision has been made regarding REDD+ offsets, allowing such projects to participate in the ARB compliance market could provide a substantial incentive for REDD+. There has, however, been some debate over ability to ensure credibility with these projects. Independent, third-party auditing can help to address these concerns by confirming a project’s credibility through its adherence to the rigorous requirements of a carbon standard.

Rainforest Alliance auditor Lawson Henderson uses a hypsometer to calculate the height of trees.

The Role of Independent Auditing Services

In order for California’s compliance offset plans to work, there must be effective, legitimate carbon projects to buy credits from in the first place. In addition to being authorized to audit forest carbon projects against the CAR standard, the Rainforest Alliance recently became an ARB accredited verification body. This means that we are authorized to conduct verification audits of forest carbon projects against the requirements of ARB protocols. Our auditors, partners and consultants undertake critical steps to ensure that projects conform to the requirements of a standard’s protocols. I recently observed some of this work on a field visit to an improved forest management (IFM) project in Greenville, Maine that is seeking verification against CAR.

During this three-day field visit, the audit team replicated the project developer’s methodology and collected a range of data from a sample of forest inventory plots, including tree species, diameter at breast height (DBH), tree height and the stage of decay for dead or dying trees. All of this information is used to measure the amount of carbon sequestered in a tree. This information is then analyzed and compared to the forest inventory data utilized on the project to determine whether or not the project developer’s inventory methods and data is sound–just one of the many essential activities that auditors carry out to confirm a project’s conformance to a standard and assure its credibility.

Forest carbon projects across the US and REDD projects in Mexico could soon become integrated into California’s emissions reduction efforts. It will be fascinating to see how this all plays out over the next year. Strong, independent auditing will certainly play a crucial role in providing quality assurance and credibility concerning GHG emissions reduction and sequestration claims. As a leader in REDD+ and carbon project verifications and validations, the Rainforest Alliance is well positioned to help steward the success of these efforts.

Visit our website to learn more about Rainforest Alliance’s carbon project validation and verification services.

*Validation is third-party evaluation that confirms that a project uses recognized and reliable methods for reducing greenhouse gases or demonstrating community and biodiversity benefit. Verification is third-party verification of the GHG reductions and community and biodiversity benefits that have occurred.

It is abundantly clear that there are systematic barriers to entry preventing smallholder participation in carbon projects. We’ve seen this firsthand, whether validating forest carbon projects or helping communities and smallholder farmers in the field in Mexico and Ghana to develop their own projects.

The Rainforest Alliance is tackling some of these barriers in an effort to make the Climate Community and Biodiversity (CCB) Standards more accessible for smallholder-led projects.  We’re doing this through a new project with the Climate, Community and Biodiversity Alliance (CCBA), the Nature Conservation Research Centre (NCRC) Ghana, and hand-in-hand with our staff in Ghana.

One of the smallholder projects studied was the Rainforest Alliance’s Forest, Communities, Climate Alliance Project in Ghana.

Challenges Faced by Smallholders

Through an in-depth analysis of smallholder projects and an assessment of how various voluntary standards (like the Forest Stewardship Council, the Sustainable Agriculture Network, the Voluntary Carbon Standard and the Gold Standard) enable smallholder participation, several factors have emerged as challenges:

• Unique characteristics of smallholder communities can result in difficulties in organization and preparation required to meet carbon standards.
• The complex nature of smallholder governance structures can make it hard for them to manage a carbon project on their own.
• The financial and technical requirements needed to obtain validation are often too challenging for smallholders to face on their own.
• Communities usually do not have the skills needed to determine difficult calculations, such as baselines or carbon leakage, and must hire or partner with outside experts.
• Grouping multiple small parcels of land to encompass one “project” adds complexity.
• Land tenure and use rights are often not clear or resolved.

Addressing Smallholder Challenges within Carbon Standards

The barriers to implementing a community-led carbon project are substantial and won’t be reconciled overnight. However, by revising the CCB standards we can help alleviate some of these issues by making the standards more suitable for communities.

To get a better sense of the real-life challenges projects face, the Rainforest Alliance, CCBA and NCRC facilitated a learning exchange workshop in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia for 16 smallholder carbon project managers. These project managers provided first-hand accounts of project challenges and helped us to identify strategies for increasing smallholder access and benefits to the CCB Standards, including:

• Developing tools, guidance and capacity building to benefit community- and smallholder-led projects. Guidance related to calculating leakage and developing monitoring and evaluation tools were found to be particularly important.
• Relieving the cost barriers of coming into compliance, auditing and earning benefits from being validated and verified to the CCB Standards. This could include developing special provisions for smallholder projects that allow new parcels of land to be added to grouped projects. This would reduce the overall cost of validation and would promote growth of the project over time.
• Collaborating with other standards to create guidelines for projects seeking dual certifications and thus alleviate duplication of information.

A Look Ahead

Building on this analysis, the Rainforest Alliance’s climate program is providing guidance to the revision of the CCB Standards. Next, we will apply lessons learned to support the development of a CCB validated project in the Juabeso-Bia region of Ghana, encompassing thousands of smallholder cocoa farmers. Lastly, we’ll look for pilot opportunities for current and new Rainforest Alliance projects designed to engage rural communities in REDD+ programs and carbon projects.

Ready to learn more? Visit the CCBA website to explore the CCBA Smallholders project and visit our website to access our climate standards review study.  

A Rainforest Alliance Certified tea estate in Turkey.

To date, more than 15,000 Turkish producers have received training on sustainable agriculture applications, erosion control, waste management, work safety, record keeping, natural habitat conservation, and fertiliser use and pruning through the program.  Lipton’s local tea-producing factory, Pazar, has also earned Rainforest Alliance certification, and Turkish consumers can now find Lipton tea with the green frog seal on grocery shelves. (Lipton aims to achieve Rainforest Alliance certification for all of its Turkish tea products by the end of 2018.)

At a January 2013 press conference announcing the launch of Lipton tea in the Turkish consumer market, Mustafa Seçkin, Unilever Turkey Foods Marketing Vice President said:

Tea is not an ordinary plant; it constitutes the economy or even the social culture of a region. Therefore, the Lipton Sustainable Tea Agriculture Project is almost a mass regional development project. Through Rainforest Alliance certification, Lipton tea is protecting the tea industry on behalf of its consumer and is providing the region with environmental, economic and social benefits. The consumer then supports this project with each Lipton he/she puts into the basket from the shelves.

The use of chemical fertilizers is one of the most significant issues plaguing the Turkish tea industry, and a focal point of Lipton’s training with farmers seeking Rainforest Alliance certification. In cooperation with the regional Chambers of Agriculture and the Eastern Black Sea Development Agency (DOKA), Lipton established a soil analysis laboratory in Rize’s district of Pazar. The tea producers who received a soil analysis and follow-up training on fertilizer use have achieved savings of 0.5 million Turkish Lira ($275, 561) so far. That number should increase by approximately 3 million Turkish Lira ($1.65 million) by the end of the project.

The Rainforest Alliance’s Director of Sustainable Value Chains, Mercedes Tallo and Unilever Turkey Foods Marketing Vice President, Mustafa Seçkin at the January 2013 press conference.

Enhancing farm management—a critical part of the standards required for Rainforest Alliance certification—has been another instrumental aspect of the Sustainable Tea Agriculture Project. The introduction of an electronic database program that provides producers with a modern, fast and error-free record keeping and audit system has made a significant contribution to improving local farm management.

While rolling out its training program to farmers across the Eastern Black Sea region (a temperate rainforest zone), Lipton has also worked to implement projects that benefit the local community. One important initiative: providing a breast and cervical cancer scanning service through the Cancer Early Diagnosis, Screening, and Training Centre (KETEM).

Learn more about the Rainforest Alliance’s work with tea farmers, and Lipton’s commitment to sustainability.

[F]or the sake of our children and our future, we must do more to combat climate change.  Yes, it’s true that no single event makes a trend.  But the fact is, the 12 hottest years on record have all come in the last 15.  Heat waves, droughts, wildfires, and floods – all are now more frequent and intense.

Credit: Pete Souza

We can choose to believe that Superstorm Sandy, and the most severe drought in decades, and the worst wildfires some states have ever seen were all just a freak coincidence.  Or we can choose to believe in the overwhelming judgment of science – and act before it’s too late.

The good news is, we can make meaningful progress on this issue while driving strong economic growth.  I urge this Congress to pursue a bipartisan, market-based solution to climate change, like the one John McCain and Joe Lieberman worked on together a few years ago.  But if Congress won’t act soon to protect future generations, I will.  I will direct my Cabinet to come up with executive actions we can take, now and in the future, to reduce pollution, prepare our communities for the consequences of climate change, and speed the transition to more sustainable sources of energy.

Jeff Hayward, director of the Rainforest Alliance’s climate program, responds briefly to Obama’s declaration:

President Obama made significant statements on climate change in the State of the Union address, signaling his renewed energy to fight for the future, framing an agenda (and possible legacy) that won’t duck the responsibility of dealing with the urgency of global warming. He committed to tackling the issue, even if Congress doesn’t  and while he has some levers at his disposal (EPA and State Department) for shaping new climate policy, he will need to re-join the debate on climate change legislation with vigor and leadership–if the country is going to deploy an across the board effort to curb our carbon pollution, which could include proposals for cap-and-trade or a carbon tax, and set a price on carbon. Ultimately, this is what is needed to drive innovation, instead of deforestation or emissions and channel private sector investment in low-carbon sustainable production.

Discover the Rainforest Alliance’s work to curb global climate change and influence climate policy.

Earlier this week, we published a thoughtful piece from Unilever’s chief executive Paul Polman. Here, Polman continues his reflection on the future of sustainable business and addresses the role of women in agriculture.

One key to breaking the relentless cycle of poverty and underdevelopment is supporting the role of women in agriculture. The FAO has recently published a report, which highlighted the fact that 43 percent of agricultural workers in developing nations are women.

Women have both the greatest responsibility and the fewest resources to ensure food for their communities.  Limited access to land, finance and training, together with cultural factors, constrain women’s ability to produce and deliver adequate nutrition for their families.

Yet all the evidence indicates that, if these women had the same access to resources as their male counterparts, they could increase yields on their farms by 20 to 30 percent, raise the total global agricultural output by 4 percent and reduce the number of hungry people in the world by 17 percent.

Alongside championing a more equitable role for women, we must also provide the tools and resources to realize agricultural change.  We must harness the latest technologies, whether mobile phones, irrigation systems or farm machinery, to connect rural communities and better enable farmers to produce crops in a sustainable way.

We must also ensure that governments play their part in delivering a sustainable future. At the Rio Earth Summit last year I saw how many now question the ability of international negotiations to agree binding treaties on issues such as sustainable development and climate change, but we must not let them off the hook so easily.

Government engagement remains key to creating the enabling environment and the right incentives to drive systems change in the long term,  There are indeed many political leaders who are making this a priority in their own countries and we should applaud them for doing so.

We must continue to foster public-private partnerships — such as Unilever’s collaboration with the Tanzanian government and other businesses to establish the

A group of female farmers gather in Ghana.

Southern Agricultural Growth Corridor of Tanzania, which aims to transform the area’s agricultural productivity.

Only by working collaboratively, by harnessing the joint resources, reach and energy of the public and private sectors, will we have the scale and impetus necessary to drive forward new models of sustainable production and consumption.

Industry-wide action — such as the Global Consumer Goods Forum’s commitment to end deforestation throughout the supply chain by 2020 — is also vital.  I was very pleased to be involved this year in the CGF’s agreement with the US Government to co-host a partnerships dialogue on public-private efforts to help realize this goal.

As a CEO, I know something about the importance of goals; of outlining a clear, measurable path to a target.

Goals form the basis of the Unilever Sustainable Living Plan.  They focus our energy, challenging us each day to do better, and strive harder to enable our suppliers, our consumers and our employees to build a more sustainable, equitable and inclusive future.

Over the last decade the Millennium Development Goals have provided a framework which has focused action on international development and poverty reduction.

While success has been uneven, we must recognize the tremendous impact that this shared vision has had on progress, prompting collaboration between NGOs, governments and progressive companies towards making a real and tangible difference to people and their communities.

Earlier this year I was honored to be asked by the United Nations Secretary General, Ban Ki-moon, to join the High Level Panel which is reviewing the MDGs and where we need to go next.  It is not an easy task to consider how a new set of goals might be structured in a way that takes account of all the urgent issues that now face us.

But what is clear to me is that we must all do more to recognize the intertwined nature of social, environment and economic sustainability:

• Poverty cannot be overcome while ignoring environmental degradation.

• Economic growth cannot only benefit the rich at the expense of the poor.

• Food and nutritional security cannot only be a matter of producing more food, but also ensuring that it is produced in a sustainable way and that it is distributed to those that need it most.

Let us inspire better care of our planet, by advancing knowledge of the natural world.  By inspiring those around us, we can reach the scale necessary to effect a sea change in the way we treat our planet and each other.

If we are to truly deliver the Rainforest Alliance’s vision of a world where “people and the environment prosper together” we must push back the boundaries of what others say is possible and instead focus on what is necessary.

The challenge is great, but so is the opportunity.  So let us not rest on our laurels. To paraphrase a line by the great British playwright George Bernard Shaw, and made famous by the US politician Robert F. Kennedy: “Some people see the world as it is and ask: what can I do? Young people see the world as it could be and say: together we can.”

The project area is covered under the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) forest management certificate for Downeast Lakes Land Trust – a local conservation nonprofit in Maine — and the 2011 audit was conducted simultaneously with the CAR verification audit.

Credit: Downeast Lakes Land Trust

“Downeast Lakes Land Trust is a leader, demonstrating that forest carbon projects can be combined with FSC forest certification to enhance the environmental and socio-economic benefits of each,” said Richard Donovan, senior vice president of the Rainforest Alliance. “The whole is truly greater than the sum of its parts.”

The project — which was developed by Finite Carbon, who also provided the carbon credit and sequestration calculations — has already reduced CO2 emissions by an estimated 200,000 tons and is expected to sequester an additional 600,000 tons of  CO2 over the next 100 years, sequestering a total of 800,000 tons of CO2 emissions. Downeast Lakes Land Trust plans to use its expected proceeds from the sale of carbon credits to fund other conservation initiatives.

“Achieving Rainforest Alliance verification of our carbon credit project is an exciting step. We are focused on forest conservation and management to support the economic and environmental well-being of our community and region,” said Mark Berry, executive director of the Downeast Lakes Land Trust. “By participating in the market for carbon credits, we stand to gain financial resources toward our ongoing effort to conserve an additional 22,000 acres as CommunityForest around Grand Lake Stream.”

The Rainforest Alliance provides a range of verification services to confirm that carbon projects are conservation-oriented and meet established international standards for carbon sequestration. The Climate Action Reserve Standard (CAR) provides a set of rigorous protocols, guidelines and tools to support the North American carbon market. By verifying projects according to the CAR Standard, the Rainforest Alliance encourages action to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by ensuring the environmental integrity and financial benefit of emissions reduction projects.