A Tea Farmer’s Perspective

Sikobihora Marie Francoise, a tea farmer and member of the Kobacyamu cooperative, is one of 10,000 smallholder tea farmers in Rwanda who has learned to produce a greener cup of tea with the help of the Rainforest Alliance. Meet Sikobihora and discover what she’s learned from Rainforest Alliance certification in an inspiring new video…

Ready to learn more about our work in tea? Click here.

This video was produced by Betty’s and Taylor’s of Harrogate with support from the UK Department for International Development (DFID), through the Food Retail Industry Challenge Fund (FRICH).

In the Wake of a Hurricane: Indigenous Communities in Nicaragua on the Road to Recovery

Lara Koritzke — former associate director of development for the Rainforest Alliance and current director of development and communications at ISEAL Alliance — writes about the Rainforest Alliance’s work with a group of indigenous communities in Nicaragua. Devastated by a 2007 hurricane, they are recovering from damage to their homes, crops and natural forests with perseverance, hard work and collaboration.

Awas Tingni children play atop the sawn boards of timber that will be sold into local furniture markets and provide increased income to pay for school improvements and teacher salaries.

On September 4, 2007, Hurricane Felix struck Nicaragua’s North Atlantic Autonomous Region (RAAN, for its name in Spanish) and left major ecological and socioeconomic damage in its wake.  More than 25,000 impoverished families – mostly from the Moskito and Mayagna indigenous communities – were affected. Estimated damages to homes, crops and natural forests surpassed USD $1.3 billion and more than 3.7 million acres of biodiverse tropical forests were impacted.

Since 2005, the Rainforest Alliance has been helping communities in the region to manage their forests sustainably. In the wake of the hurricane, we also began working to build local businesses and encourage economic recovery. Four years later, 30 communities comprised of more than 2,000 people have benefitted from this work. In addition, seven new forestry cooperatives have been established with smart management plans and alliances with domestic wood product companies. A few highlights of this work…

Salvaging Post-Hurricane Wood and Fostering Natural Forest Re-Growth

A key aspect of working in the post-hurricane area: salvaging fallen or damaged timber while promoting the natural regeneration of the forest.  Salvage operations are producing saleable commercial wood that provides immediate income for indigenous families while also forestalling the risk of permanent forest loss from fire, pests and conversion to other land uses.  These risks will persist unless communities have an alternative revenue stream over the long-term and a real incentive to maintain forests in the face of growing pressures to convert them for livestock and agricultural operations.

Mahogany and other boards sustainably salvaged from Awas Tingni forestland await pickup from North American Wood Products, a broker providing timber for Gibson guitars in the United States.

The Awas Tingni Community: Conservation and Poverty Alleviation in Action

The Rainforest Alliance has been working closely with the Awas Tingni indigenous community to improve the livelihoods of its nearly 300 affected families (about 1,800 people) through the creation of a forest management plan for low-impact salvage harvesting operations.  Such salvage operations reduce greenhouse gas emissions by ensuring that downed wood does not rot or burn. The Rainforest Alliance has also trained the community in value-added processing, and helped to facilitate the acquisition of small-scale carpentry equipment and a portable sawmill.  Now, community members are employed in their own villages, producing pre-sawn boards made of mahogany and other high-demand hardwood species that command higher prices than raw logs alone.

Market Linkages with Wood Buyers Focused on Sustainability

With the Rainforest Alliance’s support, Awas Tingni has also developed alliances with buyers and brokers of wood products, including Nashville-based Gibson Musical Instruments and Maderas Preciosas Indígenas e Industriales de Nicaragua S.A. (MAPIINICSA), a Nicaraguan wood buyer focused on domestic furniture markets.  Both companies are committed to purchasing sustainably harvested timber for their products.

The Rainforest Alliance has also helped the Awas Tingni community to create a new enterprise for their wood harvesting operations: the community-owned Yamaba forestry cooperative, now governed by a board made up of elected community members.

Job Creation and Other Benefits for Women and Children

The Yamaba cooperative and its salvage operations are also creating new jobs in the community. In 2010, the cooperative employed just 60 people; by 2011, that number had reached nearly 200, including 36 female employees. Sales of timber from the cooperative reached US $98,000 in 2010, and are projected to top US $400,000 by the close of the year. In addition to helping to develop the cooperative and increase incomes, the Rainforest Alliance is working with the group to ensure the effective and responsible allocation of newly generated funds.

Yamaba Cooperative Board Member Chavela Maklin (top right) and members of the Women’s Association of Awas Tingni.

Presently, the cooperative’s board of directors and its (newly created) Women’s Association are carefully considering the potential uses of the increased income. They include: re-investing in timber operations to increase sustainability; creating a fenced boundary to protect traditional lands from illegal loggers and poachers; providing additional support for the community school and its teachers; providing materials for the Women’s Association to create small artisan products for sale in local markets; and purchasing a community vehicle that can bring sick or pregnant community members to Puerto Cabezas  —  Awas Tingni is a 3-hour walk to the nearest bus stop, and Puerto Cabezas, the nearest town, is only accessible by bus.

Q&A with Wilson Sucaticona

A few days ago, we celebrated the the UN’s International Day of Cooperatives. To mark this Katy Puga from the Rainforest Alliance talked to Wilson Sucaticona an award winning Peruvian coffee farmer and cooperative member about how he manages his farm and the benefits of being Rainforest Alliance certified™.

Wilson Sucaticona, a young farmer of indigenous Aymara descent, inherited a tradition of coffee farming from his parents and is growing some of the best coffee in the world on his farm, Tunkimayo.

In the December 2009 Rainforest Alliance Cupping for Quality event, Tunki came in second place overall, beating farms from Brazil, Indonesia, and East Africa. Most recently, Tunki coffee won the Best of Origin for Peru at the Specialty Coffee Association of America’s 2010 Roasters Guild Coffees of the Year Competition. Tunki has also won first prize in the Peruvian National Coffee Contest — twice.

From his farm in Sandia, located in the Puno department near the border with Bolivia, Sucaticona discusses how he grows the best coffee in Peru.

Question: How many years have you been a coffee farmer?

Sucaticona: I’ve been doing this for 17 years — my parents and grandparents were coffee farmers and I was raised in this tradition. During school vacations I used to help with washing the beans and removing the pulp, which was how I began to learn how to grow coffee.

My father retired, leaving me in charge of our small, seven-acre (three hectares) farm. At 34 years old, I’m still a coffee farmer and I want my children to grow coffee as well.

Q: Are you a member of any coffee cooperatives?

Sucaticona: Yes, I belong to the San Jorge Cooperative and also the Central de Cooperativas Agrarias Cafetaleras de los Valles de Sandia (CECOVASA).

Q: What kind of support do these cooperatives offer?<a

Sucaticona: Support from the cooperative has been very important to me. The certification programs in Peru work closely with producers who have organized into cooperatives and associations. These organizations are key entities to support farmers in the certification process and are the best way to reach international markets.

The Peruvian National Coffee Board has also had an important role in strengthening coffee organizations and promoting the participation of small producers in the different certification programs.

Q: Your farm has been Rainforest Alliance Certified since 2006. How has this certification helped you?

Sucaticona: I obtained Organic and Fairtrade certifications in 2003 and Rainforest Alliance certification in 2006. These certifications taught me many things about managing my farm. For example, before we used to cut down trees and hunt animals, but now we have learned how to take care of the forests, to stop logging, and to care for the animals and the water. We protect the environment and now we have our house in order.

Certification from the Rainforest Alliance has given me very good benefits. For example, I learned how to improve the quality of the coffee plants and how to better dry the beans, which is crucial because drying affects the quality of the beans.

Q: What is the key to maintaining quality?

Sucaticona: It is difficult and care must be taken during the entire process because any slight changes can affect quality. Everything is important, from planting, to harvesting, to drying…if something isn’t right, it harms the coffee.

For example, to make sure that quality is not affected, I take my product to the stocking center by wheelbarrow. It’s a three hour walk from my farm but I do it because I know that the aroma of the coffee changes if I take it by mule or horse; these animals sweat and their odor affects the beans. Since I want my coffee to be perfect, I am always looking for better ways to do things.

Q: You won the national coffee prize for the second time. What does having the best coffee in Peru mean to you?

Sucaticona: The first time I won was very exciting because frankly, I wasn’t expecting it. The truth is that this year I did expect to win. I already had experience from the last time, I knew exactly how long to dry the coffee to make it perfect and when to submit the sample to participate in the contest. I worked very hard and spent a lot of time preparing.

Later I realized that my coffee competed against more than 300 coffees and I won first place in a very competitive event! This makes me very proud and happy. Now my coffee is being auctioned and I hope to get a good price.

These awards prepared me for the Specialty Coffee Association of America award that I just won. These recognitions motivate me to continue improving the quality and reputation of Peruvian coffee.

In Peru, coffee is an important source of income for thousands of small and medium-size farmers, who export around 95% of their beans to international markets thanks to their high quality, aroma, and flavor. Peruvian coffee is produced in 12 of the nation’s 24 regions; many are located near protected areas, making sustainable farm management essential. Currently, some 30% of Peru’s coffee production is certified as sustainable.

Thanks to support from the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) through the Initiative for Conservation in the Andean Amazon, a regional project that supports the creation of economic alternatives for local communities, Rainforest Alliance is helping coffee farmers to adopt sustainable farming practices, and creating important international market linkages. As a result, more than 70,000 hectares of land have been brought under sustainable management and Peru boasts the largest number of Rainforest Alliance CertifiedT coffee farms in the world. And, more than 50 coffee roasters across four continents source their beans from these sustainably managed farms.

This interview first appeared in Eco-Index: Connecting Conservationists Across the Americas in April 2010.

Major step forward in global efforts to tackle climate change

A significant step forward in the battle against climate change was made today with agreement from around 50 nations for the rapid deployment of more than US $4bn to Reduce Emissions from Deforestation and forest Degradation (REDD). Deforestation and forest degradation are currently responsible for more CO₂ emissions than all of the motorized vehicles on the planet, so conserving forests is not only crucial for conserving biodiversity but also for addressing climate change.

A coalition of some of the world’s leading environment and development NGOs, including Conservation International, Environmental Defense Fund, Natural Resource Defense Council, Rainforest Alliance, the Union of Concerned Scientists and Wildlife Conservation Society, said that today’s Oslo Climate and Forest Conference to formally launch a “REDD+ Partnership” was an important move from talk to action and released the following statement:

“The launch of the REDD+ Partnership shows that countries are finally ready to move from talking about stopping deforestation and forest degradation, to taking action to address this challenge. With deforestation accounting for the same amount of global warming pollution as all the cars, trucks, ships, and planes in the world, we must turn the corner on this issue if we are to address global warming. Every second that we delay action on deforestation we lose an area the size of two football fields. Time is not on our side.

This partnership can serve as an important venue for countries to cooperate on specific actions to address deforestation and forest degradation emissions. The world needs to ramp up its actions on deforestation and forest degradation and the REDD+ Partnership countries are central to this effort. These countries must mobilize the necessary resources, political will, and actions to achieve lasting reductions in deforestation and forest degradation emissions. We have no time to lose.

This partnership can be a launching point for increased global effort. The global community must continue to develop a post-2012 international climate agreement, one that recognizes the critical role of reducing deforestation and degradation emissions. This partnership represents important progress towards that goal. We look forward to working with all the countries in this partnership to deliver effective, efficient, and transparent actions to address the emissions associated with deforestation and forest degradation. Enhancing civil society participation in the partnership will help ensure all relevant actors are engaged in forest-related climate solutions.”

Some of the key nations involved in the partnership include:

• Developing countries: Argentina, Brazil, Cambodia, Cameroon, Colombia, Costa Rica, DRC, Ethiopia, Gabon, Ghana, Guyana, Indonesia, Mexico, PNG, Suriname and Vietnam.
• Developed countries: Australia, Canada, Denmark, European Commission, Finland, France, Germany, Japan, Norway, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, UK and USA.

The Rainforest Alliance works to make sure that policies and mechanisms to address REDD+ are developed quickly and responsibly in order to bring maximum benefit in terms of reducing climate change as well as benefiting forest-dwelling people and conserving biodiversity. At the same time, we are piloting on the ground efforts to conserve forests in order to mitigate climate change, auditing the quality of such efforts and continuing our efforts to make agriculture – which can be a significant cause of deforestation – and forestry sustainable and climate friendly.

Fighting deforestation from day one…

For more than two decades, the Rainforest Alliance has been working to stop deforestation and reduce emissions from deforestation and forest degradation (REDD). Avoiding, averting and just plain stopping deforestation — these are among the core reasons the organization was founded!

We didn’t call it REDD back then — we called it forest conservation. Boycotts weren’t saving the rainforest and we needed a solution so practical it was radical. Enter certification standards and the green market…

While there is great buzz around REDD, at its root reducing emissions from deforestation and degradation is a fight against the causes of deforestation. And this is not new to the Rainforest Alliance — we’ve focused on this all along.

What’s new is using a market mechanism to pay for forest conservation linked to carbon currency. While the math formulas that convert soil carbon into emissions reductions can be confusing, REDD itself doesn’t need to mystify us.

Promoting responsible management with strong restrictions on the conversion of natural ecosystems is at the heart of Sustainable Agriculture Network and Forest Stewardship Council standards. Additions to the sustainable agriculture standard have kept pace with oil palm, soy, sugar cane, and cattle — other drivers of deforestation. And we aim to stay current, with new and better information on the extent to which agricultural expansion and irresponsible logging drives deforestation.

In returning to our “Behind the Scenes” column (I took a short break over the summer), I thought we’d review these causal factors of deforestation. Our friends at the Global Canopy Programme have done just that through their Forest Footprint Disclosure Project in a great analysis of the heavy forest footprint of certain commodities: beef, soy, oil palm, etc.

When we’re talking about REDD, we’re really talking about arresting the destructive force of unsustainable commodity production. Read the Forest Footprints report to learn more.

The big picture: tropical forest loss

The vast tropical forests of the Amazon and Congo Basins, as well as those in Indonesia, represent the bulk of tropical forest threatened by deforestation. But how important are forests in other countries to climate change mitigation?

The Terrestrial Carbon Group (TCG) has completed several studies analyzing where forests are most threatened and likely to be lost — and how this will intensify global climate change. They use spatial and economic models, based on global forest cover maps from the United Nations Environmental Programme’s World Conservation Monitoring Centre to help us understand the dimensions of forest loss and climate change.

Incredibly, the TCG model predicts that 10 countries alone would account for 66 percent of all the greenhouse gas emissions through deforestation. That’s right — 10 countries represent two-thirds of all likely carbon dioxide emissions from forests.

Source: TCG

How much forest is at risk of conversion and why? To find out, TCG analyzed three layers of data and global forest cover maps. They included the following.

1. All areas effectively protected by law (hectares of parks adjusted by index of governance). TCG concluded that as much as 81 percent of tropical forest is not effectively protected by law, and is therefore subject to deforestation.

2. All areas not suitable biophysically for agriculture (the “very marginal,” “marginal,” or “moderate” locations). The study determined that 85 percent of tropical forest is suitable for agriculture, and is therefore subject to deforestation.

3. All areas not feasible economically to deforest (crops would grow, but not worth the investment). TCG estimated that 79 percent of tropical forest is suitable for agriculture and is economically feasible to deforest, and is therefore subject to deforestation.

Considering all of these factors, TCG says nearly 63 percent of tropical forest is at risk of deforestation if we continue with business as usual, rather than creating the mechanisms and incentives necessary to stop deforestation. This amounts to approximately 175 billion tons of greenhouse gas emissions from more than 2.1 billion acres (868 million hectares) of forest, which at average rates of deforestation (29 million acres — or 12 million hectares — per year) will be gone in about 70 years. That’s less than the average life span for a child born in the United States today.

One hundred and seventy-five billion tons emitted over 70 years equates to about 82 parts per million of greenhouse gas emissions into the atmosphere. That means deforestation alone would increase global temperatures by about two degrees Celsius before the end of the century.

For more information, see TCG’s excellent policy briefs, which go beyond this modeling to suggest why and how we need to set tough reference emission levels to maintain and protect forest carbon.

United States Congress Awareness of Forest Carbon Benefits Low

Jeff Hayward, manager of the Rainforest Alliance’s climate initiative, discusses a recent seminar on perceptions about tropical deforestation and forest carbon.

Last month I attended a seminar discussing a new study on perceptions about tropical deforestation and forest carbon within the United States legislature. Resources for the Future (RFF) surveyed staff members and leadership in the United States House of Representatives and Senate and found that most do not think that international forest carbon will produce real, reliable greenhouse gas reductions.

According to RFF, their sample was culled from the more “climate-informed” representatives. However, researchers determined that there wasn’t a very “deep understanding” about the role of international forests in achieving carbon emissions reductions. A most troubling point — there is an awareness gap among United States policy makers when we most need them to be on top of the subject.

A few of the take home messages from the research are below.

1) There is a widespread skepticism about the ability of developing countries in the tropics to produce real, verifiable and measurable carbon offsets.

2) There is a general perception that reduction of emissions from tropical forests is an international issue, without much room for traction within domestic politics.

3) There is a low opinion, in general, of foreign aid held by these politicians, translating into an equally low opinion of funding foreign carbon projects.

4) There is more interest in supporting domestic forest offsets than foreign ones.

5) There is a belief that conservation organizations are divided about forests and carbon.

These findings are startling. I think anyone who believes that carbon finance can support forest conservation in the tropics just realized that their work is going to be even more challenging. The United States is pivotal in how markets evolve for reducing emissions from deforestation and forest degredation — and we need to make a convincing case for the conservation of forests through payments for carbon.

If you recall, nearly all of the mitigation of carbon dioxide emissions that can come from forestry in this century should come from the tropics and neotropics. Most northern and temperate forests are carbon sinks, and even thought there are regional sequestration benefits from such forests, their role in the fight against climate change is less significant than the role of forests in the tropics. It is fundamentally important for international forest carbon offsets to be supported by United States policymakers, as the United States remains one of the largest emitters in the world.