Why One Tea Company Decided to Work with the Rainforest Alliance

We chat with Dhayan Madawala about Finlays’ decision to source tea from Rainforest Alliance Certified™ farms. In 2010, Finlays’ Sri Lankan tea estates became the first in the country to earn Rainforest Alliance certification.

Dispatch from Madagascar: Jumping Rivers and Crossing Fire Lines

Noah Jackson – photographer, blogger, trainer and auditor for the Rainforest Alliance – continues his report from Madagascar’s vanilla trails.

My obsession with vanilla is more than professional. Last year, during my second visit to Madagascar, I used the tale of vanilla to court my girlfriend, talking about the aroma, describing my walks across vanilla forest trails, and detailing the beauty of the orchid that grows organically under a mixture of shade fruits and plants. I even sent vanilla and clove samples, harvested from these farm plots, in my letters.

On my third visit for the Rainforest Alliance, I have to dig deeper and explore the more challenging aspects of vanilla. Today, our team followed new farmer field teams, who help to organize farmers and monitor their compliance with the standards required for Rainforest Alliance certification, across the vanilla trail. It was an adventurous trek — we found ourselves jumping across small rivers, climbing steep slopes and nearing the boundary of Marojejy National Park.

The forest damaged by fire.

As we walked, we crossed charred rice fields that had burned when planned fires had jumped fire lines — gaps in vegetation that act as a barrier to slow the progress of fires.  Hillsides and entire stream gullies were destroyed.  This happened because the fires, which were set to clear land for rice, did not follow the intended course. Instead, they crossed fire lines, reducing secondary forest and damaging soil fertility. Burning land to clear it for rice cultivation is a symptom of a larger problem; communities do not have enough land and, as a result, are experiencing rice shortages.

Along the trail, we stopped and talked with farmers, sharing thoughts, ideas and seeds. Tucked away in a seed store compartment in my luggage, I had seeds from my home garden to share with community members.  Small gifts – like seeds for squash and beans – help me to build relationships with locals.

To one farmer, I commented that the vanilla these farmers are growing is well-suited to agroforestry practices. Another vanilla variety, introduced nearly two decades ago, has been modified to grow under full sun conditions, without forest cover.  This variety could mean the end of forest vanilla farming in Madagascar. It could also mean a shift to plantation conditions, where shade-grown practices are discouraged.

In a country where virtually no crop has a stable market price, this change could have disastrous effects on the landscape, crop and farmer livelihoods.  It would certainly mean more forest loss.  This is something that Madagascar cannot afford.

A farmer carrying his vanilla harvest.

We also spoke of planting indigenous trees, and discussed ways to restore very small valleys and gullies.  On one farm, I used a stick to sketch out a way to slow water down and use the extra nutrients to grow sugarcane in the soil. Later, I added the sketch to my notebook.

We didn’t spend a lot of time together, maybe no more than an hour, but it was my favorite hour of the day. It was spent wandering the vanilla trail that wove around fish pounds, through coffee and cloves, past animals and organic composting, and beyond a large fruit home garden.  These sites provide inspiration about the kind of environmentally, socially and economically sustainable farming the people of Madagascar are capable of.

In the evening, showered and back from a long walk, I spoke with the director of the park, Jean Hervé Bakarizafy, about building relationships one family, one community and one farm at a time.  One way to do this is to allow farmers to plant agroforestry crops, such as coffee, cloves, pepper and fruit, within the park buffer zone.

A lemur in Marojejy National Park.

Rice lands, both irrigated wet rice and upland rice, would migrate to lower elevations where the crop could be nurtured on more fertile soil. Fewer fire lines would be crossed and lemurs in the park would have a chance of continuing their march across a park corridor that spans these vanilla lands.

Ready to continue your stroll across the vanilla trail? Watch a short video narrated by Noah Jackson.

Leaves and Twigs: An Unscientific Weekly Roundup of Our Favorite Stories on the Internet

Every day, you’re bombarded with news about the state of the environment, information about initiatives to green our planet and opinion pieces on hot sustainability topics.

What’s worth reading, what should you skip and what should you save for later?  To help you muddle through the mess, we’ve put together a list of some of the best things we found on the net last week.

[Check back every week for a new roundup – this is a new weekly feature!]

• Did you know that organized crime rakes in $10 to $15 billion dollars annually from illegal logging? An investigative piece from Mongabay explores the phenomenon.
• A new project aims to protect frogs from a deadly fungus.
• Meet a songbird that can mimic chainsaws, car alarms and more in a cool new video from National Geographic.
• Time for a green getaway? This photo of “Bliss in Barbados” might inspire your next vacation.
• Students and teachers in Ghana come together to learn about climate change and conservation.
• In Mexico, a new climate change law will help to drastically reduce carbon emissions. Discovery News shares the story.
• “If you don’t have hope, you’re doomed,” says Denis Hayes, coordinator of the first Earth Day, in an inspiring piece on Grist.
• Designzzz shares gorgeous shots of trees from around the world.
• Need another reason to justify your (sustainable) caffeine addiction? Ecosalon comes through with 20 unusual uses for coffee at home!
• How are we transforming the cocoa industry? An overview of an exciting project.
• A look at the world’s 10 most threatened forests via National Geographic.
• Meet cocoa farmers in Ghana and  Côte d’Ivoire and discover how Rainforest Alliance certification is changing their lives.
• Greenloon proves that eco-friendly travel is not more expensive.
• How does your state rank? Mother Nature Network takes a look at environmental winners and losers across the United States with a new infographic.
• Meet 7 extreme green heroes via Take Part.
• According to a recent Trip Advisor survey, travelers want to be more sustainable but hotels need to do more to meet the demand.

Find other great articles, photos or videos on the internet this week? Tell us about them in the comments!

A Chat with Chad Trewick of Caribou Coffee

Over the weekend, our communications associate Anna Clark had a chance to catch up with Chad Trewick, director of coffee and tea at Caribou Coffee,  at the Specialty Coffee Association of America (SCAA) tradeshow in Portland, OR. Fresh off receiving an award at the Rainforest Alliance’s Sustainable Coffee Breakfast, here’s what Chad had to say…

The Rainforest Alliance’s sustainable agriculture team was pleased to award Chad with the first-ever Change Agent Award, which will be presented annually at our Sustainable Coffee Breakfast at the SCAA tradeshow in recognition of coffee industry sustainability champions.

“We are thrilled to honor Chad for his tireless, outstanding efforts to promote social and environmental sustainability,” said Alex Morgan, senior manager of sustainable value chains within the Rainforest Alliance’s sustainable agriculture division.

For nearly a decade, Chad has played a lead role in driving sustainable development at Caribou Coffee and encouraging farmers worldwide to achieve Rainforest Alliance certification. Thanks to his efforts, Caribou Coffee became the first major US coffeehouse to source 100 percent of its coffee from Rainforest Alliance Certified™ farms.

“The most rewarding part of the whole process has been working alongside the producers to see and really understand the impact Rainforest Alliance certification has on their livelihoods, lands and communities,” said Chad. “I am so grateful that Caribou Coffee embraced and prioritized responsibility in our supply chain with such foresight all those years ago.”

How Do You Say “Carbon” in Twi?

Back from an inspiring trip to Ghana – where she shared lessons on climate and conservation with local students and teachers – Rainforest Alliance education manager Maria Ghiso recounts her experience…

“There is carbon in the atmosphere, run, run, run…” Students are chanting these words and clapping and laughing as they play an adaptation of musical chairs created by teachers in Ghana to help students understand the carbon cycle.

For three days, the Rainforest Alliance team has been working with a dynamic group of teachers from Ghana’s Western Region, sharing lessons on the carbon cycle and the role that trees play in climate change.  During the workshop, we analyze observed changes in climate, graph real world data of historical carbon concentrations in the atmosphere, talk about the world’s forests and look at Ghana’s changing forest landscape.  To bring theoretical concepts into practice, participants measure the amount of carbon stored in trees around the workshop site.

Today, teachers are putting their learning into action and leading activities for 100 students in a school in Adaikrom.  I am sitting in the back of a classroom listening to one of the teachers lead an activity about the value of forests, watching the students volunteer more ideas about why trees are important and add to the growing list on the blackboard.  Another set of students uses a carbon meter to make the invisible carbon dioxide a little more tangible, measuring the carbon produced by their breath and the exhaust from a car.

This moment is by far my favorite part of the trip.  I am enjoying spending time with this committed group of students, who came in on a Saturday to help their teachers and continue to learn.  It is inspiring to watch these educators, clearly in their element, put into practice concepts we learned only hours ago — concepts that they will continue teaching throughout the school year.  They will also help to share our curricula with other educators at their school and will participate in community meetings about climate change.

We have used these lessons in classrooms in Colombia, Ghana, Guatemala and the US.  Now, you can use them, too – we’ve added new, free climate curricula to the Rainforest Alliance Learning Site.

Do you want to learn more about cocoa farming in Ghana? Check out our new third grade unit, and share it with the budding environmentalists in your life.

Creating a New Generation of Environmentalists

Every year, our education team works with schools in the US and abroad to help students explore their community’s environment and connect with communities around the world. This school year, we are working with 16 schools in Jacksonville, Florida to teach math, language arts, social studies and science through the exciting lens of the environment.

Dispatch from Madagascar’s Vanilla Trail

Noah Jackson – an independent trainer and auditor for the Rainforest Alliance, and a regular blog contributor – contemplates the dilemmas faced by smallholder farmers in Madagascar.

Much as my travels to remote and exotic corners of the Earth make for thrilling adventures, they don’t tend to make for a very glamorous life.   Take, for example, my recent fall – camera in hand — through a bamboo bridge and into a river, where I flailed and floundered until a farmer plunged his arm through the water and pulled me to solid ground.

While my camera wouldn’t fully dry out until a couple of days later, this moment set the stage for my trip to Madagascar.  The line between a successful crop and a failed one can be defined by a simple mistake or a slight weather shift.

Today, back in the forests of Madagascar’s vanilla coast, a farmer who I’ll call Simon told me: “Noah, it was not that I wanted to clear more forest for rice land. It’s a lot of work. We had a drought last year so I needed to do something to intensify my production. My family would have been without food.”

I understand the tradeoffs farmers face. The investment of community labor required to farm. The loss of soil fertility if the land is not allowed sufficient fallow periods. Farmers need to grow food and they have a right to produce crops – but the land cannot always support these crops.  There are times when farmers must purchase rice, or even go without,  rather than grow it on their overworked land.

The farmers I’m working with on this trip are interested in learning about socially, environmentally and economically sustainable farming, but they have not yet earned Rainforest Alliance certification. In order for these farmers to meet the standards required for certification, we must first find a way to balance their needs with the land’s needs.

Later in the evening, as I ate my own plate of rice, I puzzled over the dilemma. What is a farmer who is out of fertile land to do? We’ve already identified some solutions; that’s why we are starting farmer and group training sessions in Madagascar. But it’s not going to be easy. As Simon told me before I left his village, “There has been so much uncertainty; we just need to build trust with you.”

I couldn’t agree more.  Over the next several days, I’ll be looking at some of the challenges these smallholder farmers are facing, speaking with local experts to see how these problems are currently being solved, and working to identify new solutions.

An Earth Day Message from Our President

We asked our president Tensie Whelan to share a few words about her earliest Earth Day memory. She writes…

In 1970, I was an elementary school student in New York City. My school organized a great clean-up in Greenwich Village to commemorate the day. The city – which was particularly dirty, back then – was really buzzing with excitement. There was a general feeling of possibility and jubilation, and a realization that it was our responsibility to keep our planet healthy.

Tell us: what do you remember about your first Earth Day, and how are you planning to celebrate this year?

Need ideas? Look no further!

A Popular Brasilian TV Show Gets an Eco-Friendly Backdrop

The Rainforest Alliance is excited to announce its new, reoccurring role on a popular Brasilian TV show! Sr. Brasil – a traditional Brasilian music show hosted by Rolando Boldrin– is now being shot on the world’s first Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) certified set.

The world's first FSC-certified set.

Made of Sumauma plywood, a material originating from certified forests in the Brasilian Amazon, the set earned an FSC project certification by the Rainforest Alliance. Imaflora, a member of the Sustainable Agriculture Network and our forestry and agriculture certification partner in Brasil, conducted the milestone audit and certification.

“Concern about the environment is worldwide and being a pioneer in this important project is an honor,” says Boldrin, whose show has been on air since 2005. “I’m touched when I remember the singers that have long denounced forests destruction.”

The project was spearheaded by Sr. Brasil’s producer and set designer, Patricia Maia Boldrin. Sr. Brasil unveiled its sustainable set on Thursday, April 5 at 10 PM, and shared some images of the forest with viewers.

A Sumauma tree in the Amazon rainforest.

“I believe that the Sr. Brasil set will act as a model for the certification of other sets on television,” enthuses Daniele Rua, Imaflora’s certification coordinator. “This proposal can be replicated elsewhere.”

Get Outside to Celebrate National Environmental Education Week!

Spring is in the air, the flowers are blooming, the birds are singing and this week is National Environmental Education Week!  Take advantage of the beautiful spring weather and get kids outside to explore the nature in their neighborhood.  Invite students to search for signs of life around their school and home — such as birds, animal tracks, scat, feathers, nests, different types of trees and grasses — and write down their findings and draw pictures in a nature journal.

Then, start to think about how these species are related to each other.  One way that species are interconnected is through the web of life.

What species would you find if you took a walk in a tropical forest?  How are the unique species living in rainforests connected to each other through the food web?

Ask students to choose a different animal or plant species and research its diet, habitat and threats.  Then, have students stand in a large circle and use a string or a rope to represent the links between each person. One person starts by saying the name they chose and then the class works together to determine how that plant or animal is connected to another organism in the circle. The rope is then passed to that organism. The goal is to finish with a web that connects everyone.

Think you understand this web of life?  Play Rainforest Survival Challenge to test your knowledge of predators and prey in the Amazon.

This lesson and others can be found for free on the Rainforest Alliance Learning Site.