Report from India (Part 3): Protecting Wildlife on Tea Farms

Rainforest Alliance president Tensie Whelan continues her trip to India’s Rainforest Alliance CertifiedTM coffee and tea estates with T.R. Shankar Raman and Divya Mudappa from the Nature Conservation Foundation.

India’s Valparai plateau in the Western Ghats is a biodiversity hotspot, and our hosts Divya and Shankar live and work there.  The plateau is planted with tea and coffee and surrounded by a rich rainforest reserve that is home to elephants, monkeys, endangered birds, tigers, and as I discover firsthand, leeches.

Biologists by training, our hosts have been active in the area for more than a decade, identifying and tracking wildlife and working to protect their habitat.  Over the years, as they watched the wildlife venturing onto the plateau become threatened by unsustainable farming, they reached out to the Rainforest Alliance Today their organization, the Nature Conservation Foundation (NCF) is a member of the Sustainable Agriculture Network (which sets the standards for Rainforest Alliance certification) and is our primary partner in India.

On our first morning in the Western Ghats, we wade our way through Indian savory donuts, flat bread rolled into cones, dhal, vegetable curry and lots of milky sweet tea before rolling out the door ready for anything.  And anything happened to be a troupe of endangered Lion-tailed Macques hanging out together in a forest remnant on the tea plantation.  NCF has hired a guard who stays on the estate to educate people about the macques as well as to protect them.  The group of ten or so monkeys gambol in the trees—the small ones playing, the larger ones grooming.  One older animal sits apart from the rest and when a car stops and its occupants get out to look, the monkey runs over and jumps though the car window looking for food.  The primates are characterized by a white “mane” around their faces, which are black/brown.

We don’t stay too long, however, as our hosts receive news of an elephant sighting on a tea estate. We drive over small windy tracks until we reach the top of a tea-covered hill, from where we can look down  and see a large female and smaller male with impressive tusks foraging in the forest area.  The two elephants gather up large swathes of grasses and tree branches (they don’t like tea) and stuff it down at regular intervals.  They look rather placid as we watch them from a goodly distance, and indeed, they are unlikely to attack humans unless surprised or feeling threatened.

The NCF staff know most of the elephants in the area and keep records of births, deaths, movements, etc.  They are working on an educational film for workers and farm managers about the elephant and how to live and work in harmony with them.

After the elephant sighting, we also saw giant multi-hued squirrels, a pair of   mongooses playing on a felled trees, and on our way home that night we saw a flying squirrel soar across the black sky.

The Valparai plateau and surrounding mountains is a magical spot and we are reluctant to leave our new friends, but it is time to head back to Bangalore. On our way down the 42 hair-pin turns (yes, they number them) that traverse the mountain, the monkeys wave good-bye, and an iridescent blue bird peers out at us from the heavy tree cover.  We will be back one day; I feel certain.

Report from India (Part 2): Improving Conditions on Tea Farms

Tensie Whelan visits Rainforest Alliance Certified tea estates in the mountains of southern India, where she encounters wildlife now benefitting from forest conservation measures on tea estates.

The clouds hang heavy in the Nilgris hills, which look blue through the morning mist.  They are planted with tea bushes that run in vertical rows.  Original forests wend their way through the canyons that fold along waterways.  It’s a magical place.

We visit the Havukul and Glendale Estates, both of which have been selling their leaves to Lipton ever since the company committed to sourcing Rainforest Alliance Certified tea.

At Havukul, the estate managers are proud of their new worker housing. Roofs have been replaced, access to potable water has been improved and waste disposal issues have been addressed.

As the manager explains, they have begun to measure water consumption and waste generation.  Since they had not monitored those indicators before certification, until recently they had no idea how much waste was generated.

They’ve replaced leaky pipes, instituted recycling programs and built a new facility to house agrochemicals and protect workers from toxicity.   The Glendale Estate has made similar improvements, while offering a one percent bonus plan for workers who recycle their waste.

Both estates have beautiful forest remnants on their properties, which host wildlife species including tigers Glendale has set up a wildlife drinking pond and reforested key habitat areas.  In their children’s education program, students on the farm and in the community learn about wildlife, the environment and recycling.

Fact Versus Fiction in the Marketplace

Perception might be reality in politics, but when it comes to the long-term survival of the planet, it’s vitally important that we be able to distinguish between the two. Walk into any store these days and you’ll see shelves crowded with competing brands, many of which are increasingly making claims of environmental responsibility as they vie for your attention and dollars. Are consumers able to tell which claims are real and which are greenwashing? A new study shows that the public’s perception of a company’s eco-footprint often does not mirror reality.

New Scientist magazine recently released the results of an investigation that examined the views of United States consumers about the “green auras” of particular companies and compared them to the companies’ actual performance. Looking at nine sectors of the economy, the study ranked the “environmental impact” of individual businesses relative to others in their sector and surveyed shoppers to get their opinions about these same companies.

Among the 22 companies in the food and beverage category, for example, Fresh Del Monte Produce was ranked last among its peers for its actual performance but earned second place from United States consumers for its perceived greenness. Meanwhile, Unilever — which owns the first Rainforest Alliance Certified™ tea estate in the world and has pledged to source all of the tea in its Lipton tea bags from Rainforest Alliance Certified farms by the year 2015 — was ranked 21st by consumers, next to last, despite earning a second-place position for its actual environmental impact.

Given the barrage of marketing information aimed at consumers, it’s not surprising to learn that they are having a hard time distinguishing fact from fiction. And many of the companies themselves don’t make that task any easier. According to a 2009 report by the environmental marketing firm TerraChoice, which examined 2,219 retail goods sold in the United States and Canada, a whopping 98 percent of products made at least one claim that could be categorized as “greenwashing,” either actively misleading shoppers or giving a false impression by omitting key details.

What these studies both highlight is the importance of credible, independent information that lets consumers know when a product is truly green — which is exactly the point of certification programs like ours. The Rainforest Alliance Certified seal provides concerned shoppers with a trustworthy, third-party assessment that tells them a product has been made in an environmentally and socially responsible manner. Look for it every time you shop — it’s one label you can really rely on.

(Can’t find the Rainforest Alliance Certified seal on the product you need? Download the Natural Resource Defense Council’s iPhone application, “Label Lookup” — it’s a handy guide to determining the meaning and credibility behind labels on food, personal care products, paper and more.)