ANNUAL REPORT - Rainforest Alliance

The Amazon Basin Provides Fertile Ground for
Environmentally Friendly Forestry & Farming
To conserve the Amazon Basin’s fragile and complex ecological balance, the Rainforest
Alliance is working with the Initiative for Conservation in the Andean Amazon to guide
local organizations and communities down a path toward long-term sustainability in
farming, forestry and tourism.
• In Bolivia, where certified forestlands include a range of endangered ecosystems, such as
Amazonian forest and Chiquitano dry forest, we are continuing to promote sustainable
forestry and biodiversity conservation, helping foresters to earn certification and helping
forestry operations adopt responsible business practices.
• In Peru’s Madre de Dios, we are helping a number of forest concessions work toward eventual
FSC certification. Within five years, we aim to have certified 494,200 acres (200,000
hectares) of forestland and to be in the process of certifying an additional 494,200 acres
(200,000 hectares).
Guatemala’s FSC-Certified Forests
Fare Better Than Protected Reserves
According to a new study by the Rainforest Alliance,
certification has been more effective than strict protection
in conserving rainforests in Guatemala’s Maya
Biosphere Reserve. The study found that FSC-certified
forests in the 5 million-acre (2 million-hectare) reserve,
where local communities are involved in protecting
the land, have seen twenty times less deforestation
than those areas of the reserve that are in protected
areas. The Rainforest Alliance has been working in the
area for more than a decade, training foresters, certifying
land, supporting community enterprises and
building links between FSC-certified businesses and
markets, toward the goal of helping communities conserve
their forests even as they increase their profits.
23
• In Ecuador, where we have been working with our partner group Conservación y Desarrollo
since 1997 to support the country’s traditional cocoa farmers, we trained an
additional 400 local farmers to grow their cocoa in harmony with the environment and
to provide workers with decent living conditions. More than 3,000 cocoa growers in six
communities have improved their farming practices, upgraded their drying and fermenting
technology and sold Rainforest Alliance Certified cocoa at a premium price.
First Palm Leaf Businesses Certified
In Guatemala’s tropical state of Petén — home to the 5-million acre (2.1-million hectare)
Maya Biosphere Reserve — the Rainforest Alliance is teaching members of local forest
communities to sustainably and efficiently gather xate, a palm leaf sold in the US and Europe
for use in floral arrangements. Responsible harvesting techniques protect the habitat
of wildlife such as howler monkeys and sloths and the additional income provides community
members with an incentive to keep their forests standing. This year, three xate
harvesting businesses became the first in the world to achieve FSC certification.
08 Rainforest Alliance Annual Report