While South America is perhaps best known for the Amazon rainforest, a natural marvel that covers 40 percent of the continent, it is also home to many other ecologically precious landscapes, where scores of Indigenous and local communities strive to live in harmony with nature.
Climate change, poverty, and deforestation—these are some of the major threats to people and nature in the region. With too few buyers for their farm and forest products, many Indigenous and local communities struggle to make a living. Warmer temperatures, changing rainfall patterns, and extreme weather events pose a particular challenge to farmers.
Our partnerships with farmers, forest communities, companies, and local governments have delivered significant positive impacts for people and nature in some of South America’s most critical landscapes.
(data as of 10/25/2024)
Our certification program in South America focuses on the world’s top coffee exporting countries: Brazil and Colombia. We also certify cocoa, flowers, bananas, avocados, and other fruits throughout the region.
In the first half of 2024, more than 29,000 farmers and their families benefitted from nine projects in Ecuador, Peru, Brazil, and Colombia. These projects increased sustainability and improved livelihoods in rural communities spanning 876,678 hectares.
We ground our work in the power of partnerships. In the lush, forested region of San Martín, Peru, for example, we work with Indigenous communities and small-scale farmers to carry out their vision of sustainability—planting trees while growing coffee, cocoa, and other crops—using the many potent tools we’ve developed over the decades.
A community of practice forms when individuals come together for a common goal. Members represent stakeholders that would typically not have the opportunity to collaborate. The group exchanges knowledge, inspiration, and solutions for shared challenges.
Through this initiative, the Rainforest Alliance will work with several organizations to address global environmental challenges associated with commodity-driven deforestation in some of the world’s most important tropical ecosystems and sourcing regions.
This project will provide training and engagement to at least 37,093 workers in the avocado and berry (strawberry and raspberry) sectors in Mexico and the banana and pineapple sectors in Costa Rica.
Este documento permite que os auditores desenvolvam uma auditoria que contemple a correta interpretação e avaliação dos requisitos 5.4 Salário digno, onde na primeira instância da guia desenvolve uma conceituação básica sobre o salário digno no Brasil, sua avaliação dentro da certificação e regulamentos aplicáveis, permitindo ao mesmo tempo que os produtores compreendam a implementação […]
This document enables auditors to prepare an audit in which the correct interpretation and evaluation of topic 5.4 Living Wage is included, first, the guide develops a basic concept of the living wage in Ecuador, its evaluation within the certification and applicable regulations at the same time will allow producers to understand the implementation and […]
The Rainforest Alliance has a long history working alongside Indigenous Peoples, partnering with Indigenous organizations and communities in some of the world’s most ecologically and culturally significant landscapes, including the Amazon basin. Our teams of field professionals have built enduring relationships and co-design sustainable development programs that center Indigenous Peoples as the foremost guardians of […]
Alyssa Killingsworth will apply her background in interdisciplinary environmental research and forest restoration to examine the effectiveness of Polylepis restoration efforts in the upper Andes in Ecuador. ... Continue Reading
The Rainforest Alliance and partners have worked in coffee for nearly four decades. While there are still challenges in the sector, we’ve also seen great improvements. In Colombia, the vast majority of coffee producers are smallholders, many with less than one hectare of land. Limited land size and economic opportunity make it very challenging to […]
The Rainforest Alliance and partners have worked in coffee for nearly four decades. While there are still challenges in the sector, we’ve also seen great improvements. In Brazil, many farms are large and modernized with high productivity. Though incomes are relatively high, many farms rely on expensive and volatile input costs. Our research shows that […]