Protecting Wildlife
Forests are home to some two-thirds of the world's plants and animals. As they are cleared and degraded, the unique flora and fauna that depend on these ecosystems become threatened with extinction. To protect endangered species -- such as mountain gorillas, whooping cranes and giant pandas -- and prevent those not currently threatened from joining this list, we must protect forests.
What We’re Doing
Since its inception, the Rainforest Alliance has worked to conserve habitat and protect wildlife all over the world. By preventing deforestation, conserving natural areas, protecting vital ecosystem services and providing communities and businesses with economically sustainable alternatives to forest destruction, we are ensuring the health and survival of these habitats, and the plants and animals that depend on them.
Through certification, we evaluate forestry and agricultural businesses to ensure that they are complying with rigorous environmental standards, which include properly caring for water and soil, monitoring wildlife populations, protecting migratory pathways and prohibiting the hunting and trafficking of wild animals.
Because tourism businesses rely on wildlife to attract visitors, and animals need the help of businesses and communities to ensure that their habitats remains intact, we help communities to establish sustainable tourism businesses as an alternative to deforestation. We also provide training to the staff and owners of these enterprises, so that they can better manage their interactions with wildlife and surrounding natural areas.
Our Impact
- Over 158 million acres (69 million hectares) of Rainforest Alliance Certified™ forests and farms are protecting threatened and endangered species, conserving critical habitat and providing vital ecosystem services.
- On Rainforest Alliance Certified farmlands, farmers are cleaning up their garbage, treating waste, recycling plastic and metals and dramatically reducing chemical use and soil erosion.
- Great apes, which live predominately in areas where logging permits have been granted, are finding critical habitat on FSC-certified forestland in the Congo Basin, Indonesia and Malaysia.
- Through our work with cork harvesters in Spain, Portugal and Morocco, we are helping to conserve an ecosystem that provides habitat for endangered species, such as the Imperial eagle, the Iberian lynx and the Barbary deer.
- Thanks to a massive reforestation effort, Unilever Tea Kenya's Kericho Estate -- the first Rainforest Alliance Certified tea farm in the world -- has seen its population of colobus, vervet and red-tailed monkeys increase.
- At Quebrada Grande -- a community-run tourism destination for bird enthusiasts in Costa Rica -- residents participated in Rainforest Alliance-run tourism workshops and learned why it's important to prevent hunting and capture of wild animals to either keep as pets or sell as souvenirs.
Learn About How We Are Also...
Keeping forests
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Curbing climate
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 Alleviating poverty |
Transforming
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