Landscape-Driven Resilience and Income Strategies for Community Empowerment (LandRISE) is a one-year initiative that aims to support economically vulnerable communities within five ecologically significant agricultural landscapes.
Across these biodiverse landscapes, rural communities form the backbone of global agricultural supply chains, producing commodities such as coffee, cocoa, tea, palm oil, and non-timber forest products (NTFPs). Despite their critical role, these communities grapple with challenges such as low and unstable incomes, limited access to credit, high unemployment, environmental degradation, and the growing impacts of climate change. Women and youth are particularly disadvantaged, often lacking both economic opportunities and decision-making power.
The Rainforest Alliance proposes LandRISE as a landscape-based approach integrating green entrepreneurship, revolving funds, diversified livelihoods, and environmental restoration. The initiative contributes to improved household incomes and economic empowerment by helping women and youth strengthen their capacities, enhancing productivity, building climate-resilient value chains, increasing market access for smallholder enterprises, and supporting restoration activities and circular economy innovations.
The project will introduce revolving funds across the five priority landscapes, offering accessible and equal-opportunity financing for smallholder farmers, women, and youth-led enterprises. By moving away from traditional grant-based aid, these funds create self-sustaining financial loops that encourage communities to invest in green businesses, sustainable agriculture, and diversified income sources. This collaborative strategy is complemented by entrepreneurship training, market access programs, and business advisory services, ensuring that enterprises are not only launched but can continue to grow into profitable and resilient livelihoods.
In parallel, LandRISE will scale up programs that incentivize conservation while generating income, with a strong emphasis on green jobs and businesses. At least 500 community-based green enterprises will be supported. These efforts will include climate-smart agricultural practices and a large-scale tree planting initiative to restore degraded ecosystems, protect watersheds, and enhance long-term agricultural productivity.
Ultimately, the project aims to directly benefit 10,000 farmers, including women and youth, across the landscapes—creating ripple effects that extend to entire communities. Through partnerships with microfinance institutions, cooperatives, governments, and private sector actors, LandRISE will build a strong ecosystem of support that ensures long-term sustainability beyond the grant period.
The Coca-Cola Foundation’s support will enable the Rainforest Alliance to scale proven models, strengthen community-led solutions, and establish replicable frameworks that can be adapted in other regions globally. LandRISE will not only improve livelihoods but also promote inclusive, resilient, and sustainable development, ensuring that people and nature thrive together.
Location
- Mount Kenya region in Kenya
- Sui River region in Ghana
- North Luwu in South Sulawesi, Indonesia
- Selva Maya in Mexico
- San Martin in Peru
Period
April 1, 2025 – April 30, 2026
Priority issues
- Livelihoods: Financial inclusion for women, youth, and marginalized communities
- Climate Resilience : Green jobs creation
- Forests and Biodiversity: Environmental protection
- Regenerative Agriculture: Resilient farming systems
Partner communities
Project activities are expected to serve:
- Women and youth: Women and youth will gain access to entrepreneurship training, revolving funds, and green business opportunities.
- Smallholder farmers: Farm workers and farm cooperative members will access financial inclusion initiatives, market linkages, and capacity building. This includes producers of coffee, tea, cocoa, palm oil, and non-timber forest products.
Objectives
- Increasing income through business development: Support 10,000 women and youth with entrepreneurship training, market linkages, and business advising to strengthen income-generating activities.
- Enhance financial inclusion through revolving funds: Expand access to affordable capital for 5,000 community members by establishing revolving funds, complemented with financial literacy training and monitoring.
- Promote green business development: Support the creation and growth of 500 environmentally sustainable enterprises, creating jobs for women and youth while reducing environmental impact.
- Advance community-led conservation through tree planting: Restore ecosystems by planting 500,000 trees across the five landscapes, supported by nurseries, community training, and long-term monitoring.
- Improve productivity, farmer incomes, and market access: Farmer training on sustainable practices and connections with agricultural input suppliers will enable farmers to adopt climate-smart and regenerative agricultural practices, increasing yields, food security, and household income.
Funders
The Coca-Cola Foundation (TCCF)
Rainforest Alliance contact
Boniface Mulandi, project manager (bmulandi@ra.org)
