Climate

We're All in This Together

What's at Stake

Drought. Flood. Shorter growing seasons. Economic insecurity. Famine. For farming and forest communities around the world, the impacts of climate change are real, not hypothetical. In today's hyper-connected world, fighting climate change and building resilience to its impacts are urgent priorities for us all.

Forests: Our Best Defense Against Climate Change

Deforestation and forest degradation account for 10 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions. In recognition of this fact, the historic United Nations Paris Climate Agreement of 2015 emphasizes the critical importance of conserving forests, reforesting degraded land, and sustainably managing forests.

Agriculture and Climate Change

Agriculture is the driver of an estimated 80 percent of tropical deforestation—and farming activities cause an estimated 10-12 percent of the greenhouse gas emissions that cause global warming. Feeding 9.8 billion people by 2050 without overwhelming the planet is one of the most urgent challenges of our time.

Our Work

Our Work: Climate

The Rainforest Alliance works with rural communities, businesses, and governments to advance sustainable economic development through training; promote climate-smart land management, greenhouse gas mitigation policies, and technical assessments; and support national governments’ participation in climate policies and frameworks.

Cocoa farmer training in Sulawesi, Indonesia

Preparing Cocoa Farmers for Climate Change

We're helping cocoa farmers in West Africa and Indonesia manage droughts, floods, and soaring temperatures.

Building Climate Resilience in Guatemala

The Climate, Nature and Communities in Guatemala (CNCG) program is reducing the impacts of climate change by promoting forest conservation and sustainable livelihoods.

Deforestation and Emissions 101

Forests are our most powerful tool for storing carbon. Here's a simple primer on the mechanics of deforestation and carbon sequestration.

Climate-smart coffee farming

A group of Rainforest Alliance Certified™ coffee farmers in Oaxaca, Mexico, have adopted our agroforestry model to restore the health of their land and build resilience to climate change. They're even generating carbon credits for reforesting: the group will likely remove 130,000 tons of emissions from the atmosphere over 30 years—that’s about the equivalent of the annual emissions for 27,000 cars.

Learn More

Learn more about how we are working to achieve our mission.

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Our Impact

We work with indigenous and forest communities to develop innovative carbon projects that provide financial incentives for conserving or restoring forests.

car equivalent annual emissions of greenhouse gases removed or avoided by CNCG project

351,536 cars

equivalent annual emissions of greenhouse gases removed from the atmosphere by the CNCG project

Sequestering Carbon in Guatemala

Through the Climate, Nature, and Communities in Guatemala Program (CNCG), we provided technical and financial support to three forest-carbon and climate mitigation projects across Guatemala. From 2012-2014, the projects removed 1,641,675 metric tons of CO₂e.

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76,490 students

worldwide have studied our climate and environmental curriculum

Educating Future Climate Leaders

We've trained thousands of teachers in environmental education, with an emphasis on developing hands-on climate resilience projects in their communities. In addition to in-person training, 5.1 million people have visited our website to view and use our environmental curriculum.

See More Impacts

Learn more ways we are achieving real results.

View our impact dashboard

Get Involved

Join us to help rebalance the earth.