The World’s Best Forest Guardians: Indigenous Peoples
Indigenous peoples and local communities have an unsurpassed connection to the Earth's forests.
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Indigenous people have lived from the forest since time immemorial, using its resources sparingly and carefully so that it might continue to produce its riches. What the Rainforest Alliance brings to this age-old model are the tools and support to make it economically viable in today’s world. We connect local and indigenous communities with markets, provide technical and business support, and work to improve human well-being—all while conserving the forest.
This page features information about the Rainforest Alliance's work to promote community forestry and links to all our related content and resources.
Working with forest communities, governments, companies, and civil society organizations, we promote more sustainable forest management practices throughout the tropics. We provide training, tools, and knowledge to communities; promote youth inclusion and gender equality; work to increase forest cover, biodiversity, and carbon capture; promote secured rights to forests; and provide access to alliances, finance, and markets, so that forest communities—and forests—may thrive.
This paper outlines our principles and strategies for stopping forest degradation and supporting forest communities in vulnerable tropical regions.
Our Kleinhans Fellowship supports research that seeks solutions to the challenges faced by the community forestry model.
Our Forest Allies initiative leverages the enormous power of our partnerships to support forest communities as they address the climate crisis and combat deforestation.
This paper summarizes our lessons learnt from twenty years of global experience in community forestry.
Indigenous peoples and local communities have an unsurpassed connection to the Earth's forests.
The forest concessions of the Maya Biosphere Reserve have boasted a near-zero deforestation rate for 20 years.
Sitting in the heart of the Congo Basin, the 36,000 square kilometer Salonga National Park (SNP) is the largest protected area of dense rainforest on the African continent.
We are working to grow Mexico’s domestic market for sustainably produced products.
A Case Study of Work with Forestry Concessions In the Maya Biosphere Reserve (Petén, Guatemala)
Lack of access to finance is widely cited as a critical bottleneck to improving the competitiveness... View more
Available in: English, Spanish
A Case Study of Ejido El Largo y Anexos, (Chihuahua, Mexico)
Mexico has what is probably the most advanced community forestry sector on earth. More than 60 percent of the nation’s forestland is... View more
Available in: English, Spanish
A new report published today by the Climate, Nature and Communities in Guatemala (CNCG) project analyzes deforestation trends in the 2.1 million-hectare Maya Biosphere Reserve (MBR), the...
As one of the only such projects in the world that is building on community-based production forestry and enterprise, GuateCarbon is generating important lessons with global significance.... View more
Available in: English
In this brief, the case of Mexican community forestry is presented, with a special focus on the diversity of local enterprises and inter-community associations that have developed over the past... View more
Available in: English, Spanish
Before the Maya Biosphere Reserve (MBR) was established in the Petén in 1990, the area was plagued by illegal logging, which focused on removing only the most valuable tree species, such as mahogany.... View more
Available in: English