Thriving Communities, Healthy Landscapes
We're helping more than two million farmers embrace more sustainable growing practices that can help build resilience to climate change and boost yields.
Article
What's at Stake
Across the tropics, farming and forest communities face a daily struggle to cover life’s basic needs. Breaking the cycle of rural poverty—and tackling the ensuing impacts for people and nature—is critical for a more sustainable future for us all.
RURAL POVERTY, DEFORESTATION, AND HUMAN RIGHTS
Rural poverty is at the root of many of our most pressing global challenges, from child labor and poor working conditions to deforestation for agricultural expansion. Economic desperation exacerbates these complex issues, which are deeply embedded in global supply chains. The result is a vicious cycle of environmental destruction and human suffering.
Our Work: Livelihoods
The Rainforest Alliance partners with frontline communities to build thriving rural economies rooted in more sustainable growing practices and forest stewardship. We also promote responsible business practices to ensure that companies recognize and reward sustainability transformation—in the field as well as the boardroom.
Our Work to Improve Rural Livelihoods
To improve rural livelihoods, we foster deep collaboration between farmers, civil society organizations, companies, and governments.
Our Work with the Global Living Wage Coalition
The Rainforest Alliance believes that workers around the world should be paid enough money to provide a decent life for themselves and their families.
Innovative Ways to Enhance Living Income for Cocoa Farmers
At the Rainforest Alliance, we believe in a shared responsibility approach that encourages companies to do their part in ensuring a living income for farmers. This is the basis of our initiatives, the Living Income Module and the Living Income Fund.
All resources for Livelihoods
Operationalizing Climate-Smart Tea Landscapes in Kericho, Kenya
In this paper, the authors develop an assessment tool to evaluate climate-smart landscape needs and opportunities in six key activity domains, then apply this tool in the agricultural landscape around Kericho, Kenya, an important tea-growing region where agriculture and ecosystem services are expected to be strongly affected by climate change.
Improving Practices, Changing Lives: An Analysis of Tea Certification Audit Reports from Malawi, Rwanda, and Tanzania
In 2007, a farm in Kenya became the first tea producer to achieve Rainforest Alliance certification. Today, more than 659,000 farms—covering just over two million acres (830,000 hectares) in 17 countries—produce Rainforest Alliance Certified tea. And with commitments from Unilever, Taylors of Harrogate, Tata Global Beverages, and other prominent tea companies to source only Rainforest […]
Sustainable Coffee Farming: Improving Income and Social Conditions, Protecting Water, Soil and Forests
An overview of scientific research examining the results of Rainforest Alliance coffee certification and training on ecosystems, livelihoods, and communities.
Tea Production in Kenya: Impact Assessment of Two Training Models
Smallholder tea farmers in Kenya are organized through the Kenya Tea Development Agency (KTDA), which works with farmers to produce, process and market high quality teas. KTDA promotes better tea production practices in order to help smallholder farmers increase production quantity and achieve certification–with the ultimate goal of strengthening existing tea markets and establishing new […]
Farmer Bankability and Sustainable Finance: Farm-Level Metrics that Matter
Researchers commissioned by the Rainforest Alliance compared financial record keeping variables between Rainforest Alliance Certified farms and non-certified farms; they also surveyed social lenders and local, in-country financial institutions. The study established a common minimum set of metrics for producers to record/report in order to apply for credit, showed that certified producers are better at […]
Impacts of Rainforest Alliance Certification on Coffee Farms in Colombia
The report summarizes the results of four studies conducted by Cenicafe, a Colombian coffee research institute. Streams were found to be healthier on certified farms, and certified farmers implemented a variety of best management practices at a higher rate than their non-certified neighbors.