The Rainforest Alliance has highlighted an ongoing shift from traditional sustainability to a regenerative approach aimed at achieving net-positive outcomes, in its 2023 annual report.
The global non-profit, which operates in 62 countries and supports over 7.5 million farmers and workers, has indicates that it aims to support 100 million farmers and workers by 2030 through promoting regenerative agriculture and large-scale landscape transformation.
‘Practical and radical’
Commenting in the report, Santiago Gowland, CEO of the Rainforest Alliance, emphasised the need for a shift from merely avoiding harm to actively healing, restoring, and regenerating landscapes and communities.
“Thirty-six years ago, we launched a market-based sustainability model that was so practical, it was radical. As we look at our world today, the stark reality is that a no-harm approach is no longer enough” he said.
“In this critical decade, we need to not only stop harmful practices but also accelerate those that heal, restore, and regenerate the landscapes and communities on which our lives depend. This means uniting companies, governments, and consumers to steer industries towards transparency, sustainability, and regeneration through shared values and purchasing power. Our destination is regeneration, and we’re all in.”
Since the 1990s, the Rainforest Alliance has led an independent certification process, that seeks to to simplify sustainability choices for farmers, companies, and consumers, as well as extending its impact beyond certification to various programs to advance regenerative farming, climate resilience, and better livelihoods.
Annual report
Among the initiatives highlighted in the annual report are the Rainforest Alliance’s support for compliance with the European Union Regulation on Deforestation-free Products (EUDR) by assisting farmers and companies with geocoordinate collection and AI-powered risk maps.
It also highlights achievements in Vietnam and Ghana in assisting farming communities with the switch to regenerative farming, and reiterates the group’s call for a global ban on paraquat, a toxic herbicide, gathering 30,000 signatures in 2023 to encourage safer, herbicide-free farming practices.
Some 42,000 products carry the Rainforest Alliance seal around the world with companies buying enough Rainforest Alliance Certified coffee and cocoa every day to make 341 million cups of coffee and 90 million bars of chocolate.
The full annual report can be found here.
