- Forests are skilled multi-taskers: They house countless wildlife species, protect soils and water sources, prevent erosion, help regulate the global climate and provide us with the goods we use every day, including wood, paper, coffee and cocoa. But did you know that the following five items also originate in forests?
Archive for the ‘Uncategorized’ Category
Five Surprising Things That Come From Forests
22/02/2012Sustainable Flower Production
15/02/2012
A worker at Elite, a Rainforest Alliance Certified flower farm in Colombia.
Yesterday many of our readers would have either sent a beautiful bouquet of flowers to their loved one, or been the lucky recipient. But did you know that those flowers were probably grown in a rainforest country, and many of the ferns that envelop flower bouquets would have been grown in Costa Rica and Guatemala?
Kenya provides one-quarter of the European Union’s bouquets, while 90 percent of the cut flowers and ferns imported into the United States come from Colombia, Ecuador or other Latin American countries. Read the rest of this entry ?
Our Valentine’s Day Interview
14/02/2012
To mark Valentine’s Day, we thought we’d quiz Marc Monsarrat, our East Africa and South Asia Manager, Sustainable Agriculture Division about romance and his ideal Valentine’s present… Read the rest of this entry ?
Spicing Up Sustainability
12/02/2012
What better time to announce our work in spices than at the 11th World Spice Congress in Pune, India that took place over the weekend. We are teaming up with the Sustainable Spices Initiative (SSI) to adapt the existing Sustainable Agriculture Network (SAN) standards to incorporate spice production. The SSI is the first major programme to build on the sustainable production of spices.
Founded by the Sustainable Trade Initiative (IDH) –and four leading players in the Dutch spice market, this major spice programme will aim to implement SAN standards to the production to 34 different types of culinary spices. Read the rest of this entry ?
15 Things You Might Not Know About Chocolate
09/02/2012With less than a week until Valentine’s Day, we thought we’d kick off our luuurve series with something for all you chocolate lovers out there…It’s amazing melted and mixed with milk. It’s the perfect addition to cake and cookie mix. It’s divine sweetened with a little sugar. We know it’s delicious (in all its forms), but there’s more to chocolate than great taste. A few fun facts to nourish your mind…
The Bitter Side of the Sugarcane Industry
06/02/2012
Throughout Central America, a puzzling new epidemic is threatening the lives and livelihoods of sugarcane workers. In Nicaragua, it causes more fatalities than HIV and diabetes combined, and in El Salvador, it is the second leading cause of death among males. Thousands of Central American men are afflicted with chronic kidney disease, and some epidemiologists and local doctors speculate that the disease is the result of overwork and exposure to dangerous agrochemicals. We recently spoke with Guillermo Belloso, a farm management specialist in El Salvador, about the epidemic and the Rainforest Alliance’s work with SalvaNATURA to improve conditions for sugarcane workers. [SalvaNATURA is an El Salvadorian conservation organisation and a founding member of the Sustainable Agriculture Network (SAN), which manages the standard to which all Rainforest Alliance Certified™ farms are audited.] Read the rest of this entry ?
2 Degree Summit – Solving Sustainable Business Challenges
03/02/2012
Last week, Per Bogstad, our Manager of Sustainable Value Chains for UK and Ireland attended the 2 Degrees Summit, an event aimed at business people serious about sustainability. Here, Per gives us his thoughts on the day…
“Do you want to sell sugar water for the rest of your life, or do you want to come with me and change the world?” Apple’s Steve Jobs once asked Pepsi-Co’s then CEO, John Sculley.
It was this quote that sprung to mind as Unilever’s Geoff McDonald spoke sincerely of Unilever having a ‘moral purpose’ (a purpose engendered into the makeup of a company founded by a man seeking to sell soap to the poor and diseased) and the reason he wanted to join the business. For, changing the world is exactly what Unilever seems intent on doing – with no small amount of help – it needs to be said (as Geoff did) – from Rainforest Alliance. Read the rest of this entry ?
Rainforest Alliance’s Green Guide to Valentine’s Day
02/02/2012This Valentine’s Day spoil your loved one without spoiling the planet with the Rainforest Alliance’s green guide to gifts and activities that help to protect the environment and the rights and well-being of workers around the globe.
Breakfast in bed:
Get off to a romantic start by bringing your loved one breakfast in bed. Make sure that the coffee, tea and juice has come from a Rainforest Alliance CertifiedTM farm. The little green frog on the packaging – such as on Kenco coffee, PG tips or an Innocent Smoothie – is your assurance that it was grown using methods that protect forests, soils and waterways on farms that provide decent wages, housing, education and health care to workers and their families. Read the rest of this entry ?
10 Reasons to Travel Sustainably
30/01/2012Snow hit much of the UK this weekend, which makes us in the Rainforest Alliance office in London dream of far sunnier and warmer places. So we thought we’d end our tourism-themed January blogs with 10 good reasons to travel sustainably. When you start to plan your holiday, do you consider how much good your trip could do for others? Some of the world’s most breathtaking destinations are now being managed sustainably, which means that in addition to benefiting your own mental health, your next trip could also benefit the environment and local communities:
A Beach Holiday Is Good For The Body & Soul – But Is It Good For The Beach As Well?
23/01/2012
Had enough of the damp weather? Feeling the need to start planning that tropical getaway yet? Nothing alleviates the pain of getting through those chilly winter months like the promise of an upcoming holiday, full of warm sunshine and sand between your toes.
A beach vacation can rejuvenate you inside and out, leaving you feeling refreshed and relaxed for weeks even after you return to the real world–but is your relaxation at the expense of the coastal ecosystems you’re enjoying? Despite some travellers’ best intentions, tourism activities have been known to have a negative effect on the environment. So, a beach vacation is good for the body and soul–but is it good for the beach as well?
If you are a sustainable traveller, the answer is–YES! The hotels, tour operators, and other tourism businesses on SustainableTrip.org have all made a demonstrated commitment to actively protect the ecosystems in which they are located. So if you support one of these sustainable businesses, your trip will actually help conserve the world’s beaches and oceans as well as the birds, turtles, and other wildlife species that depend on it. Here are some of our favourite sustainable beach destinations: Read the rest of this entry ?
