The Rainforest Alliance was founded in 1987 to develop creative, market-based solutions to deforestation, biodiversity loss, and world poverty. Communities, cooperatives and landowners that participate in our programs meet rigorous standards for protecting the environment, wildlife, workers and local communities.
The Rainforest Alliance is a leader in developing best management practices for sustainable land use, and offers third-party certification and ecolabeling services to farms and forests that are managed in ways that reduce environmental impacts and increase social benefits. As the first organization in the world to utilize market forces to conserve tropical forests, launching our Sustainable Forestry Division in 1989 and our Sustainable Agriculture Division in 1991, the Rainforest Alliance pioneered a worldwide certification movement. Our Sustainable Tourism Division is building awareness of environmentally and socially responsible tourism and promoting certification for tourism operations that are managed sustainably.
Our initiatives are practical in nature, engaging the full range of groups involved in land management, from large multinational corporations to local communities. We find solutions working with, rather than against, these partners. After advocacy and grassroots groups do the important job of bringing the negative environmental impacts of a company to light, it is the Rainforest Alliance that often takes the next critical step with these companies, engaging some of the most extractive industries and helping them begin to move towards sustainability.
