Helping Rainforests Find Balance
In honor of Earth Month, Alo Moves is featuring organizations who are working to fight climate change around the world. This story highlights the Rainforest Alliance, an international nonprofit organization working to protect forests, improve the livelihoods of farmers and forest communities, promote their human rights, and help them mitigate and adapt to the climate crisis.
As the manager of K'áax Mayas, a woodworking shop in Quintana Roo, Mexico, Yuriria Hernández Velasco not only headed up a shop full of men — she was the creative force behind an effort to add value to timber harvested by Alianza Selva Maya, a consortium of five ejidos, (communally owned lands) dedicated to sustainability. K'áax Mayas is collectively owned by the consortium.
The shop started out making floorboards, but Yurira led an expansion into making furniture and other fine wood products.
“It gives us pride to use the wood and know we are taking care of the forest,” said Yurira.
At the heart of the Rainforest Alliance mission is the understanding that people who make their living from the land have the most incentive to protect it. Working hand-in-hand with communities, the organization supports more sustainable rural economies that are essential to safeguarding forests, stabilizing climate, and protecting wildlife.
Coffee and forests: a winning team
Chiapas is one of Mexico’s key coffee-growing regions, producing more than 41 percent of the nation’s coffee and supporting the livelihoods of more than 100,000 families. Unfortunately, drier weather patterns combined with unsustainable agricultural expansion is causing more frequent uncontrolled fires, posing a huge threat to the ecosystems and the people who live there.
With the support of Rainforest Alliance, communities in Chiapas are working to stop the threat of fires before they occur by using more sustainable agricultural practices and reforesting degraded lands. Farmers identify the best native tree species to plant, as well as an efficient shade-tree system that makes both their crops — and the forest they inhabit — stronger.
By distributing coffee and tree seeds and conducting training on sustainable agriculture practices, the Rainforest Alliance has helped increase the yields of 200 coffee farmers by about 60 percent. This leads to higher incomes for farmers to support their families — which in turn increases the incentive to work in harmony with the forest.
Together with forest and farming communities, Indigenous leaders, companies, governments, and global citizens, the Rainforest Alliance works in more than 70 countries to promote more sustainable land management practices and cultivate thriving rural economies — the most widely proven strategy to keep our tropical forests standing.
You can support the vital work of the Rainforest Alliance by making a donation today.
About the Rainforest Alliance
Founded in 1987, the Rainforest Alliance is a leading international non-profit that uses social and market forces to protect nature, while improving the lives of farmers and forest communities throughout more than 70 countries. We work with more than 2 million farmers who follow our agricultural standards as well as with more than 5,000 companies to source certified ingredients and improve their business practices. At the Rainforest Alliance we know that, together, we can protect forests, improve the livelihoods of farmers and forest communities, promote their human rights, and help them mitigate and adapt to the climate crisis. But we cannot do this alone — the true magic of the Rainforest Alliance lies with the communities, companies, and dedicated supporters we work with. How we collectively choose to use, protect, and restore our forests is necessary to improve our shared planetary health.
