Our founder, Daniel Katz, displays on the Origins of the Rainforest Alliance

Again in 1987, a 24-year-old Daniel Katz co-founded the Rainforest Alliance, a tiny group with an enormous mission: save the rainforests. Learn on to be taught extra in regards to the Rainforest Alliance, as Daniel chronicles our journey from inspiration to world motion.

I vividly bear in mind being in school, 19 or 20, and studying about tropical forests—this tiny sliver of land close to the equator, simply two p.c of the world’s floor, however house to over 50 p.c of the world’s species. And so they had been being destroyed. 

I’d by no means been to a rainforest—and in reality, the thought of visiting one freaked me out. Metropolis children like me don’t do nicely with toxic snakes and vampire bats. However for causes that I’m nonetheless unsure of, I needed to offer the peoples, vegetation, and animals of the rainforest a say in issues. 

A number of years later, I co-founded the Rainforest Alliance. We had been a small bunch of younger, idealistic New Yorkers, fascinated by tropical forests and decided to save lots of them. We began the Rainforest Alliance with zero {dollars}, zero contacts, and nil donors, however I feel we made up for that with sheer dedication. I nonetheless bear in mind our first 100-dollar donation—Dr. Thomas Lovejoy in late 1986—and each milestone like that.  

We thrived as a result of we had so many passionate individuals concerned from the beginning—every bringing their abilities and information to the desk. And our alliance has at all times been about bringing the correct mixture of individuals collectively—organizers, neighborhood leaders, farmers, staff, companies, nonprofit organizations, and hundreds of thousands of people across the globe. We’re making an attempt to vary the world right here, and that’s not one thing anybody can do alone.

“I nonetheless bear in mind our first 100-dollar donation— from Dr. Thomas Lovejoy in late 1987—and each milestone like that.”

Clearly, collaboration was key. Within the Nineteen Eighties, it was all however unattainable to persuade firms to work with us. Company social duty wasn’t a “factor” again then, and CEOs actually laughed at us. However we persevered. The Rainforest Alliance grew and developed, increasing our scope to incorporate different kinds of tropical forests and pioneering impartial third-party certification as a solution to drive sustainability transformation. Our work was groundbreaking; certification has not solely helped firms acknowledge the affect of their sourcing selections, however has additionally helped join shoppers with the farmers and forest communities who steward the world’s most treasured landscapes.

Over time, we’ve expanded our sustainability toolbox: We’ve discovered that certification works greatest together with landscape-wide applications and local-to-global advocacy efforts. And that our applications should evolve in keeping with in the present day’s technical developments.

That’s why, in 2020, the Rainforest Alliance revealed a brand new Sustainable Agriculture Normal—one which reimagined certification as we knew it. On the bottom, this implies strengthened monitoring programs, extra funding and assist for farmers, and new digital improvements—and maybe most significantly, a dedication to maintain on bettering as a result of sustainability is a journey, not a vacation spot.

“I needed to offer the peoples, vegetation, and animals of the rainforest a say in issues.”

I have to admit that after I began the Rainforest Alliance, I used to be sure that in the future we’d shut store as a result of our work could be finished; the rainforests could be conserved. Thirty-five years later, it’s clear that the work of the Rainforest Alliance remains to be desperately essential, and its mission grows extra important every day.

However wanting again on our personal journey offers me hope. After we began out, our entire staff might slot in one (very small) room. As of late, our alliance counts greater than 700 workers members and seven.5 million farmers in 62 nations, and the numbers are rising on a regular basis. Tens of millions of individuals belief our little inexperienced frog to cause them to a extra sustainable alternative on the grocery store—and a greater future for our planet. What a privilege and pleasure it has been over the many years to assist individuals perceive that we actually can thrive in concord with nature.