NOVEMBER 2023

Forest Conservation
Through Indigenous
Entrepreneurship
The Rainforest Alliance’s work with Indigenous Peoples
in Guatemala, Mexico, and Peru

Indigenous Peoples have an unsurpassed
connection to the Earth’s forests. They
successfully manage at least one quarterof the world’s lands, home to approximately
80 percent of our planet’s biodiversity.
While this work is crucial to fighting global
biodiversity loss and curbing carbon
emissions, Indigenous Peoples often facehurdles—from limited financial resources
to a lack of legal support—to developing
more sustainable, local economies whilesafeguarding forests and ecosystems.
The Rainforest Alliance has a long history working alongside
Indigenous Peoples, partnering with Indigenous organizations
and communities in some of the world’s most ecologically andculturally significant landscapes, including the Amazon basin.
Our teams of field professionals have built enduring relationships and co-design sustainable development programs that
center Indigenous Peoples as the foremost guardians of theworld’s natural resources.

OUR APPROACH
We partner with community leaders and Indigenous Peoples’
representative organizations to develop and implement
programs that are grounded in Indigenous Peoples’ needs,desires, and worldviews. In the Amazon, the Rainforest
Alliance has deep and long-lasting ties with the Federationof Indigenous Kechwa Peoples of San Martín, the Interethnic
Association of the Peruvian Jungle (AIDESEP), and theCoordinator of Indigenous Organizations of the Amazon Basin(COICA). Over the last 10 years, we have partnered with theseorganizations to establish and consolidate their development
goals, engage with governments on policy strengthening
processes, and provide high quality technical, financial, andcapacity building support to member groups. This includes
supporting the design and implementation of COICA andAIDESEP’s “Indigenous Economy” concept, which guides their

Photo: Sergio Izquierdo

strategic development activities in favor of Indigenous forestand natural resource-based economies, rooted in Indigenous
principles and practices.
We support Indigenous Peoples to develop culturally relevant
sustainable businesses, negotiate higher premiums withinniche markets, and access financing tailored to their needs. InPeru, the Rainforest Alliance partners with native communities
in the San Martín region to develop Indigenous-led businessesfor products harvested for generations by Indigenous families.
Supporting Indigenous entrepreneurs with technical and legal
capacity strengthening to secure permits from Peru’s National
Forest and Wildlife Service, communities can now extract andsell traditional products such as sangre de grado (a salve-liketree resin). The Yurilamas community in San Martín manages
an area of more than 33,000 hectares, 26,000 of which arededicated to the conservation and sustainable managementof forest products like sangre de grado. With the Rainforest
Alliance’s support, native producers in this area havepositioned their product in national markets and establishedcommercial agreements with buyers, negotiating a 75 percent
increase in the price paid per liter of sangre de grado.

GREEN FINANCE FOR INDIGENOUS
COMMUNITIESOver more than a decade, the Rainforest Alliance has
facilitated millions of dollars in financing and incentives tolocal communities and Indigenous peoples. Through thiswork, we have partnered with financial institutions to develop
products designed specifically for producers in the timber andnon-timber forest products sectors, including non-traditional
products, such as medicinal plants, Amazonian fruits, andtextiles. For example, in 2022, the Rainforest Alliance codesigned a green loan product in San Martín with the localsavings and credit cooperative Norandino. In exchange for
implementing more sustainable practices—including ensuring
net-zero or deforestation-free production—producers aregranted lower interest rates and extended loan periods basedon harvesting and production cycles unique to their productoffering. These loans provide a much-needed alternative
to traditional financing, with US$1.5 million to be lent toIndigenous-led businesses and local communities throughout
the San Martín region over the next three years. To evaluate
the impact of this financing on local forests and ecosystems,the Rainforest Alliance also supported Norandino to link its
financial management software to Peru’s GEOBOSQUES portal,
which monitors changes in forest cover country wide.
In Guatemala, the Rainforest Alliance has supported
Indigenous communities to incorporate more than 20,000
hectares of responsibly managed forestland into various
government forest incentive programs. Access to theseprograms is benefiting more than 8,000 people in the WesternHighlands and Alta and Baja Verapaz who, from 2020-2023,
have received US$6.2 million in compensation for theirsustainable forest management and production activities.

>> Learn more about the Rainforest

Alliance’s work with Indigenous Peoples

CLIMATE RESILIENCE THROUGH ANCESTRALKNOWLEDGE
We recognize the adverse impacts of biodiversity loss andclimate change on Indigenous communities and work toimprove sustainable production capacities and climate
resilience, while uplifting Indigenous ancestral practices.
In Guatemala, the Rainforest Alliance works throughout
Alta and Baja Verapaz and the Western Highlands withMam, K’iche’, Q’eqchi’, and other Indigenous communities
who have a profound knowledge of the land and forests,
to ensure this knowledge is preserved and carried on. Inpartnership with USAID, the University of Mariano Galvez, andGuatemala’s National Forest Institute (INAB), the Rainforest
Alliance developed a local forestry calendar, which highlights
sustainable forest management practices throughout theyear according to ancestral knowledge systems. The calendar
can be downloaded from INAB’s website and guides theimplementation of activities like seed collection and planting,soil preparation, tree pruning, and sustainable extraction ofwood, based on the lunar and the feminine and masculine tree
cycles, as these were observed by Indigenous communities
and used to determine productive activities in forests.

INDIGENOUS, WOMEN-OWNED BUSINESSDEVELOPMENT
We recognize Indigenous women’s contributions to andimmense knowledge of natural resource management andwork to minimize the unique barriers they face while nurturing
their strengths. Indigenous women play a critical role inpassing down ancestral practices and knowledge as well as
contributing immensely to natural resource-based economies.
They are vital to the production of coffee, cocoa, cardamom,
and many other products that global markets demand. InMexico, the Rainforest Alliance works within communities
and ejidos— legally owned communal territories managed
by rural, and often Indigenous, communities—to break down
entrenched barriers to social and economic opportunity
for women and youth. In partnership with the World Bank’s
Dedicated Grant Mechanism for Indigenous Peoples andLocal Communities (DGM), the Rainforest Alliance supported
women- and youth-led groups to develop sustainablebusiness ideas and negotiate agreements with ejido
community assemblies on the right to conduct their business
operations within the territory.
Through this program, 50 majority Indigenous women- andyouth-led groups formally established productive enterprises
and received business-related financing. In the Indigenous
Nahua community of Chacala in Jalisco, the women’s group
Jamaica de Chacala is now successfully producing and selling
hibiscus while restoring six hectares of degraded land in theircommunity. The group developed their brand name and seal
and increased the price paid per kilogram of their hibiscus bymore than 50 percent as a result of quality improvements inproduction and processing.

INDIGENOUS-LED SOLUTIONS ARE THE FUTURE
The role and contributions of Indigenous Peoples in global
sustainable development is undeniable. As the climate crisis
challenges us to find innovative solutions to the world’s mostpressing problems, championing Indigenous voices and needs
is crucial to driving large scale impact. We urge you to join us
in this mission.

The Rainforest Alliance is creating a more sustainable world by using social and market forces to protect
nature and improve the lives of farmers and forest communities.

rainforest-alliance.org

info@ra.org