MAY 2021

Introducing the Rainforest Alliance’s
Integrated Community Forest ManagementForests cover one third of the world’s land surface. They
play a key role in regulating the water cycle, storing carbon, preventing soil erosion, and hosting over 50 percentof the Earth’s terrestrial biodiversity, mostly in tropicalrainforests. Preserving forests—along with other natural climate solutions such as reforestation, sustainable forest management, and agroforestry—could help
us achieve up to 37 percent of the emissions reductions
needed to limit global heating to 1.5ºC1. And yet we are stilllosing forests at a high rate by converting them to otherland use, mostly agriculture. In 2019, we lost a football
pitch of tropical forest every six seconds2. We also degrade forests through fires and unsustainable forest andwildlife management, as well as through mining and human infrastructures that result in fragmentation3,4.

Our full Integrated Community Forest Management Position Paper, which is summarized here, presents our approach to addressing forest degradation, including theprinciples that we believe must guide the global community’s broader efforts.

THE RAINFOREST ALLIANCE’S POSITION
Almost one third of the world’s forest area is under someform of community based/smallholder management, andthe area is increasing with the devolution of rights to local and indigenous communities in several countries5. The
Rainforest Alliance has long been a proponent of a “rightsbased” approach to community forestry and promotes
biocultural conservation, which builds on the deep interdependence between local cultural heritage and the environment. But, while an important first step, this alone cannot halt deforestation and forest degradation, or improve
livelihoods6. We are convinced that local communities andindigenous peoples, if given secured rights to land and resources, and supported with technical capacities, incentives, and market access, play a critical role in preserving

Throughout its 30+ year history, the Rainforest Alliance has
worked to halt forest degradation and deforestation, while
supporting the livelihooods of producers and forest-dependent communities around the world. Building on this experience, we have developed a Deforestation Position Paper,presenting our approach to combating agriculture-driven
deforestation and the conversion of natural ecosystems.

1forests. For years, the community forestry concessions in
the Maya Biosphere Reserve have provided living proof ofthis approach (see Box 1).

To develop successful community forests, the Rainforest
Alliance is convinced of the need for partnerships between
communities and other organizations—government, NGOs,and private companies. Successful outcomes from community forestry can be explained partly by whether there
is a community of practice linking local people to external
forest professionals for mutual learning9. Companies play
an important role in securing access to markets forBox 1The Maya Biosphere Reserve
Our flagship project is the Maya Biosphere Reserve inGuatemala, where the Rainforest Alliance leads USAID’s Climate, Nature and Communities in Guatemala
initiative, in partnership with the Association of Forest
Communities of Petén. For more than 15 years we havesupported Community Forest Concessions and created a broad alliance between forest communities, local and national government institutions, companies,local NGOs, academia, and implementing partners, tocatalyze transformation in a landscape once known
for crisis-level deforestation rates and poverty. Today,the deforestation rate in the forest concessions where
we work is near zero, while protected areas and bufferzones nearby suffered high deforestation levels. Poverty rates in the concessions are also significantly lower
than in other parts of Guatemala, making outmigrationfrom the concesssion communities virtually unheardof7,8.

responsibly produced community forest products; and increating partnerships with local communities.
Recognizing the deep interdependence between forest
communities and the environment, and depending on thelevel of forest degradation10 (see Figure 1), the Rainforest Alliance’s position is to:• support the preservation or restoration of natural forests10 through responsible community forest management• promote restoration of natural vegetation in agroforestsand degraded forests• support no-deforestation smallholder agriculture production and restoration to agroforests• promote socially beneficial and ecologically soundplanted forests11 through reforestation• maintain strictly protected areas in a wider matrix ofother uses and practices.

Figure 1: Forest transition curve and related interventions in tropical areas2THE RAINFOREST ALLIANCE’S STRATEGY ONFORESTS• implements sustainable forest management, restoration or reforestation in order to reduce forest degradation and deforestation, and to increase forest cover,biodiversity, and carbon capture• manages the forest in harmony with other crops andecosystems in the landscape• fosters secured rights to forests, and access to alliances, finance, and markets, to create an enabling environment for successful community forest enterprises atscale.

Our vision for forests and core interventions
Our vision is thriving communities and forests, where
the interdependency of local communities’ livelihoods
and their natural environment is recognized and valued, and the enabling conditions for local communities to be the stewards of forests are encouraged andenforced.

Based on our experience and a learning inventory of ourwork over the past 15 years, we have defined an implementation pathway (Figure 2). Recognizing that there is noone-size-fits-all approach or single model for community
forestry, this pathway serves as guidance for our projects,
which needs to be tailored to local contexts using a participatory approach.

To achieve this vision, we have supported community forest enterprises, particularly in Mexico and Guatemala. But
not all contexts enable successful community forest enterprises. To be effective at scale, we have reframed our workwithin a broader concept of integrated community forest
management.

Through tailored supply-chain services the Rainforest Alliance supports actors in supply chains to build corporate
policies that address their sourcing of forest-risk commodities (products such as pulp and paper, timber, rubber,and non-timber forest products). When working with companies on forests beyond their individual supply chains,
Forest Allies is our main vehicle. Through our Forest Allies
community of practice, we bring together companies, regional civil society organizations and forest communities
to form powerful partnerships. The Forest Allies communityof practice convenes twice a year to exchange knowledge,
best practices, and solutions for shared challenges. Forest
Allies supports the Rainforest Alliance’s integrated community forest management approach by contributing to apool of capital used to invest directly in support of community forest enterprises, and by fostering a foundation ofmutual respect, trust, and a shared vision between forest
communities and markets.

Embodying our vision of people and nature thriving in harmony, integrated community forest management contributes to the integrated landscape management approach,engaging multiple actors at multiple scales. Integrated
community forest management enables robust environmental policy structures and active market participation to exist alongside practical, field-based strategies tostrengthen forest management, while boosting the longterm economic and social resilience of rural communities.
This is achieved by placing forest communities at the heartof safeguarding and restoring our world’s forests.
Integrated community forest management:• supports community forest enterprises through training, tools, and knowledge to provide sustained economic
development and foster strong social governance andinclusion, providing equitable benefits to households,
incorporating young people in activities, and promoting
gender equality and women’s empowerment

Figure 2: The Rainforest Alliance’s integrated community forest management (ICFM) pathway3

PRINCIPLES OF INTEGRATEDFOREST MANAGEMENTCOMMUNITYWE CANNOT DO THIS ALONE
Progress can only be achieved collaboratively and when all
actors take responsibility. If we aim to reverse forest degradation and leverage forests as a natural climate solution,
we need to scale our interventions. Integrated community
forest management proposes a pathway that enables local communities to become ecosystem stewards at scale.
Directing the flow of public and private capital towards
these efforts will be critical in achieving this goal.

The Rainforest Alliance’s own interventions are one set ofcontributions to the broader effort towards minimizing deforestation and forest degradation, and fostering sustainable forest management. The following five principles are
crucial for guiding all efforts to meet these goals:• Forests’ values should be protected and/or restored• Preserve High Conservation Values: identify, protect,manage with care
• Restore forests: natural regeneration and agroforestry have a role to playThrough alliances and collaboration we believe we can innovate and take action. Together with you, we are inspired
to make the coming years a time of successful forest preservation and restoration.

• Local communities must become ecosystem stewards
at scale• Foster policies to ensure community rights over forests• Promote sound governance and ensure social inclusion in local organizations• Enable effective alliances, governance, and fundingat scale

If you wish to partner with and support forest communities,
please contact forests@ra.org.

• Responsible forest management needs to be enhanced and monitored• Base a management plan on current science andbest forestry practices• Monitor the forest• Communities should be supported in adapting to andmitigating climate change• Increase ecological resilience to climate change• Support climate change mitigation practices• Livelihoods from forest product value chains must bestrengthened• Develop market access and diversification to boost
income and profitability• Support supply chain accountability and responsible forest management through certification andmultistakeholder processes

4References
1
Griscom BW, Adams J, Ellis PW, et al. (2017). Natural climate solutions. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 114(44), 1645–11650. https://doi.org/10.1073/
pnas.1710465114
2Weisse M, Goldman L. (2020). We lost a football
pitch of primary rainforest every 6 seconds in 2019. Global
Forest Watch blog post, 2 June. https://blog.globalforestwatch.org/data-and-research/global-tree-cover-lossdata-2019
3Bebbington AJ, Humphreys Bebbington D, Sauls
LA, et al. (2018). Resource extraction and infrastructure
threaten forest cover and community rights. Proceedingsof the National Academy of Sciences 115(52), 13164–13173.
https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1812505115
4
Pacheco P, Mo K, Dudley N, et al. (2021). Deforestation Fronts: Drivers and Responses in a Changing World.
Gland, Switzerland: WWF. https://wwf.panda.org/discover/
our_focus/forests_practice/deforestation_fronts_/
5
RRI. (2020). Rights-Based Conservation: The Pathto Preserving Earth’s Biological and Cultural Diversity?
Washington, DC: Rights and Resources Initiative. https://rightsandresources.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/Final_Rights_Conservation_RRI.pdf
6
Kusters K, De Graaf M. (2019). Formalizing Community Rights to Forests, Expectations, Outcomes andConditions for Success. Ede, The Netherlands: Tropenbos
International. https://www.tropenbos.org/resources/publications/formalizing+community+rights+to+forests:+expectations,+outcomes+and+conditions+for+success
7
Rainforest Alliance. (2018). The Secret to Stopping Deforestation in Guatemala. https://www.rainforest-alliance.org/articles/community-the-secret-to-stopping-deforestation-in-guatemala
8
Stoian D, Rodas A, Butler M, Monterroso I & Hodgdon B. (2018). Forest concessions in Petén, Guatemala A
systematic analysis of the socioeconomic performance ofcommunity enterprises in the Maya Biosphere Reserve. CIFOR Brief 7163
9Macqueen D, Mayers J. (2020). Unseen Foresters—An Assessment of Approaches for Wider Recognition
and Spread of Sustainable Forest Management by Local
Communities. Stockholm: WWF. https://wwfeu.awsassets.
panda.org/downloads/report_wwf_iied_unseen_foresters_2020_1.pdf
10
The Rainforest Alliance uses the definitions of forest degradation and natural forest from the Accountability Framework Initiative https://accountability-framework.
org/the-framework/contents/definitions/
11FAO. (2018). Global Forest Resources Assessment
2020. Rome: Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, p. 5. http://www.fao.org/3/I8661EN/i8661en.
pdf. “Forest predominantly composed of trees establishedthrough planting and/or deliberate seeding.”

5The Rainforest Alliance is an international non-profit organization working in 70
countries at the intersection of business, agriculture and forests. We are building
an alliance to create a better future for people and nature by making responsible
business the new normal.
rainforest-alliance.org