Can corporate-NGO partnerships save the environment? Part 1

The major forest and paper companies in the United States did not join the FSC or the GFTN. Instead, the American Forest and Paper Association (AF&PA) in 1994 established the Sustainable Forestry Initiative (SFI). More than 113 million acres are enrolled in the SFI program. In June 2000, the AF&PA organised an independent Sustainable Forestry Board (SFB) to oversee the SFI's standards and certification procedures. The chief executives of Conservation International, The Nature Conservancy, and Resources for the Future sit on the SFB.

Forest certification programs have improved the environmental management of hundreds of millions of acres of forest worldwide.

Agriculture

While logging may be the most visible threat to forests, expansion and destructive farming practices have had an even greater impact on biodiversity. Each year since 1980, some 35 million acres of the world's tropical forests have been converted for crop production and livestock grazing. The doubling of the world's food requirements over the next several decades will place increasing stress on many of the Earth's ecosystems.

In 1991, based on the success of its SmartWood program, the Rainforest Alliance established a Sustainable Agriculture Network with other conservation NGOs in Latin America to develop guidelines for responsible management of key export crops. It has certified over 130,000 acres of farms in Central and South America.

Coffee, the largest legally traded agricultural commodity, has been the conservation community's strongest focus. The world's key coffee-growing regions - Brazil, Central America, the Andes, East Africa, and Southeast Asia - are also some of the world's most threatened hotspots of biodiversity. Millions of acres of rainforest have been converted to coffee plantations. Conservation organisations are encouraging coffee producers to maintain traditional shade coffee farms and to end conversion of natural forests for new coffee plantations.

In the 1990s, a number of specialty coffee roasters such as Thanksgiving and Equal Exchange embraced conservation principles. In 1998, Starbucks signed an agreement with Conservation International to support small farmer coops in Mexico's El Triunfo Biosphere Reserve. Starbucks has since worked with CI's Center for Environmental Leadership in Business to create environmental and social guidelines (pdf, 143 Kb) for its suppliers.

The Starbucks guidelines were among the first applications of a set of Conservation Principles for Coffee Production (pdf, 38Kb) developed by a coalition of environmental organisations, including the Consumers Choice Council, Conservation International, the Rainforest Alliance, and the Smithsonian Migratory Bird Center. These organisations are now seeking to engage other major coffee roasters in similar efforts.

This is part one of a two part series. Part two is available here.