Rainforest Matters A bimonthly publication of the Rainforest Alliance July/August 2002 * Palatable Policy in Minnesota * Selva Negra, the Black Forest of Nicaragua * Huge Shrimp * Personal Canopy * La Costa Rica de Mis Sueños ************************************************** Palatable Policy in Minnesota The Rainforest Alliance applauds a recent decisions by Aveda and Summit Brewing Company, both based in Minnesota, to use wood certified by the Rainforest Alliance's SmartWood program in the companies' wood pallets. This simple but effective local policy promotes balanced and responsible forest management. Pallets are wood platforms used in warehouses, and are made from low-quality trees that are harvested to improve the overall health and condition of the forest. The SmartWood program is accredited by the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC), an international body that establishes the standards for forestry certification. Consumers can trust wood products and timber that bear the FSC and SmartWood seals. The Minnesota Pallet Story: Minnesota is a pioneer in forest certification with almost one million acres of county, state and private forestland recognized as being responsibly managed. Over-cut during the last century, Minnesota's forests are today in a "healing process," and certification is a tool in the effort to restore the health, productivity and value of the state's forestlands. Good forest management almost always requires removing the worst trees and leaving the best ones in the forest, resulting in healthy, productive, more durable forests. Defective or unhealthy trees produce low-quality boards that have limited uses. Even Bob Villa would not use a board with stains, knots, twisted grain and rot in a piece of furniture or as trim on a doorway. But these flawed boards make perfect pallets and are therefore a thrifty use of low-quality trees. The wood is harvested in Aitkin County, Minn., by Tveit Logging and is turned into pallets by Stewarts Forest Products. Visit these Web sites to learn more about commitments to sustainability: Aveda: http://aveda.com/protect/we/default.asp Summit Brewery: http://www.summitbrewing.com What is SmartWood Certification? http://www.smartwood.org/ ************************************************** Selva Negra, the Black Forest of Nicaragua Selva Negra, a farm enrolled in the Rainforest Alliance's sustainable agriculture program, is one of the most diversified in all of Central America. One half of the heavenly landscape is maintained as untouched primary forest, providing habitat for puma, sloth, ocelot, anteaters, wild boar, peccaries, howler monkeys and more. Three hundred acres are devoted to shaded coffee, all of which is dried in the sun, rather than using energy intensive industrial dryers. Mausi and Eddy Kuhl, the farm's owners, were the very first to use an innovative technology that produces methane from coffee waste (mucilage and pulp). The clean-burning methane can then be used for cooking. The Kuhl's have devoted another 100 acres to horticulture - vegetables, flowers, livestock and dairy (including a cheese processing facility). Selva Negra employs 180 permanent workers and an average of 400 temporary workers and the Kuhl's manage their own exporting company. They also cater to eco-tourists, providing 23 bungalows, a youth hostel, chapel and a restaurant. In order to meet the Rainforest Alliance's rigorous standards for certification, Selva Negra has built chimneys to ventilate worker housing and has discontinued its use of all agrochemicals. The farm spends about $6 per quintal (that's about 45 lbs of unroasted coffee) on social benefits for the farm workers. They include an on-site school that employs two teachers, for grades kindergarten - 5. The children receive free milk, and workers are given three meals per day. Everybody has access to a 24-hour health clinic, and all worker homes have electricity. A fishing pond on the property allows workers to supplement their family's diets with a fresh catch whenever they would like. Learn more about the sustainable coffee project and support Selva Negra and other progressive farms by purchasing Rainforest Alliance-certified products: http://ra.org/programs/cap/program-description3.html Visit Selva Negra: http://www.selvanegra.com/en/Home-Coffee.html ************************************************** Huge Shrimp Government policies, illegal logging and particularly a hearty appetite for shrimp among U.S. and European consumers are fueling the devastating loss of mangrove forests along much of Latin America's coasts. Mangrove destruction has ruined natural wildlife habitats, crippled local economies, upset coastal cultures and even led to violent confrontations in some countries. Conservation groups in eight Latin American countries plus the United States recently banded together to try to stem the loss of mangroves. Last March, representatives of the Latin American Mangrove Network for the Defense of Coastal Ecosystems and Community Life met in Venezuela to plan a strategy for working together to "defend mangrove forests and coastal ecosystems." http://ra.org/programs/cmc/newsletter/jul02-1.html ************************************************** Personal Canopy Now you can have your very own canopy! When you join the Rainforest Alliance, you will receive a beautiful and sturdy leaf-print umbrella. Don't get left out in the rain. http://ra.org/marketplace/umbrella/index.html ************************************************** La Costa Rica de Mis Sueños Sueño con una costa rica, Por cuyos rios y riachuelos fluye agua, Agua abundante, agua limpia, agua viva. Agua que nace en los parques nacionales, Agua que surge por doquier. Agua que pasa por hogares, industrias y plantìos, agua que nutre nuestro cuerpo. Agua que siempre abundante, limpia y viva, es recibida con regocijo por las criaturas de mar. Sueño que en todos los confines de esta patria, sus habitantes cuidan sin descanso sus rios y riachuelos, porque el agua que corre por ellos, es la misma que fluye en sus venas. Sueño que visitantes de otros paises, cuentan de una tierra llamada costa rica, cuyos habitantes dicen que el agua de sus rios y riachuelos, es la misma que fluye en sus venas. ©Alvaro Ugalde The author is the environmental program officer for the Costa Rica-USA Foundation and is a co-founder of Costa Rica's national parks system. ************************************************** The mission of the Rainforest Alliance is to protect ecosystems and the people and wildlife that live within them by implementing better business practices for biodiversity conservation and sustainability. Companies, cooperatives, and landowners that participate in our programs meet strict standards for protecting the environment, wildlife, workers, and local communities. Rainforest Information Centre Box 368 Lismore NSW 2480 Australia www.rainforestinfo.org.au johnseed1@ozemail.com.au 61 2 66213294