This year as part of the launch of Symantec’s FY16 Corporate Responsibility (CR) Report, we chose three of our nonprofit partners as part of a contest to encourage feedback on the report. Hearing from our readers is one of the primary ways we adapt our annual CR report to ensure it includes the information most relevant to our stakeholders in a compelling and easy to digest format.
Those who provided feedback on the report were given the choice of three Symantec nonprofit partners to vote for – Rainforest Alliance, Human Rights Campaign (HRC) and Code.org.
After six weeks of voting, we received over 600 submissionswith our readers choosing Rainforest Alliance– who will receive a $100,000 USD donation. We are happy to provide this additional funding to one of our key partners, especially as they enter their 30th year of operation! Runners up Human Rights Campaign (HRC) and Code.org will also receive $10,000 USD in donations.
Sustainable Climate-Smart Coffee (The CO2 Coffee Project)
Photo credit: Rainforest Alliance
The Rainforest Alliance is an international nonprofit whose mission is to promote biodiversity conservation and ensure sustainable livelihoods by transforming land-use practices, business practices, and consumer behavior. Specifically, Symantec supports the Rainforest Alliance project on climate-smart coffee farming – the CO2 Coffee Project.
The CO2 Coffee Project works with over 400 local smallholder coffee farmers from the Chatino indigenous group in Oaxaca, Mexico, as well as local organizations to increase sequestration of greenhouse gas emissions (carbon stocks) through reforestation, and works to develop a model that improves economic stability for one of Mexico's poorest regions, which also produces of some of the world’s finest organic coffee.
With the support of Symantec's multi-year grant, the Rainforest Alliance works with these producer communities to reforest degraded coffee farms and pastureland by reintroducing native tree species and fruit trees while restoring shade-grown coffee farms. Diversified farm production and shade-grown coffee techniques help farmers avoid an alternative approach that requires the clearing of forestland and the intensive use of agrochemicals. These activities contribute to reducing greenhouse gas emissions by enhancing forest carbon stocks in coffee landscapes.
The CO2 Coffee Project is unique and leading-edge, since it is the first coffee agroforestry project in Mexico to be validated by the Verified Carbon Standard (VCS) and one of the first in the world linked to Rainforest Alliance/Sustainable Agriculture Network (SAN) standards. The VCS requirements ensure that the initiative is a highly traceable and accountable reforestation effort, enabling the communities to generate additional income from the receipt of carbon credits and climate-smart-branded coffee through the years. Community-based technicians, most of the them women, have been trained as part of the initiative, which have resulted in additional local employment and community engagement. Additionally, the Rainforest Alliance is providing training to farmers in sustainable and climate-friendly agricultural practices. These practices help strengthen sustainable coffee production and increase the farms’ resiliency to the effects of climate change.
To date, the CO2 Coffee Project has:
- Planted over 64,800 trees across approximately 300 hectares in coastal Oaxaca, Mexico
- Provided training on improved coffee management practices to over 400 coffee farmers, many of whom have also received training on reforestation and sustainable agroforestry techniques. The training techniques are designed to successfully increase forest cover, as well as to improve coffee productivity and quality.
- Helped build the capacity of the local coffee cooperative, UNECAFE (Unidad Ecológica para el Sector Café Oaxaquenio, S.C.), and local partners to implement and monitor a successful forest- carbon initiative for decades to come
We thank the Rainforest Alliance for their continued partnership and opportunity to support programs crucial to the health and vitality of communities and the environment in Mexico.