Rainforest Alliance’s annual report charts key progress, yet highlights major cocoa challenges

The Rainforest Alliance has released its latest 2024 Annual progress report, charting its ongoing certification work in supporting regenerative agriculture and supporting rural communities, including in the cocoa sector, reports Neill Barston.

Working with around eight million farmers across market segments, the non-profit group, which will be represented at this year’s World Confectionery Conference on 11 September in Brussels, as part of our special Q&A session on sustainability, highlighted the scale of the global challenges it is navigating including deforestation on a major scale, climate change, as well as a backdrop of geopolitical instability.

Indeed, as the organisation noted in its parallel certification data report for the cocoa sector, though demand for its certified cocoa grew in 2024 compared against the prior year, international volatility in fact reduced the volume of cocoa actually produced under its certification standards.

As the alliance noted both in Africa and Pacific regions saw declines in certified production, while sales in fact increased, and conversely, in Latin America, production increased, though sales declined, which the organisation attributed to a combination of factors, including delays in certification, market instability and farm-level impact of the climate crisis. In particular, West African nations of Ghana and Ivory Coast have suffered adverse weather conditions, as well as dealing with the ongoing impact of major crop diseases including swollen shoot virus that has had a marked impact over the past couple of years and remains a considerable factor.

According to its latest data, the 1.496,922 million tonnes of certified cocoa were produced in Ivory Coast last year, while 187,000 tonnes of certified cocoa in neighbouring Ghana were produced under its standards.

As Rainforest Alliance noted, last year, it listened significantly to farmer feedback and companies, resulting in a key review of its certification requirements. The result of those efforts is Version 1.4 of its Sustainable Agriculture Standard—coming into effect in October 2025. Building on what works, the updated standard features streamlined certification requirements, more focused inspections and audits, and strengthened data quality to make certification even more effective.

Notably, as part of its work last year, it developed  specialised certification solutions, and their accompanying seals, for three critical impact areas: regenerative agriculture, climate, and livelihoods. Its actions aim to enable farmers to access new markets and build partnerships with companies looking to deepen their ESG commitments.

In total, the Rainforest Alliance supports some eight million farmers across agricultural categories and workers across more than six million hectares of certified farmland in 62 countries, the organisation continues to demonstrate impact in creating a future where people and nature thrive.

Santiago Gowland, CEO of the Rainforest Alliance welcomed the progress made within the past year, but recognised that major tests remain given the wider state of conditions around the world. 

He said: “Tropical forests are still falling at an alarming rate—10 football fields a minute—and the climate crisis is accelerating, pushing our world toward a dangerous tipping point and driving unprecedented biodiversity loss. Meanwhile, many farming and forest communities still struggle daily to meet basic needs.

“Now is the time to transition to a new model of agriculture—one where every cup of coffee and every bar of chocolate gives back more than it takes from the land and the people who care for it,” noting that it is striving to assist farmers across all areas of the industry, including playing its part in assisting as many as possible of the three million farmers and workers specifically in cocoa across 4.6 million hectares in 23 countries.

The 2024 report emphasises the organization’s evolution from traditional sustainability approaches to regenerative practices that actively restore ecosystems, build climate resilience, and enable communities to thrive. This transformation is driven by farmers, whose leadership, knowledge, and deep connection to the land serve as the engine of change.
“We’re growing our movement with urgency and purpose, because the future won’t wait—and neither will we,” added Gowland.

The Rainforest Alliance’s continued commitment to regenerative agriculture addresses a critical global challenge: approximately 500 million people live in farming areas near tropical forests, with 80 percent living in poverty. These forests serve as vital carbon stores, help regulate global climate, support freshwater systems, and maintain countless natural processes essential for planetary health.

Progress areas
The annual report notes the group’s expanded reach, standing as one of the world’s largest farm-to-consumer certification programs, with products bearing the Rainforest Alliance Certified seal available in 155 countries. That is enough certified coffee and cocoa to produce 333 million cups of coffee and 96 million bars of chocolate every day.

Notably, 99% of Rainforest Alliance Certified farms are run by smallholder farmers (farming less than 10 hectares) with over 3.1 million smallholder farmers supported and an average farm size of just 2.31 hectares—demonstrating the organisation’s commitment to supporting the world’s most vulnerable farming communities.

As the group noted, it manages 83 active landscape and community programs covering over 25 million hectares across five critical regions, from the Amazon to Indonesia. 1.3 million people benefited directly, with small-and-medium-sized farming and forestry businesses supported by programs generating USD$34 million in sales revenue. Since 2003, the Rainforest Alliance has invested a total of USD$394 million in these programs.

It remains significant and at the forefront of helping farmers and companies prepare for evolving due diligence legislation, including the European Union Deforestation Regulation (EUDR). In May 2024, Europe received its first shipment of EUDR-ready coffee verified by the Rainforest Alliance, grown by High Range Coffee Curing in India.

Furthermore, data from 2024 shows 14% more certified farms actively tracked pest populations compared to 2021—a critical shift toward decreasing pesticide reliance. In Ghana’s Sui River landscape, 65% of farmers surveyed invested in climate change adaptation, with over 583,000 tree seedlings planted, and 54,000 trees registered.

In addition, as it reported, over 60 percent of the organisation’s expert staff are based in key landscapes or surrounding regions, working directly with rural communities to develop and implement solutions to systemic challenges in farming and forestry. This hands-on approach is yielding remarkable results—for example, indigenous organizations in Peru have secured $1 million in government incentives reducing deforestation, and women’s cooperatives in Guatemala have earned $347,900 while tackling childhood malnutrition.