Quoted from: rainforest-alliance.org:
Since its inception, the Rainforest Alliance has worked to conserve habitat and protect wildlife all over the world. By preventing deforestation, conserving natural areas, protecting vital ecosystem services and providing communities and businesses with economically sustainable alternatives to forest destruction, we are ensuring the health and survival of these habitats, and the plants and animals that depend on them.
Through certification, we evaluate forestry and agricultural businesses to ensure that they are complying with rigorous environmental standards, which include properly caring for water and soil, monitoring wildlife populations, protecting migratory pathways and prohibiting the hunting and trafficking of wild animals.
Because tourism businesses rely on wildlife to attract visitors, and animals need the help of businesses and communities to ensure that their habitats remains intact, we help communities to establish sustainable tourism businesses as an alternative to deforestation. We also provide training to the staff and owners of these enterprises, so that they can better manage their interactions with wildlife and surrounding natural areas.
At the Rainforest Alliance, we believe that you cannot tell an impoverished family or community to put down the axe without providing an alternative. Through certification, we work with farmers and forest managers to provide them with the tools and know-how to manage their natural resources; those that meet rigorous environmental, social and economic standards can use the Rainforest Alliance Certified seal to differentiate their products, reach new markets, negotiate better prices, improve their access to credit and lift themselves and their communities out of poverty. With the extra money they earn, they can invest in a more economically secure future.