Stronger Together: The Rainforest Alliance and UTZ to Merge

The Rainforest Alliance and UTZ, two of the world’s leading sustainability certification organizations have announced their intention to merge later this year.

The new organization, to be named the Rainforest Alliance, will tackle environmental and social issues around the world, including climate change, deforestation, poverty, and unsustainable farming. it will create a single global certification standards that will simplify certification for farmers and empower companies to build more responsible supply chains, more efficiently. It will also work to expand advocacy efforts and through new partnerships ensure conservation of entire landscapes in priority regions from India to Indonesia, Guatemala and Ghana.

“The future Rainforest Alliance will have a bigger reach and stronger voice, allowing it to better protect the natural environment and allow farmers, businesses, and consumers to be make even more responsible choices, more easily.” — Han de Groot, Executive Director, UTZ

By combining forces, the two NGOs will provide a leading platform to help increase demand for responsibly sourced products. Together, the new organization will act as an advocate for change, continuing to protect the natural environment and striving to make sustainable agriculture and forest management the norm by working side by side with communities, businesses, and governments — an aim that is already at the core of the missions of UTZ and the Rainforest Alliance.

For the complete press release and more information, visit: http://www.rainforest-alliance.org/article/rainforest-alliance-utz-merger