A new partnership between the Rainforest Alliance and Acorn will support thousands of Vietnamese coffee farmers in moving toward more sustainable and regenerative agricultural practices. The Rainforest Alliance is known for its green frog seal, seen on products like chocolate, tea, coffee, nuts, and tropical fruits; these products come from Rainforest Alliance Certified farms that use practices designed to support social, economic, and environmental sustainability.
The partnership will kick off with two Rainforest Alliance Certified coffee businesses, Vĩnh Hiệp and Tín Thành Đạt, working with approximately 1,500 farmers. Acorn and the Rainforest Alliance will partner with these businesses and farmers to implement regenerative coffee farming practices that can increase their plots’ resilience, biodiversity, and carbon sequestration capabilities.
By combining Acorn's expertise in the voluntary carbon market (VCM) with the Rainforest Alliance’s expertise in regenerative agriculture, their established certification frameworks, and their extensive networks of farmers and businesses, this partnership will provide smallholder farmers with nature-based solutions that will positively impact their livelihoods. “From a values point of view, this relationship is a natural fit,” says Cathy Tran, Acorn’s Partnerships and Business Development Manager for Asia. “Our work together will be built on our shared mission of improving the livelihoods of smallholder farmers while addressing environmental challenges through sustainable agriculture.”
Photo: Thiet Nguyen (left), Country Director for Vietnam at the Rainforest Alliance, and Cathy Tran (right), Acorn Partnerships and Business Development Manager for Asia plant of coffee tree together on a 2024 Acorn trip to Vietnam.
Vietnam, the world’s second largest coffee producer, has seen its coffee-growing practices rapidly evolve since transitioning out of a planned economy in the 1980s. Thiet Nguyen, Country Director for Vietnam at the Rainforest Alliance, explains, “Agroforestry isn't a new concept for Vietnamese people, but 45 years ago, farmers focused on monocropping to maximize profit. We emphasize to farmers that climate change is happening now. There's been more rain, more sunshine, and higher temperatures, so we also have to change to be able to grow coffee in the future.”
Photo: A TTD farmer training taking place in September, 2024 in Gia Lia, a mountainous region in Vietnam's Central Highlands.
The Rainforest Alliance Certification Program supports farmers in their adoption of practices such as intercropping, or the cultivation of two or more crops in the same field. Shade trees, for instance, keep fields cooler in the dry season and protect the soil from erosion in the wet season. “Farmers see the benefit of the regenerative farming practices like intercropping—increased carbon sequestration, improved ecosystems, better plant growth, and reduced reliance on fertilizers and irrigation,” says Nguyen.
Through the partnership, Acorn will advance Rainforest Alliance’s contextualized agroforestry design for coffee farms in the region. Indira Gavilan, an Acorn agroforestry specialist, goes into further detail, saying, “Everyone wins with this agroforestry proposition. The use of windbreaks will create microclimates, improving growing conditions, and the additional fruit species will benefit producers by bringing them more economic diversity. The benefits for the environment are countless, as the agroforestry design promotes an extensive list of native species that farmers can choose from and the increase in tree density is very promising in terms of carbon sequestration.”
Acorn’s contributions to agroforestry design will not only enhance Rainforest Alliance’s existing impact on biodiversity in Vietnam, but also improve the livelihoods of thousands of farmers by providing access to the carbon market. This combination maximizes the long-term benefits for farmers by engendering a resilient ecosystem, more sustainable crop yields, and offering an economic incentive. Like in all of Acorn’s carbon projects, when Carbon Removal Units (CRUs) are generated through a farmer’s implementation of regenerative agroforestry techniques, 80 percent of the revenue from those CRUs flows directly back to the farmer.
Nguyen believes the integration of Acorn’s carbon program among Rainforest Alliance Certified farmers will help further incentivize the transition: “The biggest challenge when talking to farmers is their fear that planting many shade trees will cause competition with the coffee trees for nutrients and water,” Nguyen explains. “But then we analyzed which soil layer the shade tree's roots are in and which soil layer the coffee tree’s roots are in. When we intercrop at a suitable level, it absolutely does not affect the yield."
With an agroforestry design tailored to the local context and Acorn’s advanced biomass measurement techniques, the partnership can help further mitigate any hesitance farmers may feel at incorporating further sustainable farming practices. The income boost for participating farmers provides added incentive and can ease the transition by providing tangible benefits for adopting new agroforestry practices.
Photo: Farmer Truong Thi Mâu working with her pepper plants
The partnership’s initial phase is expected to reach about 1,500 farmers, with ambitions to extend this program to more willing farmers in the Rainforest Alliance’s coffee farming network in Vietnam: an estimated 60,000 farmers working on over 70,000 hectares of land.“
We also see potential to expand beyond coffee” says Tran. “After this initial integration of Acorn’s methodologies, we could apply what we learn to other Rainforest Alliance Certified products and ingredients in Vietnam, like tea.” With the Rainforest Alliance active in more than 60 countries, this initial partnership in Vietnam could serve as a model for future collaborations across Asia, Africa, and Latin America.
Together, Acorn and the Rainforest Alliance are creating a new blueprint for coffee farming that integrates the carbon market. Focused on regeneration, biodiversity, and economic empowerment, Acorn and the Rainforest Alliance are committed to building a world where farming is not only productive but proactive, protective, and positive.
With over 25 years in the coffee sector, Thiet Nguyen, Vietnam Country Director of the Rainforest Alliance, sits down with Cathy Tran, Acorn's Asia Partnerships Manager, to share the challenges and opportunities of implementing agroforestry with Vietnam smallholder coffee farmers. Watch this 5-minute conversation, set in Gia Lai Province, Vietnam.
We help support smallholder farmers in developing countries transition to agroforestry. Together with local partners, we facilitate the funding and training needed by farmers to start their agroforestry transition. Transforming the sequestered CO2 through agroforestry into Carbon Removal Units (CRUs), we offer carbon credits to responsible corporates to help them reach their climate goals. The growth of the trees is measured with satellite imagery, AI and LiDAR, and certified by ICROA-accredited Plan Vivo.
With 80% of the sales revenue going directly to the farmers, it creates an additional income stream and helps them adopt a more climate-resilient way of farming that improves food security, biodiversity, and financial independence.
