Rainforest Vanilla Conservation Association

Rainforest Vanilla Association

	The Rainforest Vanilla Conservation Association needs your help to save the world's tropical rainforests, as well as to save your favorite flavor... natural vanilla. It's no coincidences that as tropical rainforests have been disappearing; vanilla production worldwide has also been declining. Vanilla is a climbing orchid that can only be sustainably cultivated hi the special environment of a tropical rainforest.
Today an estimated 98% of all products claiming to contain vanilla actually contain artificial vanillin made from paper mill waste. Instead of contaminating rivers with this industrial waste, lumber companies have turned "garbage into gold" by using it to manufacture artificial vanilla flavor. The artificial vanillin business is so lucrative that the Japanese have discovered a way to turn cow manure into artificial vanilla flavor!
	Vanilla's steady decline has been caused by several factors including: Loss of Habitat: To address the disappearance of tropical rainforests where vanilla grows naturally, the Association has been reforesting lowland areas in Costa Rica, Papua New Guinea, and Haití with native trees species. We also plant cocoa trees as additional support tutors for vanilla vines and another source of income for poor farmers. We are also developing vanilla-cocoa reforestation projects around the world. If you would like to help, watch our video Save the Rainforest and see how it won't cost you anything to help.
Unstable Prices: In order to stabilize vanilla prices, the Association established The Vanilla Exchange© to put vanilla growers in direct contact with buyers. The Exchange helps growers bypass unscrupulous middlemen and thus stabilize prices at Fair Trade levels. By going around local middlemen more money goes directly into the hands of growers and their families. As prices stabilize, flavor manufacturers should increasingly use more natural vanilla in their products.
	Inadequate Production Technology: Vanilla growers still employ primitive production techniques and unsustainable cultural practices. The Association has been developing improved vanilla production technology on its 180-acre tropical rainforest property in Costa Rica's Caribbean lowlands. After more than eight years of research we have developed a Vanilla-Cocoa Production System© that uses cocoa trees and an endemic species of Erythrina as support tutors for vanilla vines. We also employ various native tree species as permanent over story shade for the plantation thus increasing the biological diversity of the whole system. For more information on this unique production system go to: Vanilla-Cocoa System©.
Along with this new production system, your Association has developed sustainable cultural practices and state-of-the-art production technology for the vanilla and cocoa grower. The Vanilla Doctor© provides vanilla and cocoa growers access to free technical assistance and sources for genetic material of the latest high-yielding vanilla and cocoa hybrids. If you would like to get involved in saving the tropical rainforests of the world, become an Association member at: Association Membership. You can also become a member by adopting a tree in Costa Rica; Papua New Guinea; and Haiti. By adopting a tree, you will not only be able to watch your trees grow on Virtual Earth, but you will also be committing yourself to providing an annual $3 maintenance fee for each tree you adopt. This maintenance fee is paid to poor vanilla and cocoa growers each year as a direct economic incentive to conserve their tropical rainforests. So click on one of the "Adopt-a-Tree" icons and choose a vanilla-cocoa grower to help. The Rainforest Vanilla Conservation Association is a 501(c)3 IRS tax exempt non-government organization (NGO) with EIN: 98-0539164. All donations to the Adopt-a-Tree Program are tax exempt. (Pending final IRS approval)