Rainforest Alliance Certification Research Articles

Optimising Resource Utilisation: A Case Study on Oleofinos’ Advanced Line 4

This study presents significant advancements in the refinement of vegetable oils, demonstrating a 40% increase in processing capacity and a 30% reduction in production time. Additionally, energy consumption was reduced by 25%, leading to a 20% decrease in greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. These improvements are attributed to the implementation of renewable energy technologies and heat recovery systems. With these advancements, Oleofinos has enhanced its safety and quality standards, maintaining the FSSC 22000 Certification for Food Safety Risk Management and the Rainforest Alliance Certification, which is recognised as the world’s leading certifier under the Forest Stewardship Council® (FSC®) with over 25 years of experience in environmental certification. Currently, Oleofinos is the largest plant of its kind in Mexico, boasting an unprecedented processing capacity of 500,000 tonnes per year. The results of this study underscore the significance and transformative impact of research, establishing a benchmark for future initiatives aimed at process improvement in the sector and reinforcing the commitment to operational excellence and environmental responsibility.

Challenges in conserving forest ecosystems through coffee certification: a case study from southwestern Ethiopia

Certification schemes, aimed at simultaneously promoting ecologically sustainable agriculture and improving livelihood, are being utilized at a global scale. Among such certification schemes, the Rainforest Alliance is known as one of the most widely used environmental certification programs throughout the world. Previous studies have compared the ecological impacts of certified and non-certified farmlands, or evaluated the economic outcomes of certification. However, few studies have assessed the long-term impacts of the certification scheme. This paper attempts to analyze the long-term outcomes of the Rainforest Alliance certification program through a case study of coffee farming practices in southwestern Ethiopia. We conducted in-depth qualitative interviews with key informants who were deeply involved in the certification program, together with field observations and secondary data collection. The results of the assessment indicated that some areas of the certified coffee forests have been deforested or ecologically degraded and that the Rainforest Alliance program requirements were not uniformly applied. The possible causes include rapid population increase, government policies promoting intensive coffee production, presence of members who did not participate in the certification program, a lack of conservation incentives, and loopholes in the auditing process. To determine the overall success of the Rainforest Alliance certification program would require: monitoring of population growth rates and providing alternative livelihood opportunities, promoting collaboration between environmental and agricultural government authorities, conducting a more stringent on-site inspection, and to provide direct incentives for environmental conservation to all farmers living in or near the certified areas.

Setting the standard: Does Rainforest Alliance Certification increase environmental and socio‐economic outcomes for small‐scale coffee producers in Rwanda?

AbstractSustainability certification has become an important tool for promoting sustainable agricultural value chains. Nevertheless, its economic and environmental effects on the producer level remain unclear. We investigate the relationship of Rainforest Alliance Certification with socio‐economic and environmental outcomes in Rwanda and consider potential tradeoffs between dimensions. To reduce potential selection bias in the econometric estimation, we use inverse probability weighted regression adjustment. We find no significant association between certification and socio‐economic indicators but a significant correlation between certification and good agricultural practices and biodiversity‐related practices. Effects on economic outcomes and biodiversity‐related practices are linked; their relationship differs across climatic regions.

Sustainability certification as marketisation: Rainforest Alliance in the Sri Lankan tea production industry

ABSTRACT Unsustainable production is a root cause of numerous social and ecological problems. Whilst sustainability certifications face criticism for exacerbating greenwashing, comparative studies have identified improvements in social and ecological outcomes on certified farms. In this paper, we investigate the process by which a sustainability certification can enable a production industry to move beyond mere greenwashing. We conceptualise sustainability certification as a process of marketisation, organising economic activities within a production industry in ways that can enable new forms of thought and action. To examine this marketisation process, we study the case of Rainforest Alliance certification in the Sri Lankan tea production industry. We draw on an extensive six-month period of fieldwork, involving 74 semi-structured interviews with people working across the industry. We find that accounting devices deployed in this marketisation process create new visibilities within the industry to distinguish sustainability-certified tea as a marketable economic good, to equip producers to become economic agents capable of participating in markets for sustainability-certified tea, and to construct an economic exchange connecting supplies from certified tea estates with demands from ethically minded consumers. Our findings contribute to research on accounting for sustainable development, shedding light on the process by which, despite ongoing concerns regarding greenwashing, sustainability certifications can bring about positive impacts on social and ecological outcomes.

Private sustainability standards and child schooling in the African coffee sector

Private sustainability standards are spreading rapidly in global value chains, especially in the coffee sector, and commonly aim at promoting environmental, economic and social sustainability. The social sustainability component is often overlooked in studies on the impact of private standards. In this paper, we investigate a particular social outcome and analyse how adoption of private sustainability standards affects the welfare of children in coffee-producing farm-households in Ethiopia and Uganda. We specifically analyse school enrolment and schooling efficiency of primary and secondary school-aged children. We find that participation in Fairtrade certification schemes increases the likelihood of children to be enrolled in secondary school and improves their schooling efficiency, although it is not associated with higher incomes nor with a reduced child labour time in the farm-household. We find that participation in Rainforest Alliance certification schemes has no effect on schooling outcomes of boys and slightly reduces the schooling of girls, while it does correlate with higher incomes and a reduced workload of children. Results suggest that effects on schooling emerge through social capital and awareness-raising about the importance of schooling among Fairtrade certified households, rather than from the mere prohibition of child labour and the enforcement of a child-labour-free production process.

Coffee certification in Brazil: compliance with social standards and its implications for social equity

This paper addresses the relationship between compliance with social performance criteria (the social outcomes that must be achieved for certification) and procedural (management) criteria and this relationship’s significance for social equity at both farm and wider landscape levels. We consider social performance compliance to be pertinent to farm-level equity, and the relative compliance of small versus large farms to be pertinent to landscape-level equity. Certification’s management requirements are often deemed disproportionately burdensome for small, resource-poor producers, and hence a barrier to landscape-level equity. There is a lack of research examining how management criteria impact the ability of different sized farms to meet certification’s social performance requirements. We analysed 435 certification audits, covering all Brazilian coffee farms that sought Rainforest Alliance certification from 2006 to 2014 inclusive: 80 individual farms and 23 groups of farms. In principle, undergoing group certification permits smallholders to benefit from economies of scale. Our analysis revealed a statistically significant, positive correlation between compliance with procedural (managing sustainability plans) and social performance criteria. This correlation was stronger for groups than individual farms. Group farms’ compliance was statistically equivalent to that of individual farms, suggesting that group certification is achieving its intended purpose of socio-economic levelling of certified farmers. Over time, certified farms’ average compliances improved. Our findings suggest that management requirements play an important role in improving smallholders’ overall social sustainability performance and that group certification may help resource-poor smallholders achieve those requirements. Further work is required to understand causal mechanisms underlying the relationships we present.

Effectiveness of sustainability labels in guiding food choices: Analysis of visibility and understanding among young adults

The increasing demand for sustainable food products has driven manufacturers to adopt many sustainability claims, certifications, messages and other information tools to differentiate their goods. The results of an online survey, conducted in southern Italy on a sample of 305 individuals aged between 18 and 26 years, reveal that the level of visibility of sustainability labels is low. In particular, Rainforest Alliance certification and Libera Terra have never been noted by large shares of respondents (respectively 75% and 68%). Moreover, the degree of understanding of these labels is generally low, except for the organic one. The correct definition is stated only by 15% of interviewees for Fair Trade; 25% for Libera Terra and 16% for Rainforest Alliance. Furthermore, there is a significant relationship (χ<0.05) between visibility and understanding for all the labels; suggesting that label visibility strongly impacts the probability of having a higher understanding. Findings suggest that food firms should be cautious investing in sustainability labels unless they are combined with effective information policies to increase familiarity among specific market segments.

Certification of Semi-forest Coffee as a Land-sharing Strategy in Ethiopia

We analyze whether private sustainability standards can improve the economic benefits from less intensified semi-forest coffee production in southwestern Ethiopia. We compare garden and semi-forest coffee systems, including non-certified and Rainforest Alliance certified semi-forest coffee, and evaluate yields, returns to land, returns to labor and profits. We use original household- and plot-level survey from 454 households and 758 coffee plots derived from a household survey and Geographic Information Systems, and ordinary least squares and fixed effects regression models. We find that more intensified garden coffee plots bring about higher yields and returns to land than less intensified semi-forest coffee plots; and that Rainforest Alliance certification of semi-forest coffee leads to higher returns to land and labor, and profits than non-certified semi-forest and garden coffee, mainly by guaranteeing farmers a better price and not by improving yields. Findings imply that in southwestern Ethiopia coffee certification can support farmers' incentives for land-sharing between coffee production and semi-natural forest conservation.

Social Capital and Sustainable Coffee Certifications in Costa Rica

Social capital has many applications in the adoption and management of voluntary certifications such as Fair trade, Rainforest Alliance, Utz, and CAFE Practices. We used a mixed-methods approach to assess social capital in five Costa Rican coffee cooperatives. We applied this information to its effects on the management of sustainable coffee certifications We found that the level of social capital affects the manner in which cooperatives manage certifications in terms of incentivizing certified members, distributing the profits from certification, and cooperating with outside organizations. Generalized trust was found to have an important link with voluntary participation in Rainforest Alliance certification when no financial incentive was provided. However, given the small differences among the cooperatives in micro-scale social capital, we conclude that certifications have not or have not yet made great impacts on the social capital on the micro-scale. This research presents important considerations for employing certifications and other sustainable development projects in different national contexts.

The impact of certification on the natural and financial capitals of Ghanaian cocoa farmers

ABSTRACTWhile an increasing number of large food companies commit themselves to source only certified cocoa, research on the impacts of certification on cocoa farmers is falling behind. We investigate how Rainforest Alliance (RA) certification of small-scale cocoa farmers in Ghana has affected both the financial and the natural capitals of the farmers. Across two villages, certified farmers were compared to conventional farmers, using both qualitative and quantitative data collected through farmer and key informant interviews and participatory rural appraisals. A combination of the Sustainable Livelihood Framework and the input–output–outcome–impact framework was used for the analysis. Results indicate that the RA certification scheme has a positive influence on the certified farmers in terms of cocoa production, yield, income, and farmers’ perception of changes in their natural and financial capitals. The positive influence is a result of inputs from the RA certification, including financial support, information and knowledge, technical assistance, and increased access to farm inputs and credit. However, these positive impacts are conditioned by the presence of active farmer organizations and access to agricultural inputs and credit through associations and government institutions, and may be undermined by certified farmers who sell their produce outside the premium value chain.

Does environmental certification in coffee promote "business as usual"? A case study from the Western Ghats, India.

Conservation initiatives are designed to address threats to forests and biodiversity, often through partnerships with natural-resource users who are incentivized to change their land-use and livelihood practices to avoid further biodiversity loss. In particular, direct incentives programmes that provide monetary benefits are commended for being effective in achieving conservation across short timescales. In biodiversity-rich areas, outside protected areas, such as coffee agroforestry systems, direct incentives, such as certification schemes, are used to motivate coffee producers to maintain native tree species, natural vegetation, restrict wildlife hunting, and conserve soil and water, in addition to encouraging welfare of workers. However, despite these claims, there is a lack of strong evidence of the on-ground impact of such schemes. To assess the conservation importance of certification, we describe a case study in the Western Ghats biodiversity hotspot of India, in which coffee growers are provided price incentives to adopt Rainforest Alliance certification standards. We analyse the conservation and social outcomes of this programme by studying peoples' experiences of participating in certification. Despite high compliance and effective implementation, we find a strong case for the endorsement of 'business as usual' with no changes in farm management as a result of certification. We find that such 'business as usual' participation in certification creates grounds for diminishing credibility and local support for conservation efforts. Working towards locally relevant conservation interventions, rather than implementing global blueprints, may lead to more meaningful biodiversity conservation and increased community support for conservation initiatives in coffee landscapes.

Rainforest Alliance Failing Plantation Workers

6 | International Union Rights | 23/4 FOCUS | CERTIFICATION AND LABELLING Rainforest Alliance Failing Plantation Workers Earlier this year discount supermarkets Aldi and Lidl announced their intention to source the majority of their tropical fruit from Rainforest Alliance (RA) certified suppliers. This move has thrown into focus the question of whether the claims of sustainability that come with the green frog logo can be met at the low prices which consumers have come to expect from these and other hard discounting supermarkets. In particular, the extent to which RA upholds labour rights or ensures that plantation workers earn anything close to a Living Wage. Banana Link, as part of the Make Fruit Fair! Campaign recently published a report, Rainforest Alliance and the Discount Supermarkets: Low Prices and Easy Standards?1, which looks at the standards and verification systems used by RA and at the realities of daily life on RA certified banana, pineapple and tea plantations. The report concludes, among other things, that RA standards in respect of recognition of trade union rights and compliance with minimum wage requirements, are not met on many RA certified banana and pineapple plantations in Latin America or tea plantations in Indonesia and Kenya. For several years, many supermarkets have sold Fairtrade and organic certified products offering very tangible benefits for producers, including a guaranteed minimum price for their produce that meets the costs of sustainable production. Plantation workers also benefit from Fairtrade’s Hired Labour Standard, which guarantees the rights of workers to freely organise and to collectively bargain, along with more control for workers over how to spend the Fairtrade premium – a communal fund for workers and farmers to use – as they see fit – to improve their social, economic and environmental conditions. Fairtrade International is also introducing a new methodology to set Living Wage benchmarks and a clear process for plantations to progress towards a Living Wage. For this, consumers can pay higher prices to support systems of production in which workers and the environment are treated more fairly and with greater care. However, in most supermarkets, these products represent only a very small percentage of total sales and the majority of consumers choose to buy ‘conventional’ bananas and pineapples which are almost invariably very much cheaper. With the recent announcements by Aldi and Lidl that all fruit, not already labelled Fairtrade, approximately 85 percent, will be certified by the RA, comes the implied claim that cheap fruit can also deliver sustainability. Rainforest Alliance certification Founded in 1987, the RA was, from the outset, focused on the environmental - its main remit being to save the rainforest and to counter the spread of agriculture and commercial logging in virgin forests. Use of the RA label has since expanded rapidly, particularly in coffee, cocoa, tea and bananas since 2010. Around 1 million metric tonnes of bananas were certified in 2010. Today over 6 million tonnes display the green frog logo, meaning that 5.5 percent of world banana exports were RA certified in 2014. To qualify for the green frog logo, producers need to comply with 100 criteria, grouped into ten guiding principles, set by the Sustainable Agriculture Network (SAN), of which two - Principle 5: Fair Treatment and Good Working Conditions for Workers and Principle 6: Occupational Health and Safety – relate to labour standards. However, the rapid expansion of RA certification has invited a growing suspicion that much of its success can be attributed to the laxity of the standards themselves and the undemanding nature of the RA certification process. And, as our report illustrates, RA standards include criteria that are difficult to test or are fulfilled easily because they are very much open to interpretation, while the auditing of certified farms is open to compromise, when all the parties involved have a financial or other interest in the outcome. Enter the hard discounters The hard discounters have been growing well since the 2008 financial crisis and by 2014 they had captured 17 percent of the EU retail market. Their challenge to other more traditional supermarkets has been to offer hard-pressed consumers even lower prices than those offered by the already highly competitive supermarkets. As prices paid by consumers declined, so prices paid to...

Responding to Globalization: Impacts of Certification on Colombian Small-Scale Coffee Growers

Eco-certification of food and other agricultural products has been promoted as a way of making markets work for sustainability. Certification programs offer a price premium to producers who invest in more sustainable practices. The literature on the impacts of certification has focused primarily on the economic benefits farmers perceive from participating in these schemes. These benefits, however, are often subject to price variability, offering only a partial explanation of why farmers join and stay in certification programs. We evaluated the potential of the Rainforest Alliance certification program to foster more resilient social-ecological systems in the face of globalization. Using the case of Santander, Colombia, and a pair-based comparison of 86 households to effectively produce a robust counterfactual, we showed that certification provides important environmental benefits, while improving the well-being of farmers and their communities. Furthermore, the study showed that price premiums are only one of many elements defining the success of certification, particularly important for motivating farmers to join, but less so to explain retention and upgrading. The case of Colombian coffee growers illustrates how the connections between local social-ecological systems and larger global forces can produce more sustainable livelihoods and land uses.

Rainforest Alliance Certification of Kenyan tea farms: a contribution to sustainability or tokenism?

Abstract An Environmental Management System (EMS) refers to a set of guidelines that organisations can use to structure their management to prevent or minimise adverse environmental and social impacts. Rainforest Alliance Certification (RFC), one example of an EMS, was adopted by some Kenyan tea farms in 2007 to promote sustainable tea production. RFC addresses the three pillars of sustainable development (environmental, economic and social) and as such is suited to tea farming which has been characterised by environmental resource degradation, job insecurity, strenuous work conditions and child labour. To study the effect of certification, interviews with farm managers, and farm workers on certified and non-certified tea farms were carried out. Sets of agri-environmental and socio-economic indicators were then compared using these data. The results indicate that the RFC brings some important social and environmental benefits to certified tea farms. These benefits include improved work conditions and to a limited extent, natural resource conservation. However, there were no differences between certified and non-certified farms in a number of aspects, including access to health services and employee living conditions. Two main conclusions can be drawn. First, although there are important sustainability benefits from adopting the RFC, more efforts are still needed to achieve sustainability on certified farms. Secondly, there are sufficient benefits to indicate that all tea farms should be encouraged to become certified.

UP-SCALING FARMER FIELD SCHOOLS AND RAINFOREST ALLIANCE CERTIFICATION AMONG SMALLHOLDER TEA PRODUCERS IN KENYA: OPTIONS, OPPORTUNITIES AND EMERGING LESSONS

The Kenya Tea Development Agency (KTDA) has been encouraging small-scale tea (Camellia sinensis) producers through Farmer Field Schools (FFS) to adopt good agricultural practices since 2006. The up-scaling of FFS and Rainforest Alliance (RA) certification to 560,000 tea producers remains a big challenge. Hence the need to learn about options, opportunities and emerging lessons for up-scaling FFS and RA certification among smallholder tea producers in Kenya. This study sought to improve tea stakeholders’ understanding on how successful innovations such as FFSs and RA certification can be up-scaled to more stakeholders and how to produce tea sustainably. It also sought to describe the options, opportunities and emerging lessons related to up-scaling. The study used a Cross-Sectional design to collect data from a two-stage random sample of 514 small-scale tea growers drawn from KTDA factories. A semi-structured questionnaire validated by extension experts, whose 0.92α reliability was above the 0.70 acceptable was used to collect data. Face-to-Face interviews, document analysis, record reviews, site visits, observations, living the system and a stakeholders’ workshop were carried out to ensure triangulation. Data were analyzed using Chi-square at 0.05α set a priori. The results indicated that maintaining the current system with some improvements was the best option for up-scaling FFS and RA certification. The researchers concluded that FFSs and RA certification can be up-scaled by increasing resources, improving communication, training and educating non-FFS members using different methods. They showed that up-scaling training for certification and FFS come with a need for additional investments and eventually will alter KTDA’s cost and revenue model of the sustainable tea production. To sustain this system, the true costs and benefits of sustainable tea are incorporated in the KTDA business model, which implies that donors strategically move from subsidizing costs to strategic investments in human resource development, capacity building and extension technologies. Key words: certification, emerging lessons, farmer field schools, good agricultural practices, Kenya Tea Development Agency, Rainforest Alliance, opportunities, options.

Examining the Rainforest Alliance's Agricultural Certification Robustness

This paper explores the structure and processes that govern the Rainforest Alliance’s certified seal of approval to give insight to the robustness of the Rainforest Alliance certification system. This paper assesses the robustness of the certification by examining the incentives facing certifiers to determine whether certifiers qualify as independent, third parties. Because there is evidence that certifiers’ incentives are aligned with those being certified or retail purchasers in some circumstances, it is impossible to classify the Rainforest Alliance certification process as robust even despite criteria for certification that are scientifically and socially commendable.