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Toward a sustainable cocoa sector effects of SAN/Rainforest Alliance certification on farmer livelihoods and the environment

Descriptive information
Monitoring report
Research report

Published April 2017 by Rainforest Alliance. Authored by Newsom, D. , Milder, J. and Bare, M.

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Research Focus

Sustainability Approaches:

Voluntary Sustainability Standards

Sustainability Tools:

Rainforest Alliance (RA)

Sustainability Issues:

Child rights and wellbeing
Forests and other ecosystems
Livelihoods

Outcomes of Interest:

Antibiotic use
Child labor
Fertilizers

Specific Themes:

Multidimensional poverty
Smallholders

Sectors:

Agriculture

Products:

Cocoa

Sustainable Development Goals:

SDG 1 - No Poverty
SDG 12 - Responsible Production and Consumption
Region/Country:

Geographies:

Global

Summary

The Rainforest Alliance and its partner the Sustainable Agriculture Network (SAN) started working to mainstream sustainable practices in the cocoa industry through the SAN/Rainforest Alliance certification program in the late 1990s. Our program establishes a norm for sustainable cocoa farming (the SAN Standard), evaluates attainment of this norm by participating farmers, and awards Rainforest Alliance Certified status to farms meeting this standard. The program also helps build consumer demand and market incentives for sustainable cocoa products while simultaneously supporting cocoa producers to farm more sustainably, productively, and profitably. This report answers the question: what have been the effects of the SAN/Rainforest Alliance cocoa program on cocoa-producing farms, households, and landscapes? To make this assessment, it analyzed performance for a large sample of certified cocoa farms (186 out of 266 total certificates available at the close of 2015), representing just over 170,000 individual farms across five countries: Côte d’Ivoire, Ghana, Ecuador, Peru, and Indonesia.
Research detail

Toward a sustainable cocoa sector effects of SAN/Rainforest Alliance certification on farmer livelihoods and the environment

Descriptive information
Monitoring report
Research report

Published April 2017 by Rainforest Alliance. Authored by Newsom, D. , Milder, J. and Bare, M.

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