Designing for value: Structuring voluntary certification programs to increase stakeholder acceptance | Land Portal

Resource information

Date of publication: 
December 2015
Resource Language: 
ISBN / Resource ID: 
handle:10568/69446
License of the resource: 

Voluntary certification programs are one type of intervention used to incentivize the commodity agricultural sector in tropical forest landscapes to reduce deforestation and improve sustainability. These programs encourage supply-chain actors to produce and source products according to agreed standards. We review the cases of the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO) voluntary certification program in Indonesia, and the Sustainable Agriculture Network (SAN) voluntary certification program for cattle in Brazil. Based on field interviews, we explore the challenges faced by these programs to simultaneously sustain the rigor of their standards and boost producer participation. Taken together, we consider that rigor and participation are the principle components of a program’s sustainability impact. Given the high level of contention that often surrounds certification standards, we suggest that the other core activities (including adoption, implementation, and monitoring and enforcement) of certification programs are under-utilized places for generating benefits to producers that bypass the complex politics surrounding standards setting. We further identify a common progression from capacity building to full compliance for most producers. This trend suggests a need to design programs to maintain or increase the rigor of program standards in tandem with deliberate efforts to provide producers with additional benefits. In particular, providing benefits to producers at earlier points in their progression towards full compliance may attract additional producers to the program. Clear and objective expectations of producers at each stage in their progression towards full compliance also may benefit external stakeholders interested in tracking more granularly the progress of producers and the overall impact of certification programs.

Keywords

Authors and Publishers

Author(s), editor(s), contributor(s): 

Winters, P.
Kuo HW
Niljinda C
Chen B
Ongun M
Daryanto S
Alves-Pinto, H.N.
Newton, Peter

Publisher(s): 

CGIAR (CGIAR)

CGIAR is the only worldwide partnership addressing agricultural research for development, whose work contributes to the global effort to tackle poverty, hunger and major nutrition imbalances, and environmental degradation.


Data provider

CGIAR (CGIAR)

CGIAR is the only worldwide partnership addressing agricultural research for development, whose work contributes to the global effort to tackle poverty, hunger and major nutrition imbalances, and environmental degradation.


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