Bridges Trade BioRes • Volume 8 • Number 19 • 31st October 2008
Certification scheme targets social, environmental impacts of trade
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A new rainforest conservation initiative is aiming to help curb the negative environmental and social impacts associated with the flower and chocolate trade by introducing a certification scheme. The programme, launched by US-based Rainforest Alliance, intends to appeal to purchasers’ sense of benevolence when buying gifts for loved ones.
The organisation says that the liberal use of pesticides in Latin American flower farms, the source of 90 percent of cut ferns and flowers sold in the US, endangers the lives of workers and has a detrimental effect on local flora and fauna.
Certified flowers come from Latin American flower farms, primarily in Ecuador and Colombia, that observe the standards set by the Sustainable Agriculture Network, a coalition of tropical conservation advocacy groups. Certified farms are required to curb deforestation, protect soil and waterways and provide decent wages, housing, education and health care to workers and their families.
While the use of organic and fair trade certification schemes are already in widespread use globally, the new system brings the two elements together under one comprehensive approval system. “We take a whole rounded approach at the Rainforest Alliance,” says spokesperson Abby Ray. “We look at how workers are treated – whether or not they’re getting health care, education – we look at the environmental effects on the soil, the wildlife, waterways, and then we teach [communities] how to farm in ways that help them get better market price for their product.”
At the WTO Committee on Sanitary and Phytosanitary Standards (SPS), Members are engaged in discussions on private sector standards and labels such as those managed by the Rainforest Alliance (see Bridges Trade BioRes, 17 October 2008, http://ictsd.net/i/news/biores/31313/).
Some countries view these certification initiatives as a costly new form of non-tariff barriers keeping smaller producers or even developing countries as a whole out of lucrative Northern markets. These critics want governments to take responsibility for ensuring that such schemes do not operate in a discriminatory manner, while other countries feel that private sector standards and labels fall outside the remit of the WTO.
Use of the Rainforest Alliance logo has already been adopted by several large-scale US retailers. “Rainforest Alliance certified roses are available all across the US. They are the only roses that Costco are selling now,” Ray says. In addition to discount heavyweight Costco, gourmet grocer Whole Foods has signed onto the project early.
The organisation has also moved ahead with the manufacture and marketing of its own certified chocolate. The Rainforest Alliance says that approved cocoa beans are grown exclusively on farms in Ecuador that, like approved flower farms, are regularly inspected to ensure compliance with advertised standards.
The Rainforest Alliance says its efforts have already conserved 1500 hectares of flower and fern farmland and over 40,000 hectares of cocoa farmland in Latin America.
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