Rainforest Alliance moves to streamline and enhance certification standards
Key sustainability NGO, Rainforest Alliance has delivered two strategic developments in streamlining and innovating its certification programme, and enhancing certification on livelihoods, climate and regenerative agriculture, writes Neill Barston.
The organisation, which played a notable role in our World Confectionery Conference last year as part of our centrepiece Q&A panel, believed there were core areas that it could strengthen its operations.
Significantly, more than 7.5 million farmers and farmworkers are part of the alliance, alongside 7,600 company partners. As one of the largest sustainability certification programmes in the world and active in 62 countries, which it has strived to make an impact in helping positive transform key markets around the world, including the cocoa sector, that remains vital to the confectionery industry.
So, in response to the fast pace of regulatory changes and challenges surrounding the delivery of EUR and related due diligence legislation in the EU, Rainforest Alliance asserted there is an urgent need to speed up the positive transformation of global agricultural sectors.
Consequently, it has set out its newly updated Sustainable Agriculture Standard as well as developing new specialised certification solutions for critical impact areas. To find out more about the updated standard, farmers and companies can explore this article from today.
The main changes in version 1.4 of the Rainforest Alliance Sustainable Agriculture Standard cover: Simplified certification requirements: Retaining requirements that have proven to be the most valuable for both farmers and companies and removing those that were adding unnecessary burden or complexity.
It also includes more targeted inspections and audits: Taking steps to reduce the time and resources required from farmers, supply chain actors, and Certification Bodies for both internal inspections and audits. This will support internal inspectors and third-party auditors to deliver more focused, impactful results.
Furthermore, it also set to feature an enhanced focus on data quality and focus. This takes the form of streamlining its data approach to concentrate on the data points essential for supporting market needs and continued legislative alignment. This simplifies reporting for farmers while enhancing attention to data quality. Increased data verification and validation by Certification Bodies, along with better training, guidance, and digital tools, will further support more accurate reporting for all stakeholders.
At the same time, the Rainforest Alliance is keeping requirements from version 1.3 of the Sustainable Agriculture Standard that have proven to be the most valuable for both farmers and companies. The standard will maintain the same aims and principles as well as its innovative approaches and tools—from our Assess-and-Address systems to tackle human rights abuses head on to our child labour and forced labour risk maps—that have shown to deliver significant farm-level impacts.
The updated standard will apply to audits conducted with Certificate Holders from 1 October 2025 onwards. But farmers and companies can already start benefiting from some of the positive changes before through the introduction of a Simplification Policy for version 1.3 of the Sustainable Agriculture Standard.
Fedback from farmers and companies
Version 1.4 of the Sustainable Agriculture Standard was developed informed by feedback from farmers and companies. This allowed for a more user-friendly and streamlined certification programme than ever, removing unnecessary complexity and strengthening the data-driven approach.
While increasing the efficiency of our programme, the changes also uphold its integrity and ability to support authorised claims. The Rainforest Alliance remains committed to ISEAL Code compliance, and its certification programme will continue to provide data to support companies’ compliance with regulations like the EU Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive, the EU Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive, the EU Deforestation Regulation, and the German Supply Chain Act. The evolution of the Rainforest Alliance certification programme ensures that despite these growing expectations farmers and companies retain their market access.
As the organisation explained, in addition to the updated Sustainable Agriculture Standard, the Rainforest Alliance is developing new specialised certification solutions for three critical impact areas: regenerative agriculture, climate, and livelihoods. Available as optional add-ons for current Certificate Holders or as standalone solutions, they will provide farmers with increased market access and the opportunity to validate their specialist sustainability practices. For companies, it will be an opportunity to stand out, strengthen their sustainability commitments, and transparently report on ambitious ESG goals. As the first of the new specialised solutions, the Regenerative Agriculture Standard will be launched later in 2025.