FAQ: 2020 Farm Requirements
A detailed FAQ about the Rainforest Alliance 2020 Sustainable Agriculture Standard Farm Requirements.
FAQs
Certification has had a huge impact in bringing sustainability to the forefront of business thinking, but it must continue to evolve to provide more value to farmers and companies and ensure that people and nature can thrive in harmony.
That's why the Rainforest Alliance launched its new Certification Program, which entered into force in July 2021. The Sustainable Agriculture Standard, along with its assurance and technology systems, are data-powered, and based on the principles of continuous improvement, risk-based assurance, contextualization, and shared responsibility. This is how we can deliver more value to the two million farmers and thousands of businesses that use Rainforest Alliance certification to drive more sustainable agricultural production and responsible supply chains.
At the heart of the Rainforest Alliance
The certification program is part of the Rainforest Alliance’s strategy to drive sustainability at scale in the sectors in which we operate through interconnected interventions supporting certification, tailored supply chain services, landscapes and communities, and advocacy.
What We're Working On
Strengthened Cocoa Certification Program
Key priorities of our cocoa strategy are assurance, shared responsibility, supply chain transparency, and profitability and resilience.
Risk Maps for Risk Management
How we have tailored the implementation and verification of standards requirements on child labor and forced labor to the risk exposure of each farm.
Shared Responsibility
Our shared responsibility approach aims to distribute benefits and costs of certification more evenly between farmers and companies.
Ready to Get Started?
Begin your journey of certification with the Rainforest Alliance.
Additional Resources
Early Feedback on the New Certification Program: Kyagalanyi Coffee Shares Their Implementation Experience
Find out what Ugandan coffee exporter, Kyagalanyi Coffee, had to say about the new program—from the improvements to the challenges.
Learnings from the Field: Finca Esmeralda and the Future of Certified Bananas
After teaming up for an early implementation pilot of our strengthened certification program, both Finca Esmeralda and the Rainforest Alliance took away learnings that will contribute to a more sustainable banana sector.
Find An Authorized Certification Body
Rainforest Alliance certification is carried out by our authorized certification bodies. Find an authorized certification body in your county.
All resources for Certification
GeoPDF Guidance
A GeoPDF is a special PDF format which is able to display semi-interactive maps. These maps include geospatial information about the data points of the layers shown on the map. The PDF maps are semi-interactive because it allows users to: Identify the farm information through the attribute table Extract the X and Y coordinate information […]
Policy on the transition period to the 2020 certification system for banana certificate holders
Due to the unique market characteristics of the sector, banana growers will have an extended period until 31 December 2022 to complete their first audit to the 2020 Rainforest Alliance standard. The document elaborates on the Transition period rules for banana certificate holders and applicability of the requirements related to Sustainability Differential and Sustainability Investments.
Guidance: Empty pesticide container disposal in Vietnam
This document is intended to help (groups of) farms seeking Rainforest Alliances certification and Rainforest Alliance certified farms understand and implement an empty pesticide container handling, collection, and disposal system in Vietnam.
Assess and Address Pledge
The assess-and-address pledge can be used by the Certificate Holder to publicly inform workers/ group members of its commitment to prevent and remediate human rights violations. This is an editable version so that the text can be adjusted to fit the Certificate Holder’s needs and context best. This can then be printed and visually displayed […]
Guidance D: Geolocation Data Requirements and Risk Maps
Guidance D: Geolocation Data Requirements and Risk Maps provides guidelines to the Certificate Holders to assist in recording this information according to the Rainforest Alliance Sustainable Agriculture Standard Farm Requirements. In addition, It also provides guidelines for Certification Bodies (CBs) on how to verify this data during the audit process.
Policy on Remote Audits
With the intent to facilitate an easy transition to the new certification program, the Rainforest Alliance Transition Rules allows all supply chain audits completed in the period from 1st July 2021 to 30th June 2022 to be conducted remotely. For farm certificate holders, onsite auditing in the farm context remains important. However, considering the continuous […]