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
What’s in our 2020 Certification Program? Continuous improvement
Sustainability is a journey that doesn’t end when a certificate is awarded. Fixed sustainability benchmarks that apply to all farmers are key to upholding a high standard of certification, but in our 2020 Certification Program, we are going a step further to help farmers make even more progress on sustainability goals. In addition to traditional […]
What’s in our 2020 Certification Program? Living Wage
For the millions of workers worldwide who form the backbone of agricultural production, ensuring a sustainable livelihood starts with being paid a living wage. In our 2020 Certification Program, we are going further to achieve living wages for agricultural workers through the introduction of several innovations that allow farmers to assess the gap to a […]
Understanding the Sustainability Differential in Cocoa
Our 2020 Certification Program includes two financial requirements for the buyers of Rainforest Alliance Certified commodities: the Sustainability Differential (SD) and Sustainability Investments (SI). For cocoa, we will require a minimum SD of $70 per MT as of July 2022.... Continue Reading
Measures to Strengthen the Cocoa Sector
After a two-year comprehensive analysis on the necessary evolution of certification, we have developed a set of ambitious and pragmatic approaches, fortified by advanced monitoring techniques, to improve our cocoa certification program.... Continue Reading
Rainforest Alliance Unveils New Certification Standard: ‘We Need New Approaches That Move beyond a Simple Pass-Fail System’
Rainforest Alliance will start rolling out the 2020 Sustainable Agriculture Standard worldwide in September. Food Navigator speaks with the NGO's Director of Standards and Assurance, Ruth Rennie, to find out.
Rainforest Alliance Aims to Help Ethical Growers Get Climate-Smart
Upgraded certification scheme, covering over 2 million farmers, will use technology to help them adapt to climate change, protect forests and spot social risks.