Binding Documents are a set of standards, policies and rules that are applicable to different actors in the Rainforest Alliance’s programs, depending on the type of activity the actor is engaged in, as set forth in an organization's license agreement with the Rainforest Alliance.
These Binding Documents include the following documents and categories of rules: License Agreement Terms and Conditions, certification standards and rules, traceability rules, labeling rules, and online platform terms and conditions.* Additional guidelines can be found in our Help Center.
*Note: All actors that are part of either cocoa program and any actors interested in using the new Rainforest Alliance seal must also sign a License Agreement (2020 Version) with Rainforest Alliance.
Farms and companies certified to the following standard can find applicable binding documents:
Farms and companies that are selling, labeling or claiming products as Rainforest Alliance Certified or using the Rainforest Marks can find applicable binding documents by clicking the following links:
The Certification Application Form (CAF) is a mandatory document to be filled out by Certificate Holders and Certification Bodies along the Certification Process of the Sustainable Agriculture Standard 2020.
SA-S-SD-20 This annex includes additional binding content related to the implementation of the Requirements in Chapter 2 of the Sustainable Agriculture Standard: Traceability. This document includes: Traceability (Previous Annex S06) (Related to requirements 2.1, 2.2 and 2.3) The new version (v1.2) was published in order to add that mass balance is now permitted for cashews […]
SA-S-SD-21 This annex includes additional binding content related to the implementation of the Requirements in Chapter 3 of the Sustainable Agriculture Standard: Shared Responsibility. This document includes: Shared Responsibility (Previous Annex S14) (Related to requirements 3.2 and 3.3) This updated version of Annex Chapter 3 was published in order to clarify that for bananas and […]
This policy exception has been developed to support the traceability reporting process for tea certificate holders.
An exception to the Rainforest Alliance Standard mass balance and temporary supply shortage rules have been granted to orange juice certificate holders.
The Assurance System of the 2020 Certification Program introduces numerous innovations to ensure that certification is more context-specific, data-driven, and risk-based.