Winters, Paul, Jsuan-Wen Kuo, Chanisa Niljinda, Ben Chen, Helena N. Alves-Pinto, Melisa Ongun, Stefani Daryanto, and Peter Newton. “Voluntary Certification Design Choices Influence Producer Participation, Stakeholder Acceptance, and Environmental Sustainability in Commodity Agriculture Sectors in Tropical Forest Landscapes.” Journal of Sustainable Forestry (2015): n. pag. Taylor & Francis Group. Web.

University of Michigan School of Natural Resources and Environment students, Paul Winters, Hsuan-wen Kuo, Chanisa Niljinda, Ben Chen, and Melisa Ongun, along with collaborators Helena Nery Alves-Pinto, Stefani Daryanto, and Peter Newton were published recently in the Journal of Sustainable Forestry. Their research examines how the design of voluntary certification programs, the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil in Indonesia and the Sustainable Agriculture Network’s Cattle Certification program in Brazil, may influence producer participation. The two certification programs are very different in their structure and history, but both programs seek to maintain the rigor of their standard requirements while continuing to entice producer participation. The article considers not only standards setting, but also other features of certification programs, including adoption, implementation, and monitoring and enforcement. By placing the various design elements of certification programs within a benefits framework, leverage points are highlighted where incentives could increase participation without reducing rigor of the standards.

Abstract

Voluntary certification programs are one type of intervention used to incentivize the agricultural commodity sector in tropical landscapes to reduce deforestation and improve sustainability. Cases of the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO) voluntary certification program in Indonesia and the Sustainable Agriculture Network (SAN), voluntary certification for cattle in Brazil are used to contrast the role taken in two significantly different programs to design features of the program to render sustainability outcomes. While producers in both countries follow a similar path towards compliance with certification standards, only the RSPO program offers enticements for producers to participate in the intermediate stages of compliance by offering membership in its affiliated industry roundtable. Design choices about the core activities of a program (adoption, implementation, and enforcement and monitoring) that are ancillary to standards setting are found to be opportunities for providing benefits to both producers and civil society stakeholders without compromising the program’s rigor. A framework is proposed to understand voluntary certification programs as both creators and brokers of benefits between producers and other sustainability stakeholders, potentially providing an approach to simultaneously increase participation and maintain program rigor.

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