An agenda for assessing and improving conservation impacts of sustainability standards in tropical agriculture

Author(s): Milder, J.C. Arbuthnot, M. Blackman, A. Brooks, S.E. Giovannucci, D.
+ 12
Publication Year: 2014
Publication Type: Journal Article
Source:
Code:
Access to the Study:
Permanent Resource Identifier: Open link
FSC Resource Identifier: Open link
Collections: FSC Research Portal
Abstract

Sustainability standards and certification serve to differentiate and provide market recognition to goods produced in accordance with social and environmental good practices, typically including practices to protect biodiversity. Such standards have seen rapid growth, including in tropical agricultural commodities such as cocoa, coffee, palm oil, soybeans, and tea. Given the role of sustainability standards in influencing land use in hotspots of biodiversity, deforestation, and agricultural intensification, much could be gained from efforts to evaluate and increase the conservation payoff of these schemes. To this end, we devised a systematic approach for monitoring and evaluating the conservation impacts of agricultural sustainability standards and for using the resulting evidence to improve the effectiveness of such standards over time. The approach is oriented around a set of hypotheses and corresponding research questions about how sustainability standards are predicted to deliver conservation benefits. These questions are addressed through data from multiple sources, including basic common information from certification audits; field monitoring of environmental outcomes at a sample of certified sites; and rigorous impact assessment research based on experimental or quasi-experimental methods. Integration of these sources can generate time-series data that are comparable across sites and regions and provide detailed portraits of the effects of sustainability standards. To implement this approach, we propose new collaborations between the conservation research community and the sustainability standards community to develop common indicators and monitoring protocols, foster data sharing and synthesis, and link research and practice more effectively. As the role of sustainability standards in tropical land-use governance continues to evolve, robust evidence on the factors contributing to effectiveness can help to ensure that such standards are designed and implemented to maximize benefits for biodiversity conservation.

Summary
Sponsors
Citation
Sustainability dimension(s): (not yet curated)
Subject Keywords:
Regions: (not yet curated)
Countries: (not yet curated)
Forest Zones: (not yet curated)
Forest Type: (not yet curated)
Tenure Ownership: (not yet curated)
Tenure Management: (not yet curated)
Evidence Category: FSC relevant studies
Evidence Type: (not yet curated)
Evidence Subtype: (not yet curated)
Data Type: (not yet curated)