You Say You Want an Evolution

“The perfect is the enemy of the good.” More than two centuries have passed since the French writer Voltaire first coined this phrase, but the proverb is as true today as it was then.

We are proud of the accomplishments of the Rainforest Alliance Certified^TM program, which is jointly managed by the Sustainable Agriculture Network (SAN), an international coalition of conservation groups. The certification program has positively impacted millions of farmers and their families, protected countless wildlife species and spared thousands of acres of tropical forests from the machete and the torch. But despite the program’s considerable achievements, we also understand that the SAN standard upon which it is based is not perfect.

SalvaNATURA, a member of the SAN, audits a coffee farm seeking Rainforest Alliance certification.

Time and experience are great teachers, and since the program’s launch in 1992, some of the science, research and cultural norms associated with it have changed—as the SAN fully expected they might. For this reason, the standard was never intended to be a static thing. Built into its very foundation is the ability and obligation to improve on what has gone before.

Back in its earliest days, the SAN established various committees to periodically re-examine the standard and the way it is applied and monitored. Comprised of a cross-section of network staff, consultants and internationally respected experts in their fields, these committees meet on a regular basis to debate even the most minute details and determine the best ways to address any unresolved issues or new needs.

Take, for example, the concept of minimum wage. Under the fifth of the SAN’s ten guiding principles (“Fair Treatment and Good Working Conditions for Workers”), the standard requires that “farms pay salaries and benefits equal or more than the legal minimum, and the workweek and working hours must not exceed the legal maximums or those established by the ILO [the UN’s International Labor Organization]”.

A worker on a Rainforest Alliance Certified tea farm in India.

At first glance, this requirement might seem straightforward, but it is actually quite complex. How do you apply this criterion to jobs that pay for piecework instead of using an hourly or day rate? By their very nature, farms are places where work is seasonal; how do you evaluate salaries over time, when there might be dramatic ebbs and flows in income? What about vacation pay and overtime?

Perhaps the biggest issue of all regarding minimum wage is the most basic: its very definition. Wage standards can vary widely from country to country. “In Africa, for example,” says Kathrin Resak, a Rainforest Alliance technical coordinator, “a number of countries have no minimum wage or poorly formulated ones, meaning that they’re completely outdated or set extremely low.” This sentiment is echoed by Winnie Mwaniki, a Rainforest Alliance regional projects manager for East Africa. “In places like Malawi, Rwanda and Uganda,” says Mwaniki, “the wages can be below one US dollar per day,” lower even than the World Bank’s 2005 extreme poverty line of $1.25 per day, per person.

In cases where there are region-specific issues, the SAN tries to address them through its local interpretation guidelines while still maintaining the primacy of the overall SAN standard. If, for example, there is no set minimum wage in a particular region, the local guidelines must define the term in cooperation with all stakeholders.

When a problem cannot be resolved through local guidelines, the SAN considers changes to the overall standard. But before any modifications can be made, the proposal must first be discussed, researched, field-tested and put through a process of public consultation.

A bunch of bananas from a Rainforest Alliance Certified farm owned by Chiquita.

“Although no standard-setting and auditing agency can claim infallibility in either role, the SAN is proud of its record thus far and has scheduled significant and continuing upgrades in both roles,” says Dorianne Beyer, a member of the SAN’s International Standards Committee and a lawyer with 30 years of experience in the field of labor rights. Though Beyer was specifically referring to the issue of workers’ rights, her statement can be applied across the board.

Some may see any revisions to the SAN standard as an indication of failure, but in actuality, they are proof of its strength. An effective certification program must be willing to adapt and grow according to changing needs and conditions if it is to remain viable. Rainforest Alliance certification may not be perfect, but that doesn’t mean the SAN won’t keep trying to make it so. And in the interim, the program is already doing a world of good.

Read about the SAN Standard and find out what makes the Rainforest Alliance Certified program unique.