Harnessing local strength for sustainable coffee value chains in India and Nicaragua: reevaluating certification to global sustainability standards

Abstract

Coffee is generally grown in areas derived from forest, and both its expansion and management cause biodiversity loss. Sustainability standards in coffee are well established but have been criticized while social and environmental impact is elusive. This paper assesses the issueattention cycle of coffee production in India and Nicaragua, including producer concerns and responses over time to concerns (sustainability standards, public regulations and development projects). Systematic comparison of the socioeconomic, environmental and policy context in both countries is then used to explore potential effects of sustainability standards. Results show limits, in local context, to relevance of global certification approaches: in both countries due to naturally high levels of biodiversity within coffee production systems global standards are easily met. They do not provide recognition for the swing potential (difference between best and worst) and do not raise the bar of environmental outcomes though nationally biodiversity declines. Nicaraguan regulations have focused on the socioeconomic development of the coffee sector via strengthening producer organizations, while India prioritized environmental and biodiversity conservation. In India, externally driven sustainability standards partially replace the existing producer-buyer relationship while in Nicaragua standards are desired by producer organizations. The temporal comparison shows that recently local stakeholders harness improvements through their unique local value propositions: the 'small producer' symbol in Nicaragua and certification of geographic origin in India. Nicaragua builds on the strength of its smallholder sector while India builds on its strength of being home to a global biodiversity hotspot.

Cross-Sector Partnerships for Sustainability: How Mission-Driven Conveners Drive Change in National Coffee Platforms

“…The coffee sector has been a popular context for organizational scholars for some time, with research mostly focused on certification as a means to strengthen sustainability in the sector. Most of these studies mirror the general (scientific) debate on (the shortcomings of) certification, for example, elaborating on the emergence of certification in the coffee industry [28,51], zooming in on the roll-out of certification in specific coffee-producing regions through case studies [52][53][54], or scrutinizing the impact and effectiveness of certification [55,56] and the poor connection between the 'Northern' voluntary sustainability standards with the 'Southern' reality of smallholder farmers [57]. Recently, Glasbergen [57] argued that by focusing on the effectiveness of certification, researchers fail to acknowledge the 'real' question of whether certification is the most appropriate means to increase sustainable production of coffee (and other sectors).…”

REDD+: la transformación - Lecciones y nuevas direcciones

“…La producción de café varía en escala alrededor del mundo, desde grandes propiedades hasta sistemas de pequeños agricultores con pocos cafetos o árboles de café. El sector tiene muchos VSS bien establecidos y se caracteriza por la intensa colaboración entre los VSS y las empresas cafetaleras, los tostadores de café y los distribuidores (Mithöfer et al 2017). Organizaciones ambientales como Conservation Internacional han impulsado compromisos para la conservación y restauración de bosques mediante el Desafío del Café Sostenible.…”

Environmentally and socially responsible global production and trade of timber and tree crop commodities: certification as a transient issue-attention cycle response to ecological and social issues

“…Comparison across the six commodities reveals differences in 'management swing potential' that are not directly related with the emergence of certification. The largest ecological swing potential is observed in the various ways of producing rubber (Kennedy et al 2017) and, to some extent, of cocoa (Mithöfer et al 2017b) and coffee (Mithöfer et al 2017a). The impact gaps for biodiversity conservation and ES between best-(i.e.…”