WHAT’S IN OUR 2020 CERTIFICATION PROGRAM?

Climate-SmartAgriculture

Creating resilient, future-proof farms

Climate change is disrupting all our lives as we know it. Unpredictable weather patterns, shorter growing seasons, droughts,
extreme temperatures, and increased exposure to pests andcrop diseases pose daunting challenges to farmers around theworld. These challenges aren’t just felt at the farm level though;they create a ripple effect that can lead to unstable supply
chains, limited availability of products, and increased prices.
Our Climate-smart agriculture approach can help farmers
adapt to and prepare for impacts in order to preserve—and even
improve—their livelihoods while also securing future access tocrops like coffee, cocoa, and tea that we’ve all come to rely on. In
short, making agricultural supply chains more resilient.

How it fits within the new Sustainable
Agriculture Standard
Instead of a standalone climate chapter or requirement, thewhole standard is now inherently oriented towards climatesmart agriculture with a focus on adaptation and resilience. The
relevant climate-smart aspects are now embedded throughout
the chapters of the new standard’s Farm Requirements:•Chapter 1 – Management: Farms conduct an overall risk
assessment, one component of which is the Climate Change
Risk and Vulnerability Assessment. This assessment allows
farmers to gain an understanding of what might happen as
the local climate changes, where they are most at risk, andwhich measures or actions they can take to help.

•Chapter 4 – Farming Practices: Based on the local context
identified in the risk assessment, this chapter focuses on theagricultural practices farmers will be required to implement
in order to adapt to the effects of climate change and become more resilient. Farmers will learn how to prioritize management and farming activities to address specific identifiedrisks. For example, where drought is a concern, farmers willdevelop soil management strategies that improve soil healthand combat drought impacts.

•Chapter 6 – Environment: Not only does the standard
prohibit farmers from destroying natural ecosystems, but
it offers them techniques for how to protect, conserve, andrehabilitate natural ecosystems and biodiversity on andaround farms. Farmers are guided on how to increase theamount of native vegetation through set aside lands (conservation areas) and/or agroforestry systems, water conservation and management best practices, and how to carryout carbon footprint assessments in order to make theirfarm operations more energy efficient. These are just a fewof the adjustments that can help increase a farm’s resilienceagainst the effects of climate change while also reducing
their impact on the climate.

What is climate-smart agriculture?
Climate-smart agriculture is an approach first developed by theFood and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. It isn’t
distinct from sustainable agriculture; rather, it’s a way of combining various sustainable methods to tackle the specific climate
challenges of a specific farming community, system, or crop.
It does this through three main pillars:• Sustainably increasing agricultural productivity andincomes;• Adapting and building resilience to climate change; and• Reducing and/or removing greenhouse gas emissions wherepossible.
In our new certification program, climate-smart agriculture uses avariety of tools built upon this established international framework
to assess the climate risks and vulnerabilities of a landscape/community/household/system, taking the local ecosystem conditions and the specific crop needs into account. Finding the rightcombination of strategies to manage a specific farm’s climate
challenges—and to build resilience to future impacts—is whatmakes climate-smart agriculture “smart.”

The Rainforest Alliance 2020 Certification Program | Climate-Smart Agriculture

JUNE 2020

Reimagining Certification and the 2020
Certification Program
Reimagining certification is our long-term vision for thefuture of certification. It is part of our wider strategy at theRainforest Alliance to drive change through our four mainareas of work: climate, forests, livelihoods, and human rights.

A reimagined, adaptable approachWith our vision of reimagining certification, we are moving awayfrom a one-size-fits-all model to a context adaptable approach.
By combining many different methods for adapting to—and mitigating—the threats posed by climate change under the umbrellaof climate-smart agriculture, we ensure every farm gets thecontextualized information and resources they need to prepare
for the future.

What’s different from Our previous standards?

In June 2020, the Rainforest Alliance takes the first stepon its journey towards “reimagining certification” with thepublication of its 2020 Certification Program. We’ve beenworking on this new program since 2018, when the Rainforest Alliance and UTZ merged.
The 2020 Certification Program—including a new Sustainable Agriculture Standard—is a unique opportunity to reallychange the way that certification works and how it delivers
value to the many people and businesses around the worldthat use it.
Between June 2020 and mid-2021, the Rainforest Alliancewill roll out the new program around the world, including acomprehensive training plan. Audits against the new program will begin in mid-2021.

While the UTZ standard addressed climate change and aneed for climate-smart agriculture in its Code of Conduct andcrop-specific modules, the climate-smart aspects are much
more prominent throughout the new Rainforest Alliance 2020
Sustainable Agriculture Standard. The 2017 Rainforest Alliance
Sustainable Agriculture Standard was already climate-smart; theonly differences now are how the approach is presented in thestructure of the new standard and adaptations for context.

Is this particularly relevant for certain crops
or countries?
Climate-smart agriculture applies to every crop and country
globally, though in the new standard it is mainly focused on
coffee, cocoa, and tea and is especially relevant in the tropics,
where people tend to be more reliant on natural resources fortheir livelihoods. Our climate-smart agriculture approach is vitalfor farmers and businesses around the world who will need toadapt to a changing climate in order to secure the future of theircrops, products, and supply chains.

Want to know more?
Read more about climate-smart agriculture and what to expect
in our new certification program. For specific questions, email us
at cs@ra.org.
Photo: Sergio Izquierdo

United States:
125 Broad Street, 9th Floor
New York, NY 10004
tel: +1 (212) 677-1900
email: info@ra.org

The Netherlands:
De Ruyterkade 61013 AA, Amsterdam
tel: +31 20 530 8000
email: info@utz.org

Rainforest Alliance@RnfrstAlliance@rainforestalliancerainforest-alliance.org