The environmental, social and economic impact of different certification programmes of coffee in Santander, Colombia

Abstract

In the last decade the trade of sustainable coffee registered an exponential growth. More and more smallholder farmers in developing countries are producing their coffee following strict standards and requirements elaborated by different international certification organizations. Certifiers offer price premiums to farmers employing more sustainable practices, claiming that their standards help producers’ household to have benefits in several areas. Despite the broad presence of these interventions, there is still a lack of scientific evidence on the real impact these programs are having on the socioeconomic and environmental conditions of the farmers adhering to them. Literature on the impact of certification has mainly focused on the economic side of the programmes, with discordant results. This thesis focused on the assessment of the environmental, social and economic impact of three different certification programmes, the most important for coffee, Fairtrade, organic and Rainforest. Furthermore the study focuses on the strategies, visions and drives of the producers in relation with their expectations and experiences with these programmes. Two localities were selected in the Santander Department of Colombia and the research focused on smallholder coffee producers, with farms less than 3 hectares of surface. A total of 120 farmers were surveyed, divided into two control groups and three study groups. Through the matching approach, farmers from the control group were selected in order to have the most similar, if not identical, observable characteristics of the selected certified producers. Furthermore, farmers selected in the control group presented geographical proximity and accessibility similarity in respect with the selected sample. Through a household survey data was collected to measure the impact of certification on several indicators for each sustainability pillar. Results show that certification programmes have significant positive impacts on the socioeconomic life and environmental conditions of smallholder producers. Positive impacts are particularly evident for the areas and topics that each certification has as core strategies. This research also highlighted the fundamental role played by local environment and historical agricultural development. These factors are highly relevant in easing or enabling the diffusion of specific certification programmes, especially the ones with strict environmental requirements, and play and equally important role in their effectiveness. The study found out that not all of the certifications manage to provoke deeper changes in the vision of certified smallholders. Official certification standards and requirements are comprehensive and extended documents, but in reality they are seldom directly accessed by certified smallholders. Thus some certified farmers have a vague idea of what the certification and the organization behind it are in terms of core concepts, mission and vision. Finally, success of certifications around the world depends not only on the list of standards proposed but also on local conditions and on the presence of a strong apparatus of technicians bringing support and bridging the divide between certifications and smallholder farmers.