Certification

hands with cocoa pods

Certification has had a huge impact in bringing sustainability to the forefront of business thinking, but it must continue to evolve to provide more value to farmers and companies and ensure that people and nature can thrive in harmony.

That's why the Rainforest Alliance launched its new Certification Program, which entered into force in July 2021. The Sustainable Agriculture Standard, along with its assurance and technology systems, are data-powered, and based on the principles of continuous improvement, risk-based assurance, contextualization, and shared responsibility. This is how we can deliver more value to the two million farmers and thousands of businesses that use Rainforest Alliance certification to drive more sustainable agricultural production and responsible supply chains.

At the heart of the Rainforest Alliance

The certification program is part of the Rainforest Alliance’s strategy to drive sustainability at scale in the sectors in which we operate through interconnected interventions supporting certification, tailored supply chain services, landscapes and communities, and advocacy.

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What We're Working On

Strengthened Cocoa Certification Program

Key priorities of our cocoa strategy are assurance, shared responsibility, supply chain transparency, and profitability and resilience.

Risk Maps for Risk Management

How we have tailored the implementation and verification of standards requirements on child labor and forced labor to the risk exposure of each farm.

Shared Responsibility

Our shared responsibility approach aims to distribute benefits and costs of certification more evenly between farmers and companies.

Ready to Get Started?

Begin your journey of certification with the Rainforest Alliance.

Additional Resources

All resources for Certification

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Help Center

List of Certificate Holders

View our database to search for all farms, farmer groups, and supply chain certificates in the Rainforest Alliance’s certification program

Help Center

How to Transition to the 2020 Certification Program

This Transition Tool provides the processes for certificate holders of the 2015 UTZ Certification Program and/or 2017 Rainforest Alliance Certification Program wishing to be certified under the our new 2020 Certification Program.

Certification Standard

2020 Sustainable Agriculture Standard: Farm Requirements

The Farm Requirements of our new Sustainable Agriculture Standard are designed to help farmers protect the landscapes where they live and work, while offering an enhanced framework to improve their livelihoods and advance the human rights of rural people. View more


Available in: English, Spanish, Chinese (Simplified), Vietnamese, French, Indonesian, Portuguese, Turkish, Japanese, German

Annex

Annex Chapter 1: Management (Previous Annex S17)

SA-S-SD-19

This annex includes additional binding content related to the implementation of the Requirements in Chapter 1 of the Sustainable Agriculture Standard: Management.

This document... View more


Available in: English, Spanish, French, Portuguese, Indonesian, Turkish, Chinese (Simplified), Vietnamese