On October 1, 2018, the Rainforest Alliance and Preferred by Nature, formerly known as NEPCon, formally completed its acquisition of the RA-Cert business unit. RA-Cert previously managed the Rainforest Alliance’s certification, assurance, and auditing services.
Preferred by Nature is a global non-profit organization that works to support better land management and business practices that benefit people, nature and the climate. Headquartered in Copenhagen, Denmark, it operates in 100+ countries with a wide range of activities from projects, certification, stakeholder training and tailored services. The Rainforest Alliance and Preferred by Nature have been working together on certification and other initiatives since 1998.
The formal agreement on transferring certified businesses from RA-Cert to Preferred by Nature, which included our forestry and tourism certification schemes, is coming to an end in 2023.
Nevertheless, we continue to work closely with Preferred by Nature as they are part of our network of Certification Bodies. In that capacity, they offer their auditing services to (potential) certificate holders for our Rainforest Alliance Certification program based on the 2020 Sustainable Agriculture Standard.