The Rainforest Alliance is investigating allegations of a breach of its standards on several certified tea estates in Assam, India. The conditions depicted in a recent documentary by German television network ZDF are in direct violation of the Rainforest Alliance Sustainable Agriculture Standard. We take these allegations very seriously and if our own investigation confirms what is reported in this program, the certificates in question stand to be suspended or cancelled.
Preliminary findings do indicate noncompliance with critical criteria of our standard which deal with the safe use and management of pesticides. Our standard requires that functional personal protective equipment (PPE) is provided free of cost to all workers and used by those workers who mix or handle pesticides, fertilizers, hazardous materials, or other chemical substances. If violations are confirmed. the farms will be decertified.
The Rainforest Alliance enforces its rigorous standards and noncompliance of critical criteria result in decertification. From January through August 2017, 113 farms have seen certificates canceled or suspended.
The Rainforest Alliance always welcomes reports from journalists and campaign organizations as these inputs help to inform the continued efforts to improve conditions on farms in the 40+ countries where we work.
In November 2017, certification bodies authorized by the Rainforest Alliance concluded a series of investigative audits on certified tea estates in Assam, which were featured in the ZDF-TV documentary referenced above. The unscheduled audits confirmed evidence of non-compliance with the Rainforest Alliance Sustainable Agriculture certification requirements on 3 separate tea estates and the certificates for these estates have been suspended. According to certification rules, the estates are eligible for a verification audit, a process that would need to be finalized within 120 days following the notification about the suspension. If this deadline is not met or the verification audit does not result in a positive certification decision, the estates in question will be decertified.
The public summaries for these audits can be found here.
Our Work in Assam
The Rainforest Alliance first began working in Assam in 2010 to help introduce sustainability and improve agricultural practices in the tea sector. Assam has a long history of complex, deeply entrenched political, economic and social challenges. In our 30-year history, we have seen similar conditions, first in Latin America and later in East Africa, that have shown measurable improvements through diligent hard work and cooperation among communities, NGOs, companies and governments. Our goal is to apply that same level of expertise and wealth of partnerships to address the many challenges in Assam. Along with other certification programs working in the region, we are working hard to foster sustainable farming practices that build climate resilience in an area of the world that is experiencing more frequent and severe flooding as well as extended periods of extreme drought, which further exacerbates the existing social and economic challenges.
Many estates in Assam are working hard to improve their environmental and social practices; however, there is still much more work to be done. Certification cannot be the sole solution to any society’s longstanding sustainability challenges. It can, however, be a powerful tool in a broader, multi-disciplinary strategy for change in collaboration with governments, the private sector, and civil society. To achieve this impact, certification programs must remain flexible, responsive, and be designed to generate momentum and continuous improvement.
Improvements to the Standard
The Rainforest Alliance is continuously working to improve our standards and auditing practices, and strengthen our engagement with farmers, workers, and companies that source from certified farms. In September 2016, we completed the latest scheduled revision of our standard. The 2017 Rainforest Alliance Sustainable Agriculture Standard includes strengthened measures on housing, sanitation and the safe use of agrochemicals. The 2017 Standard also includes a mandatory requirement for farms to have effective and non-retaliatory grievance and complaint reporting for employees and tea communities. This revised standard became mandatory on July 1, 2017.
Housing in Assam
Under the Rainforest Alliance Sustainable Agriculture Standard, farm management is required to ensure basic housing requirements of workers are met as a requisite for certification, while making significant improvements within 3 years. Housing issues in Assam are made especially complex by the significant population of non-workers residing on tea estates; it is often difficult to differentiate between the two residential populations, which can reach into the thousands.
To address this challenge, the Rainforest Alliance Policy on Housing Requirements for India mandates that housing cover workers living on and off the plantation, their spouses, children under the age of 18 and in the case of male workers, parents that are dependent on the worker.
A Collective Approach
The Rainforest Alliance remains committed to working in the most challenging regions of the world. In India, we continue to work with key stakeholders in a unified approach to collectively address the ongoing issues in Assam. We are one of a wide range of organizations that are committed to sustainable tea production in Assam and other challenging regions. Success requires sustained engagement of government, NGOs and tea companies for many years to come.