December 17th, 2024

In this article, a compilation of key decisions and updates are published weekly

Key updates

Calibration sessions for Version 1.4 and our new Assurance and Certification Rules

The Implementation Team has been leading a number of Calibration Sessions to support staff with the engagement process we are undertaking with farm certificate holders, our corporate partners and certification bodies. These are great tools to help you better understand what is changing as we move from version 1.3 of the Rainforest Alliance to version 1.4, as well as new Certification and Auditing Rules.

You can find the sessions on this Confluence page. Two Calibration sessions have taken place already, one diving deeper into changes to the requirements and rules, the other into changes to our data points and indicators. In the new year, we are looking into organising additional sessions in other topics and these will also be made available to staff to continue internal onboarding.

I also again want to point out the certification deck that Tina has made, which highlights the key changes in Section 3. You will also see there are placeholders for additional sections, such as on Premium. More to come!

Please reach out to Sharely or Robbie for more information.

Launch of EUDR Due Diligence Report

The EUDR Due Diligence Report was launched on the 25th of November. In advance of the launch of this report, customer-facing teams were trained by members of the EUDR project team and given a demo of the EUDR Due Diligence Report to support rollout of this report to our company partners. 

The report is based on Power BI and visualizes farm geodata for certified coffee and cocoa supply chain actors. The report also:   

• Provides compliance data for self-selected EUDR requirements in a given company’s supply chain;  
• Allows companies to view EUDR-aligned transactions in their supply chain in MultiTrace;  
• Provide performance data against the criteria in our standard which apply to EUDR;     
• Provides an explanation of the Deforestation Risk Assessments conducted through certification, and the risk levels which are generated through the Deforestation Risk Assessments. 

In January, we will announce this release in our social media accounts and hold an external webinar to further promote the tool. If you have any questions, please add it to this FAQ Confluence page, and it will be answered by an EUDR team member.

Enhancing Our Deforestation Risk Assessments    

We have updated our datasets! The Rainforest Alliance Certification Platform (RACP) is enhancing its Deforestation Risk Assessment with updated datasets for improved accuracy and reliability. 

Why Is This Important? The updates will provide clearer, more accurate deforestation risk insights, ensuring partners have access to the most current and trustworthy data. 

What You Need to Know: Effective Date: Monday, November 25th. All assessments from this date onward used the updated data. 

What Are the Updates? 

• Deforestation Layer: Integration of the latest tree cover loss data from the University of Maryland’s GLAD lab via Global Forest Watch (2023). For details, check out the Global Forest Watch’s 2023 Tree Cover Loss Data Explained | GFW Blog 
• Protected Areas for Indonesia: Updated with data from Indonesia’s Ministry of Environment and Forestry, reflecting the latest boundaries.

Please contact Carlo de Stefano, Senior Officer, GIS or Sharely Alfaro, Implementation Team for more information

Certification media coverage

On behalf of the media team and regional comms team, we’re pleased to share our Q3 Media Coverage Report. With huge thanks to everyone who supported our work by making time for interviews, answering questions or fact checking! A few highlights:

• Country Director Kenya Marion Ng'ang'a joined podcast from the Institute of Journalism and Social Change on the impact of “ethical journalism done right.” She joined the investigative reporter behind the BBC Documentary (The True Cost of Our Tea). 
• Rainforest Alliance was heavily featured in a special issue on Regenerative Agriculture by Ethical Corporation, a Reuters-owned magazine. Following a field trip to Mount Kenya and interviews, RA’s work was mentioned 18 times in 4 separate articles across 10 pages. All articles now published on Reuters (example here).
• Santiago Gowland joined a panel at the Financial Times Sessions @ Climate Week NYC.
• Euronews published our EUDR opinion piece , attributed to Fanny Gauttier, Public Affairs Lead Europe.  
• RA was featured in The Guardian in an article on cocoa production in Chiapas, Mexico.
• An article in Politico on the reasons behind the rise in coffee pricing includes information we shared around our coffee certification program with commentary from Miguel Gamboa.
• An article in German trade magazine Lebensmittel Praxis on climate change featured quotes from RA on climate-smart agriculture.