General News

New Approaches to Rural Sustainable Development - 9 April 2008

The world market for "certified" food, fibres and forest products is already in the 50 billion-dollars-a-year range, and is growing fast. That is way many in the development and conservation movement are beginning to see certification as a major opportunity to mainstream biodiversity conservation in rural areas and bring to them a price premium that could increase rural incomes and jobs.

As the market for certified products grows, the number of environment and social related certification standards and labels is ballooning into the hundreds if not thousands (organic, green, fare trade, sustainable, all natural, etc), sowing confusion among current and potential participants. Little is known about what works and what does not work in the food and fibres certification world regarding

1. consumers’ willingness to pay a premium for certified products;
2. how much of the price premium pays for actual biodiversity and environmental gains in rural areas; and,
3. to what extent different certification schemes increase rural incomes and create new job opportunities, particularly among the rural poor in developing countries.

WWF-MPO has recently launched an assessment and action project to advance answers to the above three key questions. Its findings and actions will be relevant to an array of rural stakeholders, including

1. consumers, business and farmers that participate (or may participate) in the production, trading and consumption of certified rural products;
2. extension agencies, interested in improving rural production, processing and marketing technologies;
3. development agencies interested in improving rural livelihoods and mainstreaming sustainable development; and
4. conservation organizations interested in protecting ecosystems’ health and biodiversity.

Download the Project Concept Note below:
By Pablo Gutman – Senior Economist
WWF- MPO Pablo.gutman@wwfus.org

Download Attachment: wwf__certification_asssessment.pdf