Agricultural certification can act as an incentive for coffee growers and other farmers to comply with laws designed to protect the environment, promoting their alignment with the current demands of society and the market, although it does not necessarily contribute to a reduction in deforestation or an increase in natural regeneration of plant cover in rural properties, according to a study conducted in Brazil and reported in an article recently published in the journal Biological Conservation.
The authors of the article are researchers at Brazil's SOS Mata Atlântica Foundation and the University of São Paulo's Luiz de Queiroz College of Agriculture (ESALQ-USP) and Institute of Biosciences (IB-USP). With almost 40% of world production certified, coffee is an example of the growing use of certification seals to show that producers are committed to best practices in terms of sustainability and environmental protection. However, statistical and methodological difficulties have prevented researchers from determining whether agriculture is in fact becoming more sustainable as a result of certification, and exactly how environmental legislation affects biodiversity in the areas concerned. "We didn't observe a direct cause-and-effect relationship between certification and deforestation or natural regeneration, but certification can apparently serve as an additional incentive to comply with the legislation, confirming that the synergy has beneficial effects," said Francisco ...