The Nature Conservation Foundation of Mysore, India is working in partnership with the Rainforest Alliance to foster sustainable agricultural practices for conservation of tropical biodiversity in plantation landscapes of the Western Ghats.
Senior scientist for the Nature Conservation Foundation, T.R. Shankar Raman collaborated with fellow scientists Divya Mudappa, Nisarg Prakash and P. Jeganathan on the project. Raman reports that, "Only when market-linked certification is combined with informed appreciation of nature by producers and consumers can conservation aims be met in productive plantation agriculture."
Our project has aimed to conserve biological diversity amidst tea and coffee plantations in India. There is considerable conservation value to these private plantations as they hold remnant tropical forest and grassland habitats, occupy large areas in crucial biodiversity hotspots, and are engaged in activities that have landscape-scale consequences.
Conservation aims for such landscapes include protecting remnant terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems, reducing agrochemical use, avoiding banned chemicals, fostering adoption of diverse native tree species as shade, wildlife protection from hunting and securing on-farm habitats, and many better land-use practices.
To promote such practices, under the rubric of sustainable agriculture, certification programs such as Rainforest Alliance link responsible producers to consumers through the market. Rainforest Alliance certification, based on the standards set by the Sustainable Agriculture Network (SAN), offers a mechanism to encourage farms to meet the requirements, and therefore benefit from negotiated market rewards and premiums via an independent certification process. In India, the adoption of the SAN standards, especially in environmental conservation, has required building capacity among farmers; raising awareness on conservation issues, local ecosystems and wildlife; and providing training and outreach, to which the Nature Conservation Foundation project has contributed.
Sustainable practices can also benefit farm productivity and worker welfare, although these linkages are as yet poorly appreciated. While some farms are gradually developing their capacity and awareness, market pressures for certification also lead to farms hastily implementing poorly understood and inappropriate measures. Conversely, farms whose producers are appreciative of nature conservation willingly adopt better practices even without any market-linked incentives through certification.
Consumers also need to be more aware of what exactly is achieved under a certification and how this can be constantly improved. Through effective outreach, training, improved standards, new media, reliable material, and websites our project is working towards a more effective sustainable agriculture certification process in India's plantation landscapes.