概要

The Rainforest Alliance awarded its first Colombian coffee farm certification in 2004 through its local partner organization, Fundación Natura. By the end of 2009, more than 2,100 farms in Colombia, covering 12,400 hectares, had achieved certification- many of them concentrated in the Santander and Cundinamarca regions. This rapid growth, combined with the longevity of many of the certificates and the presence of an accessible noncertified control group, created an opportunity for the Rainforest Alliance to examine the outcomes and impacts of its work in this region. To this end, the Rainforest Alliance contracted Cenicafe, a Colombian coffee research institute, to carry out four studies to evaluate the impacts of certification on water quality, soil quality, farmer livelihoods and arboreal mammals. The first three studies are farm-based, meaning that they compare a large sample of certified and noncertified farms. These three studies were carried out in the Colombian states of Santander and Cundinamarca. The fourth study examines the habits and movements of night monkeys and other arboreal mammals within their home ranges to draw conclusions about the usefulness of shaded coffee farms as habitat.