OpenLobby.EU
Explore

Rainforest Alliance

RA

Rainforest Alliance is an international non-profit working to make responsible business the new normal.

Lobbying Activity

Rainforest Alliance Urges Ban on Hazardous Pesticide Exports

4 Aug 2025
Topic — This consultation reviews the rules governing international trade and export of hazardous chemicals.
Message — They urge the Commission to ban exports of pesticides prohibited within the European Union. They demand these substances be automatically added to the list of banned exports. This would end the double standard of sending hazardous chemicals abroad.12
Why — This would protect the farming communities and ecosystems the organization serves in over sixty countries.34
Impact — Agrochemical firms would lose revenue from manufacturing and selling hazardous pesticides to non-EU markets.5
Read full response

Meeting with Kira Marie Peter-Hansen (Member of the European Parliament, Shadow rapporteur)

13 May 2025 · Sustainability omnibus and impacts on smallholders

Meeting with Carola Rackete (Member of the European Parliament)

24 Mar 2025 · Deforestation regulation Norway

Meeting with Sandro Gozi (Member of the European Parliament, Rapporteur)

17 Oct 2024 · Green Claims Directive

Meeting with Cyrus Engerer (Member of the European Parliament, Rapporteur)

30 Aug 2023 · Green Claims Directive

Meeting with Arba Kokalari (Member of the European Parliament, Shadow rapporteur) and Marine Stewardship Council

29 Jun 2023 · Green Claims

Rainforest Alliance urges clearer verification for environmental labelling schemes

23 Jun 2023
Topic — This consultation concerns new EU rules for substantiating environmental claims and green labels.
Message — Rainforest Alliance requests clearer verification procedures to prevent market distortions and ensure legal certainty. They advocate for flexibility in methodology and support for labels that continuously improve standards.12
Why — Uniform verification standards provide legal certainty and protect against market distortions across Europe.34
Impact — Providers of misleading green labels face tougher rules and higher verification burdens.56
Read full response

Meeting with Axel Voss (Member of the European Parliament, Shadow rapporteur) and BUSINESSEUROPE and

8 Mar 2023 · Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence

Meeting with Karen Melchior (Member of the European Parliament) and ClientEarth AISBL and Global Witness

2 Mar 2023 · Discussion of importance of multi-tier compliance obligation, clear definitions and NGO concerns in CSDDD.

Meeting with Samira Rafaela (Member of the European Parliament, Rapporteur)

26 Jan 2023 · Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence - EMPL opinion

Meeting with Heidi Hautala (Member of the European Parliament, Shadow rapporteur) and Fairtrade Labelling Organizations International e.V.

26 Jan 2023 · Corporate sustainability due diligence in agricultural value chains

Meeting with Martin Hojsík (Member of the European Parliament)

12 Jan 2023 · Sustainable use of pesticides

Meeting with Elena Montani (Cabinet of Commissioner Virginijus Sinkevičius)

9 Jan 2023 · To discuss the commitment in Chemicals Strategy to ban the export of hazardous chemicals

Meeting with Renaud Savignat (Cabinet of Commissioner Jutta Urpilainen), Suvi Leinonen (Cabinet of Commissioner Jutta Urpilainen) and

24 Oct 2022 · Forestry and deforestation

Meeting with Heidi Hautala (Member of the European Parliament, Shadow rapporteur)

22 Jun 2022 · Directive on corporate sustainability due diligence (staff level)

Rainforest Alliance urges EU to strengthen corporate sustainability rules

20 May 2022
Topic — The consultation seeks feedback on new EU rules for corporate sustainability due diligence.
Message — The group wants the rules applied to all business relationships and smaller companies. They also demand inclusion of living incomes and the Paris Agreement within the directive.1234
Why — The organization would see its mission advanced by improved conditions for global smallholders.5
Impact — Large companies would face higher costs and increased legal liability for global operations.6
Read full response

Meeting with Delara Burkhardt (Member of the European Parliament, Shadow rapporteur)

21 Feb 2022 · deforestation

Meeting with Joanna Stawowy (Cabinet of Commissioner Janusz Wojciechowski), Jorge Pinto Antunes (Cabinet of Commissioner Janusz Wojciechowski) and

29 Nov 2021 · Sustainable Corporate Governance initiative - inclusion of smallholder farmers

Meeting with Diana Montero Melis (Cabinet of Commissioner Jutta Urpilainen) and Stichting Fair Trade Advocacy Office and

17 Sept 2021 · the forthcoming proposal on deforestation-free regulation

Meeting with Anthony Agotha (Cabinet of Executive Vice-President Frans Timmermans) and Stichting Fair Trade Advocacy Office and

21 May 2021 · The value of certification in due diligence systems’

Meeting with Eglantine Cujo (Cabinet of Commissioner Virginijus Sinkevičius) and European Round Table for Industry and

21 May 2021 · The value of certification in due diligence systems

Response to Sustainable corporate governance

8 Oct 2020

The Rainforest Alliance welcomes the European Commission’s initiative on sustainable corporate governance, including a due diligence duty for companies and considering stakeholder interests for long term sustainability. Mandatory due diligence will create a much-needed level playing field for companies already taking their responsibility in their supply chains and gives laggards a push to do so. It will also build momentum for collaboration in critical landscapes. In addition, it will drive the demand for more sustainable products, bringing more benefits for consumers that want to trust the products they buy. While it is an essential tool for more sustainable supply chains, it needs to be complemented with other measures to be effective. We would like to make 3 recommendations: 1. Ensure smallholder farmers are not unfairly affected or overburdened. Due diligence legislation is an essential part of a smart mix of measures the EU should take to make more sustainable supply chains a reality. Legislation should however lead to the desired impact on the ground, also for smallholder farmers. Without careful consideration of smallholder contexts, a due diligence law might in practice cause companies to disengage from suppliers in high risk environments, which often include smallholders as producers. Those require more structural engagement and capacity-building to achieve more sustainable production. Disengagement in those cases might result in even more adverse human rights and environmental impacts due to the loss of secure livelihoods for at-risk producers. The law should require companies to assess the risks in their supply chains and engage with their stakeholders to resolve them. Emphasis should not be placed on ceasing operations with riskier suppliers, or on ensuring supply chains are “clean”; but rather on supporting suppliers to be able to fulfil commitments, prioritizing engagement with smallholders and others who may require more assistance to avoid their exclusion from supply chains. 2. Ensure legislative initiatives lead to companies investing in sustainability improvements at production level. To make sectors truly sustainable, all supply chain actors have a role to play. In many agricultural supply chains, producers carry the majority of the risk, burden of compliance, and the impacts of climate change—all while having little to no power to negotiate prices, terms of trade, and the additional resources required for sustainable production. An inclusive supply chain requires a shift to covering producers’ costs and investments and rewarding their efforts to make their production more sustainable. For this reason, regulatory frameworks on due diligence should have fair purchasing practices, living wages and living income measures in its scope and clearly prescribed in their guidance. 3. Build on and recognize existing credible voluntary tools and initiatives. Any new regulatory due diligence systems will benefit from building on, and aligning with, best practices developed in the private voluntary space. Specifically, the law should appreciate the complementarity of legislation and existing credible voluntary initiatives such as voluntary standard systems. Third party certification can be an auxiliary tool to assess and mitigate risks of negative impacts on human rights and the environment, while driving positive social and environmental change. Through training, producers gain the knowledge and skills to implement our standard, taking steps to mitigate environmental and social risks. Our assurance verifies the sustainability performance through audits and requires corrective actions in cases of non-compliance. Legislation should encourage companies to commit to and implement all six elements of due diligence as prescribed by the OECD Guidelines, and use certification as a tool in their due diligence efforts where suitable.
Read full response

Response to Empowering the consumer for the green transition

1 Sept 2020

The Rainforest Alliance welcomes the EU initiative on Empowering the Consumer for the Green Transition and recognizes the importance of providing clear and reliable information on sustainability claims. This is an important element of ensuring that consumers can make more sustainable choices. We believe this initiative needs to be part of a broader mix of regulatory and voluntary measures to promote sustainability, including legislation that ensures companies undertake human rights and environmental due diligence. We therefore also welcome the Inception Impact Assessment on Sustainable Corporate Governance. We want to make the following 3 recommendations to the European Commission: 1. Go beyond environmental characteristics, lifespan and reparability, and include human rights and biodiversity. Sustainability claims in the market are not just “green”; many also stand for addressing other sustainability challenges, including biodiversity, human rights and socio-economic challenges. We therefore recommend the scope of regulatory frameworks regarding information on sustainability to be extended beyond environmental claims. A good reference could be the Sustainable Development Goals. 2. Strengthen existing best practices in terms of managing and substantiating sustainability claims based on ISEAL principles and resources. ISEAL Alliance members are independent organizations that manage their labels to provide reliable and robust information. This is based on their independent verification, certification, and traceability systems that allow for accurate, product specific claims. The ISEAL Credibility Principles and Codes of Good Practice provide a common framework for credible sustainability standard systems. We recommend that the Commission assesses how any of the proposed options can integrate existing, credible standards and certifications. Together with ISEAL, we are committed to support the European Commission in defining what a credible and market-worthy sustainability claim should be, and share insights into how this can be assessed. 3. Focus on addressing disproportionate and misleading claims, rather than the existence of multiple sustainability claims in general. Credible sustainability standards and certifications can effectively coexist and complement each other. The existence of different programs in sectors such as tea and cocoa has also been a driver for programs to continually innovate and in fact increase their effectiveness for our respective clients, producers and consumers. That is why the multiplicity of labels is therefore not the problem this initiative should primarily address. The existence of disproportionate and misleading claims contributes to an unfair playing field for robust and credible sustainability systems, which is why we recommend to focus on addressing unsubstantiated and misleading sustainability claims, rather than the decreasing the overall amount of sustainability claims. About the Rainforest Alliance The Rainforest Alliance is an international non-profit organization working in more than 70 countries at the intersection of business, agriculture and forests. The organization aims to create a better future for people and nature by making responsible business the new normal. By bringing farmers, forest communities, companies and consumers together it addresses some of the most pressing social and environmental challenges of today. The organization changes the way the world produces, sources and consumes, with a focus on cocoa, coffee, tea, bananas, forest products and palm oil through its certification program, tailored supply chain services, landscape and community work and advocacy. In 2019, more than five million hectares of land and more than two million farmers were certified according to the Rainforest Alliance or UTZ standards, which are designed to improve economic, environmental and social sustainability.
Read full response

Response to Environmental claims based on environmental footprint methods

31 Aug 2020

The Rainforest Alliance welcomes the EU Roadmap on Substantiating Green Claims and recognizes the importance of providing clear and reliable information on sustainability claims. This is an important element of ensuring that consumers, but also buyers and investors, can make more sustainable decisions. We believe this initiative needs to be part of a broader mix of regulatory and voluntary measures to promote sustainability, including legislation that ensures companies undertake human rights and environmental due diligence. We therefore also welcome the Inception Impact Assessment on Sustainable Corporate Governance. We want to make the following 3 recommendations to the European Commission: 1. Go beyond environmental claims, including human rights and biodiversity. Climate and environmental issues often directly relate to other sustainability challenges, including biodiversity, human rights and socio-economic challenges. We therefore recommend the scope of regulatory frameworks regarding information on sustainability to be extended beyond environmental claims. A good reference could be the Sustainable Development Goals. 2. Promote and use the ISEAL Credibility Principles and Codes of Good Practice to ensure credible independent sustainability claims and labels. ISEAL Alliance members are independent organizations that manage their labels to provide reliable and robust information. This is based on their independent verification, certification, and traceability systems that allow for accurate, product specific claims. The ISEAL Credibility Principles and Codes of Good Practice provide a common framework for credible sustainability standard systems. We recommend that the Commission assesses how the PEFCRs can complement and integrate existing, credible standards and certifications. Together with ISEAL, we are committed to support the European Commission in defining what a credible and market-worthy sustainability claim should be, and share insights into how this can be assessed. 3. Focus on addressing disproportionate and misleading claims, rather than the existence of multiple sustainability claims in general. Credible sustainability standards and certifications can effectively coexist and complement each other. The existence of different programs in sectors such as tea and cocoa has also been a driver for programs to continually innovate and in fact increase their effectiveness for our respective clients, producers and consumers. That is why the existence of multiple labels is therefore not the problem this initiative should primarily address. The existence of disproportionate and misleading claims contributes to an unfair playing field for robust and credible sustainability systems, which is why we recommend to focus on addressing unsubstantiated and misleading sustainability claims, rather than the decreasing the overall amount of sustainability claims. About the Rainforest Alliance The Rainforest Alliance is an international non-profit organization working in more than 70 countries at the intersection of business, agriculture and forests. The organization aims to create a better future for people and nature by making responsible business the new normal. By bringing farmers, forest communities, companies and consumers together it addresses some of the most pressing social and environmental challenges of today. The organization changes the way the world produces, sources and consumes, with a focus on cocoa, coffee, tea, bananas, forest products and palm oil through its certification program, tailored supply chain services, landscape and community work and advocacy. In 2019, more than five million hectares of land and more than two million​ farmers were certified according to the Rainforest Alliance or UTZ standards, which are designed to improve economic, environmental and social sustainability.
Read full response

Response to EU Action Plan of Gender equality and women’s empowerment in external relations for 2021-2025

3 Apr 2020

The Rainforest Alliance welcomes the roadmap for the ‘EU Action Plan on Gender Equality and women’s empowerment in external relations for 2021-2025’. As an international NGO working at the intersection of business, agriculture and forests, we know gender equality is a precondition for sustainable supply chains and landscapes. Our work on gender equality aims to create an enabling environment for producers, workers and community members of all genders to have equal access to knowledge, opportunities, resources, and markets and where policies are in place to address gender-based discrimination and violence. We do this through our new certification standard, partnerships with communities and companies for landscape conservation and restoration, and by advocating for more gender sensitive policies in the different sectors. Through our supply chain and landscape experience, the Rainforest Alliance would like to highlight two important elements for the 2021-2025 strategy on gender: 1. Prioritize gender equality and women empowerment in EU action on responsible business conduct and international supply chains. The work of the Rainforest Alliance is based on the voluntary commitment to sustainability of our partners throughout the supply chain. Our approach to sustainability has seen an increase in more sustainable practices being adopted by producers, traders, companies and governments. By now, our certification programs (UTZ and Rainforest Alliance) are some of the largest in sectors like cocoa, coffee and bananas, reaching over 2 million producers. Women and girls in international supply chains face particular challenges, such as access to health, including reproductive health and maternity care and access to education. In addition, they are often limited in their participation in international supply chains and local policy processes because of the excessive burden of unpaid work and lack of recognition of it. For successful gender mainstreaming in EU external relations, we see it as essential to have a gender-sensitive approach to these issues and lift these barriers, both in development and trade policies, such as potential due diligence obligations for companies and trade agreements. In the Gender Action Plan, we think this is an essential consideration for policy coherence. 2. Actively involve women and girls, civil society and communities in policy decisions and activities in third countries. The Rainforest Alliance works on strengthening the economic and social rights of women and girls by engaging them in community-based and environmentally sustainable landscape management, for example in Western Cameroon. Taking a household approach, we aim to improve women participation in sustainable landscape management and with that, improve the position of women and girls in household and local decision-making and ensure gender considerations are mainstreamed in policy discussions. We appreciate the EU’s support on this work and would recommend continued action in this area.
Read full response

Response to Minimising the risk of deforestation and forest degradation associated with products placed on the EU market

3 Mar 2020

The Rainforest Alliance welcomes the opportunity to give feedback on the roadmap on ‘Deforestation and forest degradation – reducing the impact of products placed on the EU market’. The work of the Rainforest Alliance is based on the voluntary commitment to sustainability of our partners throughout the supply chain. In the past 30 years our voluntary approach to sustainability has seen an increase in more sustainable practices being adopted by producers, traders, companies and governments. By now, our certification programs (UTZ and Rainforest Alliance) are some of the largest in sectors like cocoa, coffee and bananas, reaching over 2 million producers. However, voluntary measures alone are not enough to make our vision a reality. A smart mix of complementary – mandatory and voluntary – approaches is needed, in which governments, companies, NGOs, producers and communities all take their respective responsibilities, while constantly assessing their policies and approaches. Due diligence as specified in the OECD Guidelines for Multinational Enterprises can level the playing field for those already taking their responsibility, for which the Roadmap acknowledges a need; it can create a culture of accountability and openness about risk; and it sends an important signal to both companies and governments. The options of voluntary sector agreements, certification systems and due diligence regulation are not a case of “or/or”, but of “and/and”. Legislation on due diligence is an essential part of this smart mix in order to protect the world’s forests and we strongly encourage exploring such measures. The creation of a new label to inform consumers is inefficient and not desirable: there are already plenty of certification systems and labels out there that help companies differentiate themselves in the market on sustainability, including our own Rainforest Alliance and UTZ labels. Also, the responsibility for reducing the impact on forests of products placed on the EU market is not in the hands of the consumer; they should be able to trust that all companies and the government are doing their part. We want to stress the need to learn from existing initiatives that bring more sustainable agriculture to scale. These include voluntary sustainability standards like the Rainforest Alliance and UTZ, but also the Accountability Framework Initiative. These bring important lessons from the voluntary sphere that should be built upon further in mandatory measures. In addition, we would like to stress the importance of combining these demand-side measures with bilateral partnerships with producing country governments. For any demand-side legislation to be effective and create positive impact on the ground for people and nature, the EU will need to negotiate framework agreements with the governments of relevant producing countries, including time-bound deliverables where appropriate. We want the EU to consider any demand-side measure in combination with supply-side measures, to come to the most effective set of measures as a whole. Lastly, while a broad overarching framework to combat deforestation and ecosystem conversion is needed for all forest risk commodities, there is specific momentum to take such measures in the cocoa sector. This is demonstrated in a statement by some of the largest cocoa and chocolate companies in the world and renowned NGOs, calling for due diligence regulation and bilateral partnerships in cocoa published December 2019. We believe action on cocoa specifically is complementary to a simultaneously developed, broader policy on forest risk commodities and responsible business conduct in general. It can provide important learning for other sectors and policies.
Read full response