Chapter 3: Analysis of the major certification schemes

This chapter analyses the performance of major certification schemes, focusing on five key areas: governance and decision making, standards, traceability and transparency, audits, and implementation and effectiveness. Because there are too many schemes in use for this report to be able to consider all of them in detail, the schemes discussed are those that are most widely used and/or that are claimed by governments and corporations to exemplify best practice, namely: ISCC, Fairtrade, Rainforest Alliance & UTZ (in the process of merging), RSPO, ISPO/MSPO, RTRS, ProTerra and FSC. The chapter is structured by commodity: biofuels, cocoa and coffee, palm oil, soya and wood products.