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Exploring cacao value chain governance. A case study of North Luwu, Sulawesi, Indonesia

This study analyzes the dynamics of cacao Value Chain Governance (VCG) in North Luwu, South Sulawesi, to understand how governance structures influence the integration of sustainability measures. While Indonesia remains a vital global producer, national productivity has fallen below the global average due to pests, disease, and climate change, leading to an increased reliance on imports to meet domestic processing demands. Utilizing a framework that identifies five governance types—market, modular, relational, captive, and hierarchy—the research examines how transactions are codified and how power is distributed among stakeholders. Findings reveal that major buyers like Mars, Inc. employ “captive” governance through strict certification contracts, while others like Cargill and Olam maintain more “modular” or “relational” structures that offer varying degrees of flexibility for farmers and local traders.

The evaluation highlights a significant power asymmetry where lead firms largely dictate pricing and quality standards, leaving smallholder farmers with limited bargaining power. Although farmers demonstrate proficiency in meeting technical quality requirements, their understanding of traceability remains limited, posing a challenge to long-term sustainability goals. To enhance the value chain, the study recommends empowering farmers through strengthened cooperatives, increasing awareness of certification and climate-smart agriculture, and investing in digital tools to drive social inclusion. These strategic interventions aim to foster more equitable relationships and ensure the environmental and economic resilience of Indonesia’s cacao industry.

Biological challenges for certification of tropical timber

Governance of forest and land use in Sabah – Effectiveness, efficiency, and equity

This chapter assesses forest and land-use governance in Sabah, Malaysia, through the lenses of effectiveness, efficiency, and equity. It examines how policies such as sustainable forest management (SFM), REDD+, certification schemes, and conservation initiatives have contributed to reducing deforestation and supporting climate mitigation. While a comprehensive legal and institutional framework exists, implementation outcomes are mixed due to economic pressures, political dynamics, and competing development priorities. The chapter highlights persistent challenges, including weak coordination, high implementation costs, and inequitable land tenure systems that marginalize Indigenous communities. It concludes that achieving sustainable and just forest governance requires stronger policy coherence, inclusive participation, and recognition of customary rights.

Guidelines for applying multi-criteria analysis to the assessment of criteria and indicators

Multi-Criteria Analysis (MCA) is a decision-making tool developed for complex problems. In a situation where multiple criteria are involved confusion can arise if a logical, well-structured decision-making process is not followed. Another difficulty in decision making is that reaching a general consensus in a multidisciplinary team can be very difficult to achieve. By using MCA the members don’t have to agree on the relative importance of the Criteria or the rankings of the alternatives. Each member enters his or her own judgements, and makes a distinct, identifiable contribution to a jointly reached conclusion. This manual is written for an audience that needs a clear, easy to follow manual that can be used in the field to implement MCA. The information is structured so that the reader is first introduced to the general concepts involved before dwelving into the more specific applications of Multi Criteria Analysis. The manual reviews the conceptual framework of C&I and introduces the theoretical basis of MCA, and methods such as ranking, rating and pairwise comparisons in the Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP). It provides an example of how MCA can be applied to C&I in a Forest Certification context both from a ‘top-down’ perspective as well as in a more ‘bottom-up’ context.

Oil palm value chain governance in North Labuhanbatu, North Sumatra, Indonesia

This brief analyzes the governance and interaction patterns within the oil palm value chain in North Labuhanbatu District, North Sumatra, as part of the Sustainable Farming in Tropical Asian Landscapes (SFITAL) initiative. The sector faces several critical challenges, including unaffordable fertilizer prices leading to suboptimal maintenance, an overcapacity of mills compared to fruit supply, frequent fresh fruit bunch (FFB) theft, and delays in smallholder replanting programs. By identifying nine key actors—ranging from harvest workers and smallholder farmers to delivery order (DO) holders and large-scale CPO processing companies—the study maps the complex flow of commodities and the varying degrees of coordination and power asymmetry across the supply chain.

The research identifies four distinct governance patterns: relational governance, which is prevalent and based on long-standing trust, kinship, and social proximity among farmers, brokers, and ramps; market-based governance, involving simple transactions between mills and processing companies; modular governance, observed in easily codifiable transactions between brokers and mills; and hierarchical governance, characterized by vertically integrated top-down control within corporate structures. To enhance sector productivity and sustainability, the brief recommends improving seed quality and certification, promoting the use of organic fertilizers, strengthening farmer capacity through field schools, and streamlining supply chains to ensure traceable and transparent marketing.

Institutional and legal contexts of FSC certification in natural and plantation forestry in Brazil

This study compares Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) requirements as established in the Brazilian forest management certification standards for plantations and natural forestry with Brazilian law. It fi rst identi fi all indicators related to social outcomes (for workers, local communities, and indigenous and traditional peoples) in the two FSC certi fi cation standards for natural forest management, approved in 2001 and 2025, and the two for forestry plantations, approved in 2014 and 2025. These were then compared to the national legal framework of Brazil as of 2025 when the analysis was completed. We did not fi nd any indicators to be antagonistic i.e. none contradict Brazilian law. Most FSC indicators affecting workers and traditional and indigenous peoples are reinforcing, meaning that they set the same requirements as Brazilian law. This reflects the long history of improving labour conditions in the country since the creation of the Brazilian Labour Code (CLT 1943) and the influence of International Labour Organization (ILO) 169 and related international commitments on Brazilian law. In addition, indigenous peoples also have strong protections under Brazilian law. In contrast, the rights of traditional communities in Brazil are generally not legally secure outside territories formally acknowledged by the law, such as quilombos . Finally, other local communities rarely have any type of customary rights secured by Brazilian law, and thus many Indicators affecting local communities are additional “on paper.” The study did not consider monitoring and enforcement. Indicators in the most recent FSC standards establish new considerations, including Free, Prior and Informed Consent (FPIC) and the need to adopt culturally appropriate engagement; mitigating and compensating impacts from forestry operations; engaging community members in consultations; educational action; providing opportunities for local economic development; the need for a diverse forestry labour force and inclusive decision-making processes; compliance with anti-corruption policies; and timely resolution of conflicts and disputes.

Impacts of FSC Certification on workers and local communities including traditional and Indigenous Peoples: Study Design

Certificate holders commit to conformance with the relevant national FSC Forest Stewardship Standards, which prescribe best practices in production, measures to limit or mitigate environmental impacts, and the generation of net social benefits for workers and local communities including traditional and Indigenous Peoples. The theory of change presented in this report assumes that certificate holders fully and effectively conform with all FSC indicators. Even with this assumption, conformance with these standards cannot be automatically attributed to certification. One reason is that the standards are designed to be partially redundant with the national legal framework, both through the first principle on compliance with laws, and through other principles that reinforce or extend existing national regulations. A second reason is that the firms that choose to obtain FSC certification may be more likely than other firms to operate consistently with FSC standards regardless of certification. The potential causal effect of certification are shaped by both the overlap between FSC standards and the existing legal framework, and the self-selection of firms into FSC certification.
This report is part of a study that employs impact evaluation methods to attribute social outcomes to FSC certification. These methods are applied to the case of Brazil, which had more than 9.5 million hectares certified by over 150 certificate holders as of July 2024, including both natural forest (around 25 percent of certificate holders) under FSC standard FSC STD-BRA-01-01-2001, and plantation forest (around 75 percent of certificate holders) under FSC standard FSC-STD-BRA-01-01-2014. Following a review of the Institutional and Legal Contexts of FSC Certification in Natural and Plantation Forestry in Brazil (CIFOR-ICRAF Working Paper 67), this report describes the theory of change and possible methods for evaluating the social impacts of certification of management units under these standards. The Theory of Change identifies two pathways, each with two mechanisms, that link certification to social impacts, leading to our key hypotheses about how certification may generate social benefits for people who work for and live near certified forestry operations.

Stakeholder-led pathways for sustainable futures: A participatory co-designed action plan for improved palm oil governance at regency level in Indonesia

Key messages

The project supported RAD KSB (Rencana Aksi Daerah untuk Kelapa Sawit Berkelanjutan– the Regional Action Plan for Sustainable Palm Oil) development across four regencies. Policy uptake is evidenced by formal adoption of RAD KSB and integration of selected co-designed recommendations and tools in Kutai Kartanegara (Regent Regulation No. 93/2023), Pelalawan (No. 73/2020) and Sintang (No. 87/2018), while Pulang Pisau has a draft regulation underway, aligning regency plans with national sustainability goals and strengthening multistakeholder collaboration.
Actionable knowledge products, theories of change/action and monitoring and evaluation plans (TTM), policy contribution documents, and simulation models (JAPOS/SIPOS) translated research into strategies that informed RAD KSB drafting, annexes and budget planning at the regency level.
Over 19 workshops involving 500+ representatives from 85 organizations, alongside direct engagement with smallholders, local governments, civil society organizations (CSOs) and private sector actors, helped build trust, shared understanding and alignment on sustainability priorities.
Training programmes and tools like Palm Oil Traceability and Certification (POTRACE) and farmer field schools empowered smallholders to adopt better practices, improving productivity, legal compliance and traceability while increasing their potential for certification and market access.
Key project outputs were integrated into policy and planning processes: in Sintang and Pelalawan, RAD KSB frameworks now shape budget allocations and monitoring arrangements; in Kutai Kartanegara, recommendations informed the regulation text and the decree establishing an implementation team.
The participatory co-design and jurisdictional approach developed through this project offer a proven, adaptable framework that other regions can replicate to translate research into policy and implementation at scale.

Advancing palm oil sustainability to address the climate crisis: Leveraging theory of change and system dynamics model at the jurisdictional level

Global green deals, such as the European Union Deforestation Regulation (EUDR), aim to enhance the environmental governance of key commodities, including palm oil, cocoa, timber, and soy, by requiring them to be deforestation-free, legally sourced, and traceable. EUDR poses both challenges and opportunities for producing countries. This study explores how Indonesia’s palm oil sector can align with EUDR-defined sustainability standards through inclusive and systemic approaches. We employed a participatory Theory of Change involving key stakeholders across the palm oil value chain, supported by systems dynamic modeling to simulate trade-offs and identify strategic pathways toward sustainability. The approach revealed inevitable trade-offs between economic, ecological, and social dimensions. Practical solutions are available to support EUDR compliance by reducing deforestation and illegal activity while sustaining the palm oil economy. These include production intensification, certification, carbon credit, payment for environmental services, and ecological fiscal transfers from the central government. These strategies have been collaboratively developed and endorsed by both the government and stakeholders. Indonesia’s experience demonstrates that participatory, system-based methods can facilitate alignment with global sustainability regulations while addressing local priorities. The lessons and approaches apply to other environmentally sensitive commodities and geographies that aim to meet global environmental and social standards.

Characterization and ecological importance of cocoa and oil palm agroforestry systems on the outskirts of a forest concession in southern Cameroon

Traditional production systems, agroforestry systems (SAFs) in southern Cameroon combine various types of trees of socio-economic interest which can contribute to the conservation of biodiversity. The objective of this work is to analyze the contribution of these agroforestry systems based on cocoa and oil palms in the sustainable management of peripheral resources of a forest concession in southern Cameroon. The methodological approach adopted consisted of carrying out socio-demographic surveys with 66 SAF operators using survey forms. A sampling rate of 10% was applied in seven villages in the Commune of Djoum. These interviews were supplemented by floristic inventories carried out on 69 plots of 40 × 60 m for a total area of 15.84 ha. The data collected allowed us to calculate various diversity and ecological indices, woody biomass and carbon stock, to which various statistical tests and Analyzes of variance were applied. The floristic potential is made up of 8,355 individuals divided into 177 species, 153 genera, 47 families, and classified into 3 woody groups, namely introduced, preserved and perennial species. The Shannon index between land use types varies from 2.15 bits in palm agroforests to 3.9 bits in forests while it is 2.81 bits in cocoa agroforests. The forests of the UFA and the peripheral SAFs share 42 forest species out of 63 inventoried species, ie 66.7% of forest species preserved in cocoa agroforests, proof of the effectiveness of the conservation potential of these SAFs in the region. The largest diameter class is [10–20] cm while the largest height class is the stratum of [5–10] m. Tree density and basal areas are highest in forests with 110.51 stems/ha and 42.08 m2/ha. Three types of architectural profiles for cocoa-based SAFs and two types of architectural profiles for oil palm-based SAFs were identified with a typology that shows 4 groups of TUTs based on ecological interactions. Forests are the type of land use that stores the most carbon (115.81 tC/ha) compared to 93.54 tC/ha for palm agroforest and 58.8 tC/ha for cocoa agroforests. Gradients of diversity, density and complexity vary with proximity to the forest concession. These results could be considered as effective and quantifiable tools for the certification of numerous cash crops such as cocoa and oil palm, which will make it possible to promote this endogenous knowledge scientifically and in the development of various programs and publications. technical notes.

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