S&A Applicable Law Analysis for India:

The Rainforest Alliance (RA) is an international non-profit organization working at the intersection of business, agriculture, and forests to make responsible business the new normal. RA is building an alliance to protect forests, improve the livelihoods of farmers and forest communities, promote their human rights, and help them mitigate and adapt to the climate crisis. In India, RA-India engaged Enhance Life and Livelihoods (ELL) for conducting a project titled “S&A Applicable Law Analysis for India”. The aim of the project was to conceptualize an operational methodology and evaluate the RA standards (farm requirements and supply chain requirements) with India laws, regulation, ordinance and other legal instruments for plantation crops including tea and Coffee in five Indian States. The assessment would help strengthen the assurance monitoring activities and maintain relevance & respect for local regulations. The scope of the project included studying each principle and criteria of Sustainable Agriculture standards and seeing the relevance in comparison with the local applicable law enforcement systems in India. ELL successfully completed the assignment through extensive secondary research, desk review of standards, datasets, laws and regulations, and discussion with stakeholders in the tea and coffee production sector; and delivered the assessment reports and findings on time.