Sustainability Coffee Certification in India: Perceptions and Practices
Abstract Certification programs has been employed in many agricultural products as a means to encourage and communicate compliance with standards associated with various attributes, such as organic, fair-trade, GMO free, and eco- friendly, among others. Such programs further seek to provide added value, through a price premium, to producers and supply chain actors associated with the label. In this paper, we review a number of global labeling and certification programs that could add value for coffee farms in India through the promotion of conservation and environmental protection. We provide results from a survey conducted on a sample of coffee farms in Coorg district, India to assess their awareness and perceptions related towards certified coffee and environmental conservation in general. Survey results illustrate strong positive associations with the environment by coffee planters, particularly among certified and organic producers. However, price premiums for certified and organic coffee are relatively small. While the potential of conservation-oriented certification for coffee in Coorg could be relatively limited outside of a few individual-level niches, branding Coorg more generally as a conservation-oriented region could hold promise, lever- aging and personalizing the uniqueness of the natural offerings from Coorg and tapping into burgeoning associations with place and region in India.
Promoting conservation in India by greening coffee: A value chain approach
The Indian coffee sector is at an important transition point, increasingly stuck in the middle between quality and value segments of the market. A potential niche for India is in the development of eco- friendly (green) coffees, leveraging the natural environment and biodiversity present in many regions. In this study, we conducted a value chain assessment of the coffee sector in Coorg, a major production area in India, to identify the potential entry points and constraints to a conservation-oriented strategy of upgrading. Our results highlight that coffee value chains in Coorg are fragmented and largely uncoordinated, with innovative upgrading efforts largely individually motivated. This suggests that integrating conservation principles in a broad-based branding strategy could be difficult at the level of the chain without institutional support or the entry of chain champions. On the other hand, integrating conservation as a diversification activity e.g. through the development of butterfly gardens for tourism, could provide a low-cost way of adding value for farmers while promoting good environmental stewardship.
How does the search for energy security affect EU policies in other issue-areas? GR:EEN Policy Brief 23
This policy brief addresses the question of how the EU’s search for energy security does – or does not – affect EU policies in other areas. Due to the fact that the EU has to import energy commodities to meet its energy needs, and that coping with the challenge of energy supply is defined as one of the three main goals of the EU’s energy policy, the focus of this brief will be on the issue areas that may affect the EU’s relations with the main suppliers of energy.
Polish and Norwegian Governance: Closing the Gaps
The report is co-authored/co-edited by a group of Polish project team members: Krzysztof Kasianiuk, Kinga Dudzińska, Grzegorz Gałczyński,Tomasz Paszewski, Dominik Smyrgała
Linking National and European Governance: Lessons for Poland and Norway, PISM Strategic File nr.17(53)
(Co-authored/co-edited with Polish members of the project team Lidia Puka, Roderick Parkes,Agata Gostyńska, Pernille Rieker, Marta Stormowska)Influencing the EU’s governance poses both a challenge and an opportunity to mid-size countries like Poland and Norway. As an analytical approach, “experimentalist governance”—with its focus on the utility of learning in a multilevel system—should offer both countries clues about influencing the European regime. Yet, the relevance of the theory to policy areas of most interest to both countries— security, energy and migration—remains unclear. As part of the GoodGov project, this paper assesses the applicability of experimentalist learning to these three fields and highlights the need for both countries to strengthen horizontal cooperation with state and non-state actors if they are to exploit it.
Extending State Authority in Liberia The Gbarnga Justice and Security Hub / Marina Caparini
This report examines the establishment of the first regional justice and security hub near Gbarnga, Liberia. By building up law enforcement and justice capacities in the outlying regions, the hub represents a joint effort by the Government of Liberia and the UN Peacebuilding Fund to extend Liberian state authority. The context for this pilot initiative is that Liberian police and justice services have a weak presence outside the capital city of Monrovia and will increasingly bear sole responsibility for safety and security as the UN Mission in Liberia draws down its forces with a view to eventual withdrawal.
“Sin mujeres por aquí”. Discursos de género en las Operaciones de Paz de Naciones Unidas = “There are no women here”. Gender Discourses i...
Hva var Norge i det danske imperiet? Skottland og Norge som semi-sentra
Denne artikkelen handler om Skottlands og Norges roller som politiske enheter i henholdsvis det britiske og danske imperiet. I artikkelens første del er argumentet at «semi-sentrum» er en nyttig ny analysekategori for å forstå de strukturelle posisjonene en politisk enhet kan inneha i et imperialt system. Eksisterende strukturelle imperiemodeller fokuserer på relasjoner mellom et imperiesentrum og periferier. Disse modellene har problemer med å forklare politiske enheter som innehar kjennetegn ved begge – både sentrum og periferi. Det nye begrepet semi-sentrum kan forklare imperiedynamikker på en bedre måte, empirisk illustrert i artikkelens andre del som undersøker Skottlands og Norges roller innen sine respektive imperier. Spesielt relevant for dette spesialnummeret er hvordan man ved å se Norges rolle som semi-sentrum kan kaste nytt lys på embedsmennenes sentrale rolle i det nye Norge etter 1814, samt hvordan sammenligningen med Skottland utvider det komparative universet for den nye norske statsdannelsen i etterkant av en imperieoppløsning.