Conflict of Trade-Facilitating Environmental Regulations with Biodiversity Concerns: The Case of Coffee-Farming Units in India

Harnessing local strength for sustainable coffee value chains in India and Nicaragua: reevaluating certification to global sustainability standards

“…In Kodagu, legal and policy frameworks constitute a bottom line for many of the critical criterion of (Valkila and Nygren 2010) Gender inequality Rocha (2003) Year denotes survey year; C: conventional; O: organic; FT: fairtrade; U: UTZ; RFA: Rainforest Alliance; SS: small-scale; LS: large-scale; A: Arabica; R: Robusta. x Water Act: Prevent and control of water pollution, install waste water treatment systems for wet processing units of coffee (Damodaran 2002) x Karnataka Preservation of Trees Act: Restrictions on peoples' right to fell native tree species thereby restricting conversion to fully exposed sun-grown coffee. Liberalization of coffee exports, support of coffee importers and roasters at the expense of coffee cooperatives: Some coffee cooperatives collapsed while larger surviving cooperatives strengthened (Bacon 2010) Liberalization of the coffee trade: coffee growers exposed to volatility of the international coffee market (Madhusudan 2005;Russell et al 2012).…”

Green Coffee? The Contradictions of Global Sustainability Initiatives from an Indian Perspective

“…By raising the costs of production, compliance requirements have the effect of pressuring producers to extract greater economic returns from their land. In reference to the World Trade Organisation's Sanitary and Phytosanitary (SPS) Agreement, Damodaran (2002) has cogently argued that international standards have actually threatened biodiversity conservation because of the incremental costs of compliance, where coffee planters have recouped these increased costs by felling shade trees for sale as timber. As further argued by Damodaran, there are good reasons to question the legitimacy and Environmental standards based on life-cycle principles are best implemented if they are rooted in local standards, since local standards are supposed to be formulated on the basis of a more informed understanding of local ecosystem properties and economic imperatives (2002: 1132).…”

Regional Integration In South Asia : What Role For Trade Facilitation ?

“…Firms also must address increasing pressures to comply with national pollution laws to protect biodiversity. These regulations impose significant financial constraints on the coffee industry, for example (Damodaran, 2002). South Asian countries have recognized the importance of harmonization of standards in the context of trade facilitation.…”