Environmental and Other Labelling Of Coffee: The Role of Mutual Recognition, Supporting Cooperative Action

This paper is a revised "working draft" version of a study originally prepared for the Commission for Environmental Cooperation on Mexican shade-grown coffee and was used as a discussion document for the meeting "Sustainability in the Coffee Sector: Exploring the Opportunities for International Cooperation. The paper examines progress and outstanding obstacles to/opportunities for collaboration among labelling and standards initiatives. It also provides:

• an overview of environmental labelling of products in general, and of environmental labelling initiatives related to coffee;
• an introduction to the concept of "mutual recognition" and related issues;
• examples of "mutual recognition" and "enhanced cooperation" initiatives in the area of environmental labelling; and
• consideration of the potential roles of enhanced cooperation and mutual recognition with respect to environmental labelling schemes for coffee.