(12PressRelease.com) Ecocert representatives from France, and India participated in recently held Mid-term conference on Geo Fair Trade. Indian auditor Dr Amol Nirban, spoke on sustainable development indicators.
November 10, 2010 --Aurangabad, Ecocert, a French certification body for organic and fair trade, is one of the 10 partners of the ambitious research project on Geo Fair Trade, which is funded by the 'Director General for Research of the European Commission'. This is a 3-year research project which did commence in April 2009 and shall last till March 2012 and is coordinated by 'Chamber De Commerce du Gers'.
Geo Fair Trade project is about seeking the cooperation of Research and Technology Developers (RTD) and Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) to develop new social, economic and environmental indicators based on geographic data. This will lead to transparency and traceability to the whole product chain from the producers to the consumers.
Consumers increasingly demand to know about the products they touch, eat and wear, and also about the producers who produce and/or manufacture them. Geo Fair Trade will develop an information system that enables the producers in one part of the world to develop the models for good practices in improving the sustainability of their livelihoods and share their endeavours with consumers willing to help them in their initiatives.
"Thanks to the thorough experience of its professionals in working with the rural situations in developing and underdeveloped countries, worldwide, Ecocert makes a good contributor when it comes to sharing views and perspectives on the subject of sustainable development. And it came as an honour when Ecocert's auditor from India was invited to speak in the mid term conference on sustainable development indicators," said Laurent Lefebvre, international manager of Ecocert Fair Trade.
"Sustainable development rests on two principles", said Dr Amol Nirban, auditor of Ecocert Fair trade, "sustainability of environment and sustainability of livelihoods is what the fair trade should result into."
"The conference indeed provided a very good platform to us to discuss the vital issues in Indian society like, environmental degradation, slow death of villages, growth of slums, growing unemployment etc. And also explore the possibility of finding the sustainable solutions in fair trade for these pressing needs", said Dr. Selvam Daniel, Managing Director of Ecocert India.
"Identification of appropriate, location specific sustainable development indicators (SDI) and development of geotraceability mechanism in the supply chains is what can create the confidence among the minds of consumers of fair trade and re-establish the village economies as a result of it. The rural workforce worldwide, finding the means of sustainable livelihoods in their own villages as a result of such research endeavours, is something we all should be looking at to," said Dr Amol Nirban.
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Organisation's information: Ecocert is one of the pioneer certification body in the field of organic agriculture. Since past four years it has also committed itself to the task of combating the social and environmental evils in the organic products' supply chain by introduction of its own fair trade label called Ecocert Fair Trade (EFT). EFT necessarily mandates organic certification of food, cosmetic or textile product as an eligibility criteria to be able to certify them as per Ecocert Fair Trade standards
