Impactos socioambientais do programa certifica minas café em lavouras cafeeiras do sul de Minas Gerais

Abstract

This work comes up the research about "Certifica Minas Café", the only coffee certification program in Brazil managed by the Minas Gerais State Government. Three approaches were undertaken to assess the impact that the program has caused the properties that adhere to it. In the first approach, which submitted the results of the certification to statistical analysis through T Student's and McNemar's tests, it was evaluated whether the certified properties presented socio-environmental improvements that could be measured, using the same requirements required for the certification. In the second approach the purpose was to deepen the first approach, through a case study carried out on two certified properties, located in the same geographic region, with similar productivity and with different performances in the certification audits, raising hypotheses about factors that could cause the differences in socioenvironmental performance. The third approach considered the certification as a public policy, evaluating its effectiveness in achieving the goals it sets, using statistical methods, combined with the certification document examination and interviews with program managers. The combination of the three approaches allowed to conclude that certification can promote positive changes in the socio-environmental performance of some of the certified properties, but when evaluated together, these changes are only considered statistically relevant in the aspects related to property management and employee training. The difference in the socioenvironmental performance of the properties can be explained by the degree of commitment of the owners with a vision of long-term sustainability: the greater the commitment, the better the results. On the other hand, socio-environmental performance may be adversely affected the higher the expectations that certification will provide immediate economic results. Finally, the analysis of certification as public policy concluded that this is a new paradigm of state action for the environment and occupational safety, whose adoption can generate more effective results than the current command and control instruments that mark the State action.