Welcome to the ProTerra MRV Standard V1.0 training course!
It’s really great to work with you, and we’re happy to have you on board for the ProTerra MRV training course!
Over the next few days, we will take an in-depth look at the ProTerra MRV Standard. Please read the following text/pages that will guide you through the activities of the course. As part of today’s activity please read the Introduction and Overview of this course which will be presented below.
Introduction
The ProTerra Foundation’s mission is to be a global network of businesses supporting more sustainable agricultural practices, in the food and feed supply chains, where relevant the conversion to non-GMOs and full respect of workers and communities’ dignity. We envisage a world where all businesses contribute to the protection of biodiversity by switching to sustainable production, conserving natural resources, and ensuring that local communities are treated with dignity and respect.
ProTerra audits take place in many regions of the world, and because social, economic, and environmental factors are complex and country-specific, we rely on the expertise and language skills of local auditors to capture this complexity. The recent emergence of MOOCs (Massive Open Online Courses), is shifting the paradigm of the educational experience, making it possible to reach a greater number of qualified auditors. This allows us to interact on a scale that was previously impossible due to technical limitations.
We have structured this learning tool to emphasise communication between you and your classmates, and between you and us, via distance learning. An important part of the learning will take place in the forums, where you will post your thoughts and ideas and respond to those of others. If you have expertise on a particular topic, we want to hear from you.
Food plays a key role in our lives, and we all want food that is healthy, delicious, accessible, affordable, and environmentally and socially responsible – in a word, sustainable. Meeting future demands to feed our growing population in a sustainable way, requires us to make difficult choices, both as individuals and as a society. The ProTerra MRV programme responds to the growing demand for sustainable products (food produced according to higher standards of ethics, social responsibility, and environmental protection.
The ProTerra MRV Standard provides a systematic approach to assessing and verifying an organisation’s due diligence practices and supports reporting on supply chain due diligence and deforestation-free aspects. It is based on the verification of a company’s management system compliance with sustainability requirements associated with its supply chain through independent third-party audits. The economic operators that have been verified under this Standard are committed to establishing an economically and environmentally sustainable, and socially responsible supply chain. The commitment involves:
- Promote a raw material supply chain that is free from illegal and/or legal deforestation, and land-use change or conversion.
- Respect the rights of workers, indigenous peoples, and local communities.
- Ensure that sourcing is fully compliant with national and local environmental laws and regulations, as well as applicable international laws.
- Take affirmative actions to mitigate identified potential risks associated with commodities and related products or demonstrate that the risk is negligible.
- Assess risks by identifying the factual circumstances of their activities and business relationships and evaluate these facts against the environmental impacts, social impacts, and applicable national and international laws and standards.
This course lasts 3 days. Participants are expected to commit an average of 2 hours per day to complete the course within the 3 days. However, the course will be open for 2 weeks.
Reading materials with technical information will be provided to support the learning process. The reading materials indicated throughout the course, relate to the requirements of the ProTerra MRV Standard and are all mandatory.
Although all days and corresponding course materials will be open and will remain available for two weeks, participants are asked to take the activities in sequence and try to participate in the same activities at about the same time (3 consecutive days). This will allow for a greater collaboration between participants and the course supervisor will be better able to support participants and respond to questions and discussions.
The best way to complete this course is simply to start at the top of each day’s page and work your way down. The daily activities are explained in detail at the start of each new day of the course.
If you have any questions about the training platform or are experiencing problems using it, please get in touch using the Technical issues forum below or send an email to: info@proterrafoundation.org.