The Geographical Indication Pathway to Sustainability: A Framework to Assess and Monitor the Contributions of Geographical Indications to Sustainability through a Participatory Process

Emilie Vandecandelaere, Luis Fernando Samper, Andrés Rey, Ana Daza, Pablo Mejía, Florence Tartanac and Massimo Vittori
Additional contact information
Emilie Vandecandelaere: Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, Food and Nutrition Division, I-00100 Rome, Italy
Luis Fernando Samper: oriGIn and 4.0 Brands, Bogota 110221, Colombia
Andrés Rey: oriGIn and 4.0 Brands, Bogota 110221, Colombia
Ana Daza: oriGIn and 4.0 Brands, Bogota 110221, Colombia
Pablo Mejía: oriGIn and 4.0 Brands, Bogota 110221, Colombia
Florence Tartanac: Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, Food and Nutrition Division, I-00100 Rome, Italy
Massimo Vittori: The Organization for an International Geographical Indications Network (oriGIn), 1202 Geneva, Switzerland

Sustainability, 2021, vol. 13, issue 14, 1-20

Abstract: Geographical Indications (GIs) are widely considered as tools to contribute to sustainability (The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations—FAO, 2009; 2017), if established and well managed. While the literature may not always agree on the positive effects of GIs in all sustainability dimensions (e.g., economic, social, and environmental), there is evidence that engaging GI producers in a sustainability strategy can maximize their contribution to different components of sustainable development. FAO and oriGIn developed the sustainability strategy for GI (SSGI) to support GI producers and their associations so that they could engage in a place-based and participative approach in order to generate concrete progress and results. This paper presents original research for building both a framework and database for the selection and use of relevant sustainability indicators for GIs. A number of SSGI principles have guided the work throughout an iterative process for reviewing, selecting, and improving relevant indicators, while the Sustainability Assessment of Food and Agriculture (SAFA) has provided the structure to align with the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and other widely used and recognized sustainability frameworks. As a result of this work, a database of 372 robust sustainability indicators that are relevant to GIs have been characterized to facilitate their use by practitioners. The discussion highlights the importance of the place-based approach, and the participative, inclusive process that represents the key to empowerment and the ability to develop alliances. It also focuses on action, and the need to strengthen both internal and external communication.

Keywords: geographical indications; sustainability; evaluation; indicators; territory; Sustainable Development Goals (SDG); participatory; inclusiveness (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (5)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/13/14/7535/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/13/14/7535/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:13:y:2021:i:14:p:7535-:d:589323

Access Statistics for this article

Sustainability is currently edited by Ms. Alexandra Wu

More articles in Sustainability from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().