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The Mountain Partnership Products (MPP) initiative is a certification and labelling scheme that strengthens the resilience of mountain peoples, their economies and their ecosystems. It is based on environmentally and ethically sound value chain approaches that promote short, domestic value chains while ensuring transparency and trust between producers and consumers, fair compensation for the primary producers, conservation of agrobiodiversity and preservation of ancient techniques.
The MPP initiative provides technical and financial support to smallholder mountain producers from developing countries to create enterprises, enhance their marketing skills and boost their livelihoods by improving the value chains of mountain products such as organic food, textiles and tourism services.
The MPP label is a narrative label which tells the story of each product, enabling consumers to make informed purchases by learning about products' origins and cultivation, processing and preservation methods, nutritional value and role in local cultures.
To further support small-scale farmers in establishing quality assurance systems for their organic products valid for domestic markets, the MPP initiative has created the first-ever international network of mountain participatory guarantee systems (PGS). With the endorsement of the Ranikhet Declaration for a Global Mountain PGS Network in April 2019 by MPP partners, the MPP initiative started a transition towards a PGS that will certify farming systems as ethical, fair and organic – endorse the declaration here.
Key facts
The Mountain Partnership Product label may be used on food and beverages, cosmetics, officinal products and handicrafts that meet the criteria described in the Terms and Conditions for the use of the label.
Eligible producers can apply for the use of the Mountain Partnership Product label on a product by submitting an application form. Applications will be received by the Mountain Partnership Product Initiative Committee.
Learn more
The Mountain Partnership Products Initiative Committee is composed of representatives from the main technical partners:
The Committee is in charge of reviewing and supporting the assessments of complex issues on a case-by-case basis, endorsing the assessment of applications, and approving the label granting.
Mountain Partnership Secretariat
MPP partners
MPP Initiative committee
"Participatory Guarantee Systems are locally focused quality assurance systems. They certify producers based on active participation of stakeholders and are built on a foundation of trust, social networks and knowledge exchange."
- Official definition, 2008, by IFOAM - Organics International
This definition is available in Chinese/中文, Deutsch, Español, Français, Japanese/日本語 and Português.
In April 2019, the Mountain Partnership Products (MPP) initiative representatives established the first international network of Participatory Guarantee Systems (PGS) specifically designed for smallholder farmers in mountain regions and signed the Ranikhet Declaration for a Global PGS Network.
The main issue of the MPP initiative is the effective management of a complex network of smallholder producers from all over the world, while aiming to promote the specificity of every single product. Therefore, PGS have been identified as appropriate and effective systems for their specific characteristics.
A PGS is a quality assurance scheme for agricultural products, internationally recognized as a low-cost certification suitable for smallholder farmers and local/national markets. It is based on the active participation of farmers, consumers, and other relevant stakeholders, who come together to make decisions, visit farms, support one another and make sure that the production chain is carried out according to organic standards. Learn more about PGS here.
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