Data to: No effect of Rainforest Alliance cocoa certification on shade cover and bird species richness in Sulawesi, Indonesia

Voluntary Sustainability Standards (VSS) and certification are promoted to enhance sustainable agricultural practices, but environmental outcomes of cocoa certification remain understudied. We selected 31 Rainforest Alliance (RA) certified and 31 non certified cocoa plantations in Luwu Timur, Sulawesi, Indonesia, from a previous socioeconomic survey and assessed vegetation structure, soil fertility, as well as bird species richness. Using Wilcoxon Rank Sum tests, GLMMs and NMDS, we did not find certified plantations to have a higher shade tree diversity, shade tree basal area, and soil fertility. Bird species richness was significantly higher in certified plantations (p = 0.03), but the observed effect on bird species richness became statistically insignificant after controlling for elevation and plantation age in the GLMM. Current RA shade criteria are low, and potentially not sufficiently enforced, limiting RA potential to enhance biodiversity habitat. Certified farmers more frequently used improved farming techniques and received training; hence, certification might provide socioeconomic benefits to farmers while we found environmental outcomes of certification to be limited. Further research is needed to draw robust conclusions on VSS potential to enhance sustainable agriculture.自愿性可持续标准（Voluntary Sustainability Standards, VSS）与认证旨在推动可持续农业实践，但可可认证的环境效益仍未得到充分研究。本研究依托既往社会经济调查数据集，在印度尼西亚苏拉威西岛东卢武县选取了31块雨林联盟（Rainforest Alliance, RA）认证可可种植园与31块非认证可可种植园，对其植被结构、土壤肥力及鸟类物种丰富度开展评估。本研究采用Wilcoxon秩和检验（Wilcoxon Rank Sum tests）、广义线性混合模型（Generalized Linear Mixed Models, GLMMs）以及非度量多维标度法（Non-metric Multidimensional Scaling, NMDS）进行分析，未发现认证种植园的遮荫树木多样性、遮荫树木断面积及土壤肥力水平显著高于非认证种植园。认证种植园的鸟类物种丰富度显著更高（p=0.03），但在广义线性混合模型中控制海拔与种植园树龄后，该效应对鸟类物种丰富度的影响不再具有统计学显著性。当前雨林联盟的遮荫标准门槛较低，且执行力度可能不足，限制了其改善生物多样性栖息地的潜力。认证农户更频繁地使用改良农业技术并接受相关培训，因此认证或许能为农户带来社会经济效益，但本研究发现认证的环境效益较为有限。未来仍需开展进一步研究，才能就自愿性可持续标准推动可持续农业发展的潜力得出可靠结论。