A New Set of Rules, Made to Make Sense at Home

For small-scale farmers and the cooperatives, they belong to, the European Union's new sustainability rules can feel distant and complicated. Laws on human rights and environmental due diligence (HREDD), and connected regulations such as the EU Deforestation Regulation, increasingly shape who can sell into European markets and on what terms. For coffee and coconut sugar cooperatives in Indonesia, getting ready for these rules is closely tied to keeping their place in global trade.

This is the need Fairtrade NAPP continues to address through its project “Enabling Compliance of Fairtrade Supply Chains with New EU Regulations,” funded by the German Agency for International Cooperation (GIZ) and Fairtrade Germany. Building on a Phase II workshop completed with Java cooperatives in November 2025, Fairtrade NAPP held the next session virtually on 15 April 2026. It brought together thirteen people from five Fairtrade-certified cooperatives in Java: Koperasi Produsen Manunggal Adil Sejahtera, Koperasi Simpan Pinjam Karya Manunggal Sejahtera, Koperasi Tirta Nira Sejahtera, KSU Surya Abadi Kayumas, and Koperasi Sari Manggar Alami. Rather than explaining the regulations in the abstract, the workshop focused on what participants could do with them: spot risks in their own operations, check whether those risks are real, and build a workable plan to address them. What follows are the main gains participants took away.

Turning a Confusing Term into a Tool Cooperatives Can Use

For several participants, HREDD had been an intimidating acronym before the session. By the end, it had become something they could explain and apply. The workshop opened by asking participants what came to mind when they heard the term, then built on their own answers, covering what HREDD means through a Fairtrade lens and why it matters to a coffee or coconut sugar business.

To make the first step stick, the facilitator compared a cooperative's written commitment to HREDD with a marriage certificate: a public, documented promise that carries real responsibilities. Small, relatable comparisons like this helped participants from very different educational and occupational backgrounds arrive at a shared understanding of where the process begins and why commitment in writing matters.

Learning to Spot Risks Before They Become Problems

A central gain was the ability to run a structured risk assessment rather than rely on guesswork. Participants worked through the tools that sit at the heart of HREDD: where to find reliable data, how to weigh a risk using likelihood and severity, and how to read Fairtrade's traffic-light risk assessment to guide each area of concern. They also reviewed an overview of conditions in Indonesia drawn from Fairtrade's risk map and global reports, including risks specific to the coffee sector, and discussed how far those findings matched what they see in their own areas.

Just as important, participants learnt that identifying a risk is only the start. Through a dedicated session on risk validation, they saw how to check and confirm that a recorded risk truly reflects the experience of members and affected groups, by collecting data, speaking with the people most affected, and tracing the root cause. This matters because an action plan built on an unvalidated or poorly understood risk is unlikely to fix anything.

From a Real Deforestation Dilemma to a Plan of Action

The session that drew the most energy was a case study close to participants' daily reality. It described deforestation carried out by a powerful non-member near a cooperative member's farm, leaving members worried both about losing their certification and about the risk of speaking up against the people responsible.

Working through this case, participants practised the full chain of skills the workshop set out to build. They classified the situation under climate emission and deforestation risk, listed the specific risks involved, from possible decertification to lost biodiversity and land more prone to landslides, and identified who would need to be part of validating and resolving it, including local government, members, cooperative management, and even those causing the harm. Guided by the facilitator, they then worked towards identifying the root cause and possible solutions. Participants left with a clear, repeatable method: hear the affected groups, find the root cause, involve them in shaping the response, and document the process well.

Seeing How a Changing Climate Connects to Their Place in Global Markets

The final theme helped participants connect environmental change to both human rights and market access. Coffee growing is highly exposed to its environment, and the session unpacked how drought, extreme temperatures, flooding, falling yields, and new pests and diseases affect people's rights and working conditions, and how these can be assessed using internationally agreed human rights indicators.

Participants also gained a clearer picture of why European rules such as the Deforestation Regulation and the Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive ask supply chains to trace their products and evaluate risks. The practical takeaway was direct: cooperatives that are ready with sound HREDD practices are far less likely to be shut out of global value chains, while those that are not may struggle to keep their European buyers. This framing gave the day's technical content a clear purpose.

The workshop did not pretend the road ahead is simple. HREDD spans thirteen broad areas, and building shared understanding across participants with different backgrounds took time. Some cooperatives were also wary of disclosing risks for fear of harming their reputation with buyers, and facilitators reassured them that their risk data stays private. Several participants felt that climate change is so large and interconnected that individual cooperatives can feel powerless against it. Naming these challenges honestly was part of the session's value.

Voices from the Workshop

"This workshop has deepened my understanding of HREDD. Now I understand how my organisation could conduct an HREDD risk assessment, and this will be very beneficial for standard compliance and for the audit process. Our main benefit is that we are able to conduct a risk assessment in our organisation, and hopefully improve trust from stakeholders and reduce risks such as reputational and legal risks."

- Rita Kurniawati, Koperasi Produsen Manunggal Adil Sejahtera, Indonesia

What Comes Next

The workshop is one step in a longer process, and participants left with concrete plans. Within a month, cooperatives intend to share what they learnt with their wider management teams and boards. Over the next three to four months, they plan to revisit the risk assessments they have already carried out and strengthen them, including by talking with affected groups. The coconut sugar cooperatives in particular will look again at how best to address the risk of falls and injuries during tapping, in consultation with the people directly affected.

Some gaps remain. Participants noted that much of the discussion centred on coffee, and the coconut sugar cooperatives asked for more attention to their specific risks in future sessions. A further workshop, to be held in person, is planned to support cooperatives in developing the internal policies that underpin their HREDD action plans, and Fairtrade NAPP will continue to work alongside the cooperatives as they put these new skills into practice. With this year treated as a learning year before the standard takes full effect, participants have room to build their confidence and improve before the requirements become binding.

This workshop is part of the three-year project (2023–2026) “Enabling Compliance of Fairtrade Supply Chains with New EU Regulations,” funded by the German Agency for International Cooperation (GIZ) and Fairtrade Germany. A joint initiative between Forum Fairer Handel (FFH) and Fairtrade Deutschland (FT-DE), the programme supports coffee and other Fairtrade producers in India and Indonesia to meet the requirements of Human Rights and Environmental Due Diligence (HREDD) within the evolving EU trade framework.

Read about the Phase II training on HREDD in Java under the project here.