Participatory certifications for the sustainability transition of food systems in Costa Rica: barriers and opportunities for scaling out

Participatory certifications for organic production are proliferating around the world, especially in India and Latin America. Costa Rica is one of the Latin American countries that recognizes Participatory Guarantee Systems (PGS) by law although, so far, only few such types of certifications exist in the country. PGS schemes for promoting organic agriculture can be especially important for the vegetable sector of Costa Rica given the historically large use of agrochemicals in conventional (fruits and vegetables) production and its environmental and public health consequences. In this article, we use transition theory and the Multi-Level Perspective to analyze PGS for organic vegetables as a niche with a potential for but facing barriers to scaling out. Our literature review, supported by field surveys and observations, revealed different social and institutional barriers characterizing the niche–regime interactions which foster, or at times hamper, the scalability of PGS. Examples from other countries like Brazil and Mexico helped shed light on potential future paths for PGS in Costa Rica. Our results suggest that current institutional recognition of PGS might support scaling out if a more flexible legislative framework is implemented and political and technical support provided to participatory certification initiatives is increased.