Between regulation and reality: how NGOs facilitate compliance with the EU Deforestation Law in Ecuador’s cocoa industry
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2025-09-08
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en
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This thesis investigates how non-governmental organizations (NGOs) support smallholder cocoa farmers in Ecuador in adapting to the European Union Deforestation Regulation (EUDR), a binding legal framework adopted in 2023 to ensure that key agricultural commodities entering the EU are deforestation-free. While the regulation aims to improve global forest governance, it imposes significant compliance burdens on smallholders, many of whom lack the technical, financial, and organizational capacity to meet its traceability and due diligence standards.
Addressing a gap in NGO literature, this study examines how NGOs operate within mandatory regulatory frameworks, which is an area often overlooked in favour of voluntary governance mechanisms. It conceptualizes NGOs as institutional actors engaged in shaping, translating, and facilitating compliance. Institutional Work Theory (IWT) is used to analyze the practices through which NGOs contribute to regulatory adaptation.
Based on an inductive, qualitative case study, the research draws on interviews, documents, reports, and webinars. It identifies four core areas of NGO intervention: providing knowledge and training; supporting production and logistics; influencing policy and standards; and promoting fairer market conditions. These reflect interrelated forms of IWT that collectively help reduce barriers to compliance and align ambitious environmental goals with smallholder realities.
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Faculteit der Managementwetenschappen