Beyond Self-Certification: Evaluating the Constraints and Opportunities of Participatory Guarantee Systems in Latin America

Participatory Guarantee Systems (PGS) have emerged in Latin America as an alternative to conventional market-driven certification, offering a community-based framework to validate sustainable agricultural and social practices. Rooted in collective responsibility and dialogue between producers, consumers, non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and state institutions, PGS aim to empower smallholders by reducing certification costs and strengthening agroecological transitions. This review examines their development across diverse Latin American contexts, highlighting both their innovative potential and the persistent challenges that limit their scalability and formal recognition. A literature-based approach combined with a stakeholder analysis was employed, integrating case studies from Brazil, Peru, Mexico, Bolivia, and other countries. To systematize findings, SWOT (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, Threats) and TOWS (Threats, Opportunities, Weaknesses, Strengths) frameworks were applied, assessing strengths and weaknesses from the perspective of producers and consumers and formulating strategies to enhance resilience and legitimacy. Results show that PGS foster social capital, technical learning, and access to local markets; however, they are constrained by high time commitments, reliance on voluntary labour, uneven participation, and limited consumer awareness. The analysis indicates that the most promising pathway is a combination of growth strategies, including leveraging short supply chains, community-based fairs, and digital platforms, with recovery strategies centred on consumer education and producer capacity building. More conservative strategies remain crucial in specific contexts: redistributing workloads, introducing compensation for administrative tasks, and strengthening conflict mediation can help preserve system viability when engagement or resources are scarce. Defence strategies, aimed at reinforcing autonomy and reducing dependence on external actors, are better conceived as long-term goals under current conditions.